*So, it's pretty much the pre-honeymoon stage. It's the sweetest thing. It's going to be entirely cheesy this time, before I make it incredibly dramatic and suck-ish by fulfilling Nicky's lifelong dreams. Also, Ian's married. Hearts broken everywhere, but I swear, I think it's actually time for Ian to be happy. We should just let them be happy together and stop bashing Nikki. He loves her, she loves him. I guess nothing else matters. Also, no more TVD, for me anyway. Thanks for reading the last chapter. Here you are. Meghan Trainor is the bomb
Nina's POV
I let Ian go and stood up to get started on the dishes - the ones that weren't broken anyway. As soon as I entered the kitchen, my mom was standing there, clearing the broken ceramic.
"I'm so sorry, Mum," I said, shaking my head.
"Oh sweetie, you scared me," she said. "Come on now, it's nothing really. It was actually fun to see you two like that. It reminded me of me and your father. Although, we never really got around to breaking dishes and falling flat on the kitchen floor."
I smirked and made my way to the sink. I didn't know why, but somehow, it felt like I wasn't sure about everything. "You guys must have gone through so much to stay together," I said silently. "It must have been difficult."
"It still is," she said. "But it doesn't matter. All that matters is we go through all of that together."
"Mum, I don't know what to do," I sighed, starting to rinse the very few dishes left in the sink.
"Sweetie, what do you mean?" she asked, setting the broom down. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts about this."
I shook my head, lathering some dishwashing liquid on the sponge. "Not at all, Mum," I answered. "I just, don't know if Ian's going to want to stay married to me."
"Nina!" she scolded. "You haven't even gone through the wedding yet. Now, you're worried that Ian is going to leave you already? Nina, dear. That's an awful way to think about this."
"I just don't know if I'm going to fit into his expectation of me as a wife," I answered, setting the plate down. "What if I suck as a wife?"
She made her way to me and turned me to face her. "Are you honestly asking me this?" she asked. "Oh sweetie, come on. You are not going to suck as a wife."
"You don't know that," I answered back.
"No, I don't," she answered. "But I do know that your father and I raised you well. We raised you with all the love you deserve. You grew up into a smart, gorgeous, caring woman, and that's always going to count. You are going to be a phenomenal wife."
"If Ian can put up with me for that long," I answered.
"Nina, stop," she said. "Sweetheart, please. I know that you and Ian have gone through all kinds of awful, but you always find a way to find each other. You keep finding him, he keeps finding you. You two are never going to 'put up' with each other."
I bit my lip. "I just think that he has this idea of a perfect wife in his head. The kind of wife that his childhood best friend could have been or the type of wife that Trish would have been to him."
"Nina, are you honestly comparing yourself with that God awful woman?" she asked. "You do know that if Ian heard you saying these preposterous things, he would lose it."
I shrugged. "I just-."
"Nikolina," she said, taking my face in her hands. "Whatever is going on, please stop thinking about it. You are trying too hard to find fault in your relationship. Sweetie, you're doing it again."
I sighed and wiped my hands on the dishtowel. I sat down on the kitchen floor and buried my face in my hands. "I don't even know what is happening to me," I whispered. "I don't know."
Mum bent down to look me in the eyes. She held onto both my hands and pulled them off of my face. "бонбонче, не разбирам. Страх ли те е?"
She was speaking to me in Bulgarian. Now I know she's serious. 'Sweetie, I don't understand. Are you scared?'
"да," I answered. Yes. "Of what, I don't know. But, I am. I am scared."
"Nina, Не се страхувайте," she said. Don't be afraid. "той ви обича." He loves you.
"Надявам се, че е достатъчно." I hope it's enough.
"It's always enough," she answered. "For the two of you, it's always enough."
I breathed in heavily and said, "Mum, I have to tell you something."
"What is it?" she asked.
"Ian and I are not going to get married anytime soon," I sighed.
"I'm sorry, what?" she asked.
"It's a long and complicated story," I said. "But, it involves Nicky Hilton, Patricia Geyer, and a lot of other people."
