~Louisa POV~
It was my wedding day. Was I excited? I was, very much so. I've dreamt about this day ever since I was a little girl. I'd run around in my mother's veil and my papa always bought me flowers to make me feel more like a bride.
He even went to the point where he asked for my hand in marriage and I was so excited. I had a little wedding and here I was, about to get married in a real one and move back to Cuba.
"How are you feeling?" Malia asked coming into my room.
"Anxious, it's my wedding day, how else would I feel?" I said smiling softly at her before staring at myself in the mirror.
"You're going to look amazing in that dress and with the makeup I'm going to be putting on your face, a true princess." She said tapping my nose, making me chuckle a bit.
"Have you spoken to Atticus?" She asked and my smiled faltered.
"He made it clear that he's not attending the wedding, there's nothing more I can do."
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Quite frankly, I don't want to dive in to what you're talking about Mali, I'm getting married to Nathan, Nathan is going to be my husband and I will love him." I said staring at myself blandly in the mirror. It's as if I was trying to convince myself, but I didn't need convincing, did I?
You may wonder, where did the love for Atticus go? I cannot answer merely because I don't know, but the moment he told me he loved me everything felt so real, in the moment and it felt as if the love was gone.
I've handled much worse pain and I'm sure he has as well, he's lost his wife. I heard my mother's voice and I snapped out of my thinking process.
"My little girl is getting married!" She said squishing my face.
"I'm not that little mama." I said through her hands.
"Soon you'll be giving me babies!" She exclaimed and my eyes widened.
"One step at a time." I said chuckling nervously.
I was not ready to have another child.
"You're all grown up." Mama said and I turned to see the tears forming in her eyes, Oh my God!
"No, don't do that, you're going to make me cry. Stop doing that with your face." I said, feeling the tears well up in my eyes.
"I have to cry, it seems like only the other day you were running around with your little vagina outside."
"Mother!" I exclaimed and Malia laughed lawlessly.
"You were so small having your little wedding with papa and now you're having a big wedding, only difference the people are real and not the chickens from the farm." She said chuckling make me laugh and letting the tear finally fall.
"I'm so proud of you Mija." She said kissing my cheek before hugging me.
"I love you mommy." I said crying like a child.
"This family cries a lot." Malia said and I flipped her the finger before getting it swat away by my mother.
"Mama!"
"I'm still going to discipline you." She pointed warningly.
"Work your magic on my second favourite daughter." She told Malia and she smiled at her comment.
"I am your only daughter."
"Stop embarrassing yourself." Malia said flipping her hair.
"I need you to listen to me carefully." She said pulling my face close to hers.
"You smell awful!" She shouted in my face before pushing me back on the bed.
"Go take a shower!"
"The wedding is at five!" I screamed at her, throwing the pillow in her face.
"What time do you think it is, eight in the morning? It's four thirty!"
"NO?" I said scrambling to see the time.
"It's actually three thirty but you have make up to do and I want to fix your hair." She said frustrated with my stubborn ways.
"Okay, I'll go shower."
"Yea you do that for about an hour." She said and I laughed.
I got out of the shower fifteen minutes later and she applauded.
"Smells like flowers in here."
"You're such a drama queen!" I said before standing with a wide grin.
"I'm going to be a bride!" I said twirling in my underwear.
"Yes you are."
"I've thought about the whole program thing with the wedding and all." I said turning to look at myself in the mirror.
"Come, let me do your makeup, you can talk while I work my magic!" She said pulling me to the chair and pulling out her pallet.
"What about it?" She asked before starting on my eyebrows.
"It's a new chapter in my life, the wedding that is and I don't think I want to rush into a child"-
"What does the wedding have to do with the child?" Malia said cutting me off.
"It's just, he doesn't want it and I don't think I should burden him with that type of responsibility."
"A child is not a burden, the child is also not his responsibility it is yours, as your future husband he should accept and love what ever decision you make and trust that it is the right one." Malia said smiling down at me and I smiled before hugging her.
"I love you, do you know that?" I said sniffing.
"You don't have a choice, now come! Don't mess up my makeup before it's done!" She said making me laugh and fan the tears back.
When she was finished she helped me with my hair. She had it in an updo with flowers beaded around it like a tiara. Of course I still wanted a crown because I was a princess, a princess getting married.
She helped me carefully put on my dress and I smiled at myself in the mirror. My father pushed the door lightly and I smiled widely before turning to him.
"Look! I'm a bride, a real BRIDE PAPA!" I said my voice faint.
"You were always a real bride." He said walking closer to me.
"My little Sore Loser, my little pea, my sweet Lou Lou." He said and I was fighting every urge in me to start crying.
"You're getting so big but don't matter how big, papa will always love you and protect you." He said holding my face and I smiled into his hand.
"I love you papa." I said hugging him.
"There's someone here to see you." He said stepping aside and I saw Alister in a suit with a bouquet of sunflowers.
"Alister!" I chuckled happily seeing him and he ran over to me.
"You look so beautiful Louisa." He said hugging me.
"Thank you." I said kissing his forehead.
"I'm sorry daddy couldn't make it, he said he had work." Alister said and my smile faltered a bit but I brought it back up. I couldn't be sad on my wedding day, Atticus made his decision, he was not coming.
"I have to tell you something Alister." I said to him and his smile faltered a bit and it broke my heart.
"Is it bad?"
"Well, I want you to tell me that." I said fixing his hair and sitting in the chair.