"Nina, please tell me that you two are okay," she said. "Please tell me that this is not just another game of pretend."
I held onto her hand. "Mum, no," I said. "This is all real. It's the only time it can be real for now. Because Nicky Hilton is ruining everything for us and other people are getting hurt and losing the ones they love because of us. Ian and I are tired of hurting so many people all at once."
"I'm still not following," she replied. "Nina, what are you saying?"
"Ian and I went on this pre-honeymoon to get away from everything. We're spending all these days together, without all of them trying to keep us apart. We have to pack it all in for now," I said. "Because when we get back, Ian's getting back together with Nicky and I'm staying with Derek."
"Nina..."
"I know, it sounds insane," I said. "It is awful and I wish there was something else I could do. But there's no other choice left, Mum. It's the only option left."
"You have to sacrifice your happiness just to make Nicky and Derek happy?" she asked. "Sweetie, that doesn't seem fair."
"It's not," I answered. "But it's also not fair to everyone else that we're happy and they're suffering, losing their families and the loves of their lives. Mum, it has to stop."
"Nina, whatever this is... it's dangerous," she said. "Someone's bound to get hurt."
"Mum, it's more than someone getting hurt," I said. "There is a handful of people getting hurt. If Ian and I are as strong as you believe we are, we can handle getting hurt again."
"Nina," she said, taking my hands as she stood up. I wiped my hands on my dress and sniffled. "I just wish you two would be happy."
"We are," I answered. "I don't know what has been going on in my mind today, but we are. We're happy and it's going to stay that way. Even when we're apart."
She nodded and kissed my cheek. "I forgot to give you something," she said, running towards the storage room. "I... found it when I was cleaning up for the renovation."
I watched as she bent down and started rummaging through the boxes. It took a few minutes, until she stood up and walked towards me. She was holding onto a huge leather-bound album with colored papers sticking out of it and a few dried stems and flower petals peeked from between the pages. "Mum..."
She smiled and handed it to me. "It was your baba's," she said. I pulled up a chair and set the album on the dining table.
I pulled it open, revealing my baba and my dyado's wedding photo. She was wearing an immaculate wedding gown and he was looking dapper. They both looked gorgeous, but more importantly, they looked happy.
I flipped through the pages and stopped at one page. They were wedding vows, written in Bulgarian.
"I know it looks difficult to read," Mum said, sitting next to me. "But, this line... is the line that got your baba crying."
"What does it say?"
"I love you, not because you mean something to me. I love you because you are everything to me. I love you, not with my heart, but with all I am. I love you, not because I need you, but because life is nothing without you. You are my sunshine, my moonlight, my days, my months, my years. You are Heaven on Earth for me. You are my happiness, that's all I could ever wish for."
At the end of that message, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I knew everything was already said by someone else in a movie or in a book, but I couldn't help it. It was beautiful.
I breathed in and flipped the next page. There were three dried roses, pressed between the pages. I tried to keep them carefully on the page. "She kept roses from her wedding bouquet?" I asked.
"No, no," she said. "These are roses from her first date with him. I don't understand completely how they held together all these years, but somehow they did."
"The roses, right?"
"The roses and your grandparents," she said. "They told me themselves that it was awful most of the time, like they were so close to giving up. But they never did, because staying together was worth it. It was harder to be apart than to be together. Everyone wanted them to be separated, but they stayed together and they stayed happy."
I smiled and flipped through the pages again. Another page made me stop.
"Wow," I sighed, looking at the intricately painted image of my baba. "Who made this?"
Mum grinned and said, "Surprisingly enough, it was painted by your dyado's best friend, Aleksandar. He and your baba met each other first. He fell in love with her and painted this portrait of her. This is just a replica on a smaller scale. The original painting is in their home back in Sofia."
"Wait, so baba fell in love with dyado's best friend first?"
"I never said that," she said. "He fell in love with her, but she never truly felt the same way for him. Just when she was about to tell him, he beat her to it and said, 'I am not who you love. I do not know who he is yet and neither do you, but I am certain that it is not me'. Then, she met your dyado. He came back from a trip overseas and they met at a park. She didn't know that he was Aleksander's best mate. When your dyado introduced your baba to Aleksandar, they hugged one another and he handed her this painting, before saying 'Now I am certain. He is who you love'."
"I did not know that," I said.
"Now you do," she said. "And, now you know that having another man in your life runs in our family. It's not entirely awful."
"Was Aleks named after that guy?" I asked.
"No," she said. "When I said I meant that the 'other man' runs in our family, I meant me too. My childhood sweetheart was also named Aleksander. That's who he was named after."
"That is freaky, but amazing," I said.
"You also dated an Alexander, yeah?" she asked.
I rolled my eyes. "Mum, Alexander and I are friends. We only hung out more often when Ian and I weren't a thing."
She smiled and said, "Well then, okay. Maybe the Aleks curse ends with me."
I smiled and turn the next pages.
Until I found what was meant for me.
към мой красив внучка. ( To My Beautiful Granddaughter)
Again, each word was written in Bulgarian.
Mum tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a paper. "I translated it for you. I know that your Bulgarian is still a little rusty."
I smirked and said, "Can you read it to me? I want to know how baba would have said it to me."
She smiled and nodded. "In the kitchen?"
I rolled my eyes and stood up, clutching the album close to me. "Outside? The porch swing?"
"I knew that's what you would say," she answered back, smiling at me. "She used to tell you the best stories."
I nodded and walked towards the door. I pulled it open and stepped outside, making my way to sit on the porch swing. Mum sat next to me and said, "You know she would have held on just so she could see you walk down the aisle to meet your Prince Charming."
"She always thought it was going to be Bolton Alexander," I whispered. Mum nodded and said, "She was pretty fond of that boy."
"But we never really got to that point, you know that," I said. "He was Farrah's boyfriend." I tried to remember high school and all these people, but somehow, it was difficult, considering I was trying to forget that half of my life.
"Back then, he was," she said. "Now, Farrah's married to one of his other friends. Corbin, if I remember right. While Bolton's here, a therapist specializing at the Toronto Private Hospital."
"Really? Farrah and Corbin?" I asked. She nodded and I said, "So, which one of my best friends did Bolton marry? I'm sort of hoping it's Irina."
"He's never been married," she answered. "I still see his mom all the time. We have yoga and coffee dates together. She says he wishes he could see you around here sometime. I told her I hardly see you either."
I frowned and she giggled. "Hey, you're here now. That's all that matters to me."
I smiled and said, "Maybe we can set that up. I'll ask Ian," I said. "I haven't heard from any of them lately. I want to see everyone."
"But before that, let me read this to you," she said, opening the album again. "Are you ready to cry truckloads?"
I rolled my eyes. "I cry for a living," I smirked. She laughed and said, "Well, you know where you got that from."
I nodded and shrugged. "Read to me."
She smirked. "To my dearest granddaughter. Before anything else, Nikolina, I would want to apologize if I couldn't be there for you on your big day. I'm predicting this because I am writing this note to you with a quivering hand. My love, you are the sunshine that shines on my life ever since your dyado left. You are the gorgeous flower that I have watched bloom and I am proud to know that you are getting all the tender loving care that you deserve. Darling, you're close to your wedding day, I'm sure. I told your mom to let you read this just when she's sure that he's the One for you. I'm not going to go on and on about how he's such a lucky man and how you two deserve a fairytale ending. Your mother will do that for me. All I want you to know, my dear, is that if he is the One for you, there shouldn't be any second thoughts about it. We Dobreva women have that strong inkling for real love. Trust me, I know. All I ask is that you stop believing that something is going to go wrong. With love, it will always feel like something is not going to work out, that something is going to break and someone is going to get hurt, like something is going to kill you. But you know what? Losing the love you deserve is going to be the death of you. If you stop fighting for that love, it's going to hurt you more than it did trying to keep it. On this day, Nikolina, I hope and beg and pray that you love this man for all he is and that he loves you for all you are. In the end, that's all you two have, each other. I wish I could be there to see you be the happiest woman alive, but I cannot. Still, I love you more than the world. I may not see you, but I'll feel the sunshine knowing that the love of my life, my Princess, is going to be someone else's love, someone else's everything, someone else's Queen. I love you, my darling."