"After my wedding, I'm going to go live in Cuba." I said to him and he stared at me.
"I'm going to visit on holidays, I promise." I told him and he smiled.
"That's good news, you'll be with the man you love, you'll be happy, so I'll be happy." He said and I almost choked on my tears.
"I love you Lou, thank you for being my nanny and my friend." He said and I kissed his cheek letting a tear fall.
"I love you too Ali."
"Now, let's go get you married!" He said getting up and putting his hand out.
"That's my job little man." My father said making me laugh.
"I'll see you at the church Alister." I told him and he ran to Malia who took him to the church.
"Are you ready my love?" My father asked me and I was.
...
We arrived five minutes before the beginning of my wedding. My bridesmaids lined up ready to walk in before me. The wedding song came on faintly before rising. I let them walk in and I took deep breaths in then out.
I saw everyone stand when it was my turn to come in and I took careful strides with my hand in my father's hand. Alister was standing in front smiling widely at me.
Nathan stood up at the alter with a bright smile on his face, my brother next to him looking at me his face filled with pride.
Nathan collected me from my father and we watched him sit before walking up to the pastor.
"You look beautiful." Nathan said to me and I smiled widely before chuckling.
"Thank you, you don't look too bad yourself." I said to him and he smiled before we let the pastor speak.
...
The pastor went on and on about love and marriage binding two souls and I wanted him to skip quickly to the good part.
We didn't do vows because I was unfortunately in a rush and Nathan was so busy with work but we knew that we loved one another, so Nathan did a little speech instead.
"Nathan, your speech for Louisa." The pastor said and Nathan took a deep breath in before starting.
"Louisa, I am excited to spend the rest of my life with you, later down travel the world with you and have babies with you. Babies that are ours." He said and I looked at him.
"I heard that you decided to drop out of the program and start anew with me and that is why I love you because you're understanding and intelligent and you know the recipe for a great marriage already. I promise to love and adore you forever. A man's job and his wife has equal weighting and I will always treat you with love and respect." He said feeling proud of his speech.
"Nathan, do you take Louisa to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do." He said smiling brightly.
"And Louisa, do you take Nathan to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
I do...
...
~Atticus POV~
I sent Alister to Louisa's wedding to show respect but I couldn't go. I sat on my bed sipping tequila from the glass while the television was on. My bedroom door opened and I turned to see the woman I brought home bouncing over to me.
"I'm ready when you are." She said seductively and I smirked at her before I grabbed her neck and started kissing her. My phone started ringing and I ignored it as I continued to devour my meal and eventually it stopped.
As I was about to take my pants off it rang again and I picked it up aggressively and answered in a heart beat.
"Who is this and what do you what?" I said harshly to the person on the other end.
"I'm sorry did I disturb you from something?" I heard Malia's voice on the other end.
"Why are you calling my phone?"
"You're an asshole do you know that?"
"I'm a bit busy right now, can we have this conversation later?"
"When the wedding is over, she's going straight to Cuba, you're letting that happen?" She said and I bit my jaw. She's moving? She didn't tell me that she was leaving England.
"You sent your son to see her off but you're surely not going to, you're going to let the rejection that happened in the wedding dress store be your goodbye to her, is that love Atticus?" She said and I was still quiet.
"She wouldn't say it but I know she doesn't want to go to Cuba, I just called to let you know, continue whatever it is you were doing, their at their vows." Malia said hanging up the phone.
I stared down at it and my wallpaper was Louisa and Alister making silly faces.
"Where were we?" The blonde asked sitting up in all her glory looking at me. Louisa is happy, I should be too. I leaned down and continued kissing the blonde and the kiss stung me, it wasn't for me, she wasn't for me.
I can't let her leave, I can't let her leave without saying goodbye.
"Leaving."
"Pardon?" She said and I scrambled to put on my shirt.
"I'm leaving, don't be here when I get back." I said firmly picking my car keys up.
"Where are you going?!"
To get my woman.
I drove without a care in the world for the speed limit, she's about to make a life long commitment to another man, a man she doesn't love, I know she doesn't love him.
My overconfidence will be the death of me one day but not today, not when I'm blinded by my love for this woman, this rude, sarcastic, exquisite woman that sends euphoric vibes through my body.
I arrived at the church not caring if I parked wrong and I slammed my car door before running to the church doors. I pushed them open and the same feeling I got when she first left me was the same emptiness I felt as I stood in the empty church with nothing but decorations.
I held my chest and walked over to sit down on one of the benches before looking up at the alter.
I screamed out in frustration before letting the tears fall from my eyes. I've lost her, she's gone, she's gone so far away and she's not coming back.
I wiped my eyes and dropped my shoulders as I walked to my car. Before slowly driving back home. It started to rain and my car was filled with an empty silence, the rain was the only sound beating on the windows and the hood of the car.
I got a call from home and I answered it calmly.
"I'm home daddy, where are you?" I heard my son's voice and fought back the tears destined to fall again.
"I'm coming buddy." I said softly before hanging up. He was all I had left, I didn't even have the strength to find his real mother anymore. My gates opened and I drove in my yard parking my car in the garage.
I jumped out in the rain and turned to go inside to my son and that's when I saw her.
Standing in her soaked wedding dress, face cleaned of the makeup she once had on, holding the bouquet of sunflowers I sent for her. I bit my jaw looking at her standing there in the rain.
"I've been waiting here forever." She said chuckling with her eyes damp with tears.