Before I could even say anything, Mum set the album down and gave me a tight hug, my tears already soaking through her shirt. "Your baba always had a way with words, didn't she?"
I nod happily and sigh. "It feels like she knew this would happen, that I would think the worst of everything."
"It's what we women do, my love," she answered.
I laughed and she held me out at arm's length. She ran her thumbs down my cheeks. "You need to have a little faith, my love," she said. "It's the only way you're going to be happy."
I nodded and said, "A little faith."
"A little faith," she said again. Before I could even say anything else, Mum reopened the album and pulled out a yellowing envelope. She held it out to me and said, "Here."
I took the envelope and turned it over.
To him. The man my granddaughter wants to share her heart with.
Only, it was in Bulgarian again.
"I take it I'm not allowed to read it?" I asked.
She smirked. "Have a little respect for you baba, please," she said. "Let Ian know what she wanted to say, without you knowing what it is."
"That doesn't seem entirely fair," I said.
"But it's what you're baba wanted."
"Baba wants a lot of things to happen," I smiled. "But one thing is for sure."
"What is that?"
"Baba ALWAYS knew what's best."
--
Ian's POV
"Ian, my boy," Dad said, walking towards me. I looked up from the collage on the wall and tried my best to plaster on the happiest smile. He patted me on the shoulder and sighed, "I have absolutely no clue why that is still up there."
"I do," I smirked. "It's because she wants to hold onto whatever they had before all the crap hit the fan. She wants to hold onto the 'them' before he got sick again."
"You know, when she first found out that he was sick again, she called me immediately," he said. "She asked me whether their photos were still here."
I looked at him questioningly.
"She said she was just making sure that they weren't thrown away or hidden," he said. "After all the things he put her through, she still cares."
"No," I said. "She still loves."
Dad shook his head and said, "Come here. I want to show you something. It's what you forgot to see when you came over to ask for Nina's hand."
I nodded and followed him as he led me to the stairs. He pointed to at a random step and said, "Do you see it?"
I shook my head. "I don't," I said. "What exactly am I looking for here?"
He smirked and knelt down, pointing to a bunch of scratches on one step. I crouched down to take a look at it.
He'll be here soon.
I looked at Dad and he smiled. "She scratched that down there when she was about 10 years old," he said. "She was overly obsessed with Disney movies, even then. She loved every bit of them. She wrote one line, a different one, on each step. I didn't know why she did it. I didn't know why it was written on the stairs. All I remember is that I got really mad at her for it. She was ruining the stairs."
I laughed and got up to read what was on the next step. My Prince will be here to rescue me. Just a few more steps.
Mr. Prince, take the next few steps please. The Princess is in the tower.
She's waiting for you.
Just a few more steps, please. The Princess needs to see her Prince.
Please show up, even just once.
She's not far away, just a few more steps.
She needs you. She needs hope.
A few steps more, the handwriting began to change. It was beginning to look more and more like her handwriting now.
"When did she write this?" I asked.
"The last few steps were written on a few days after she left you," he answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I didn't bother to stop her from doing it. She needed to wish for her Prince again, somehow."
I bit my lip and bent down to read what was written.
You found your Prince, you let him go. He does not deserve this. He deserves his Princess, not a dragon.
You asked him to climb up the tower, but when he reached the top, you cut off your hair and sent him falling.
You just walked away from your Happily Ever After. They never wrote about the next one in fairytales.
You wanted the love that Walt Disney could make movie out of . You had it, you let it go. You are the worst Disney Princess in history.
That last one, I actually laughed at.
"She really knows how to make a guy feel bad, huh?" I asked, making my way down the stairs.
Dad shook his head. "She knew how to make herself feel bad," he answered. "These stairs started off as the hope she had for her fairytale. Then, it ended like it did and they became a sign for her, every single time she would go up to her room. Even when she was crying already, she'd bend down and read each phrase she wrote. The ones that were full of hope."
I bit my lip. "I bet she wasn't expecting a Prince who was a villain as well," I said.
"You were never the villain, Ian," he said. "Her fear of getting hurt is."
"I told her I would never hurt her," I said, sitting back down on the stair steps.
He nodded, sitting right next to me. "I know you did," he said. "She hurt herself by hurting you. I'm sounding incredibly corny right now, but it's true. She was too scared of you hurting her, that she hurt you instead."
"I guess our fairytale has two damsels in distress," I sighed. "That doesn't really help with the whole Happily Ever After part, does it?"
He sighed. "What I don't understand is, why don't you two have any faith in your relationship?"
I shook my head sadly. "I don't even know," I answered. "It's just like, I had faith in relationships when I was a little boy. I did. And seeing this, I assume that she did too. Now, when we finally have something that's close to a Happily Ever After, we don't have any faith in it."
"Then why are you two still getting married?"
I looked up at him in shock, not expecting that he would ask that question. I sat there quietly, not knowing how to answer.
"Ian," Dad said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "I want you to see something else, before you answer my question."
I knew why I loved Nina. I knew why I wanted to be with her. But I didn't know why I couldn't get a word out.
Dad got up and I followed. He went up the stairs and went opened up a door. It was Nina's room. Even with everything we've been through together, being in her room made me feel like I was invading her privacy.
Dad made his way to Nina's closet and pulled out a hanger, holding a covered item of clothing. It was bulky and looked like it was too much fabric in one place. I looked at the logo printed on the covering cloth.
Michael Cinco.
From the many, many episodes I watched of ANTM next to Nina, I knew who he was.
"Dad, what is that?"
He smirked and pulled the zipper open. He pulled off the cloth to reveal a huge white dress.
I stared at him in shock and walked closer to him. He smirked and held out the dress for me to see. I held it and said, "Isn't it bad luck to see the wedding dress before the wedding?" He laughed and shrugged. "I didn't know she already had one made."
"That's because she had this made after she left you," he said.
"What?"
"This dress was delivered here a couple of weeks after you two broke up," he answered. "She had no words to explain it. All she said was 'It could be magic'. At first, she would just wake up in the morning, pull it out of her closet, take it out, and lay it on her bed. She'd just stare at it and leave it there. Not once did I see her try it on."
"It could be magic?"
He nodded. "Once, probably at the seventeenth time straight that she's done what she always did everyday, I came up here and grabbed the dress. She tried to get it back and I said, 'This has to stop.'
"She shook her head and said, 'It's going to work it's magic, Dad. I just have to wait.' I shook my head at her and said, 'Sweetie, aren't you done waiting? Your Prince has been making you wait for too long now.' You know what she said to me?"
I shook my head.
"'No Daddy. I'm making my Prince wait,'" he said. Dad had a hint of a smile on his face. "I asked her if it was worth it. If it was worth making her Prince wait."
"And she said yes?"
"She said it was the worst decision she's ever made in her life," he answered. "And that's a lot, coming from her."
I snickered and said, "So, she never wore this?"
"She said that the magic would be gone if she wore it without you waiting for her at the end of the aisle."
"Coming from the girl who left me because I was suggesting the exact same thing."
"She was scared."
I shook my head. "Not of getting married to me. But of the possibility that I could end up hurting her like Ben did," I snapped. "Like she didn't even know me well enough."
"Hurt her like Ben did?" he asked. "What do you mean? Ben as in Ben Hollingsworth?"
Shit.
I forgot that Dad had no idea about that.
"Um, yeah. I mean he-."
"Ian, if you're thinking about hiding the true story from me, you're wasting your time," he said. "What happened?"
"Dad, he asked her to marry him when they were together. He didn't want anyone to find out yet, but when they were just about to tell everyone, he backed out, told her he didn't want a marriage anymore, and kicked her out of his condominium."
Dad stared back at me blankly. "Well, that explains it."
"I'm sorry, that explains what?"
He shook his head and knelt down to grab something from underneath Nina's bed. He brought out a rather large shoe box and sighed.
"This," he said, handing me the box.
I took it and pulled off the lid. Inside were a bunch of torn-out notebook paper all crumpled up into little balls. There were about twenty of them inside.
"Dad, what are these?"
"Those are... well, I think you should just read them for yourself," he sighed, getting up. He patted me on the shoulder and said, "I have one last question for you, Ian."
"What is it, Dad?"
"Will you love my daughter no matter what?"
I nodded briskly. "I'll love her even when she won't want me to. I'll love her, no questions asked."
"Then you'll take her for all that she is," he whispered. "I want to be sure that I'm handing my daughter to the man she deserves."
"I can assure you, Dad. I will love her even when I can't tell her those three words anymore. I'll love her even when she can't hear me when I say I love her."
He nodded. "Then you know that you're doing this right."
"I'm just scared that she might give up on us again," I whispered.
"Ian, my daughter has been through relationships that felt like hell. You know that she's had more than her fair share of heart ache and bad decisions," he said. "But let me tell you something. She never cried every night for months until she left you. She never tried to hurt herself before she let you go. She never lost her appetite or lost sleep over someone until she lost you."
"Hurt herself?" I asked, standing up. "What do you mean she hurt herself?"
"Nina is a fragile person, Ian," he said. "You have to understand that."
"Dad, what exactly did she do?"
"Ian, it doesn't matter anymore," he said. "She didn't do anything that would hurt her physically. She just kept hurting herself by blaming herself over and over."
I breathed a small sigh of relief. If Nina did something to herself, anything to hurt herself at all, I would have lost it. "Dad, I-."
"Son, just... read what's written on those pieces of paper."
I nodded and he said, "I'm gonna let you do that alone." He walked towards the door, got out, and closed it behind him.
As soon as he was gone, I sat on Nina's bed and pulled out one crumpled ball. I unfolded it and read through the words.
To the Guy across from me named Ben,
When I said yes that day, I knew it was for a reason. It wasn't because of the overly romantic proposal after a whirlwind daydream coming to life. It wasn't because of the huge ring. It wasn't because of your abs or your amazing smile or your gorgeous hair. It was because of one reason. I wanted to spend my lifetime loving you and who I am with you. You are the light at the end of the tunnel. You are who I love, what I need in my life, where I want to be, and why I believe in fairytales. Now I want to say yes to you again, 'I do' if it sounds better, because it's a validation that I want you to be my life for the rest of the time my heart is beating. I'm ready to be Mrs. Hollingsworth if you'll let me. I swear to you, it'll be one heck of a ride.
Before I could figure out how I felt after reading that, I opened up one more crumpled ball after another.
They were all wedding vows.
Wedding vows that she never got to say to him. Wedding vows that he never got to hear, nor did he deserve to hear.
All these vows, crumpled up and tossed into a box, never to be read out loud again.
I bit my lip as I read through each declaration of love from Nina. How she said each word as if it was for me. But it was for Ben.
I knew I had tried to forgive him for scarring Nina the way he did, but I could never bring myself to do it again now.
Nina didn't deserve any of the things she let Ben get away with. Right now, I just felt that there was something I could do.
--
"Ian, there you are!" Mum said. "Nina and I have been looking everywhere for you."
I came down from the stairs and gave her a tight hug. "Dad was just showing me around."
Dad nodded and wrapped his arm around Mum. "You know this place like its your own home," she answered. "What did you really do?"
"I showed him everything else he didn't see," Dad answered for me.
Before Mum could ask another question, Nina emerged from the backyard, smiling at me. I could tell by the puffy red eyes that she had been crying.
I sighed, shaking my head as I made my way towards her. I wrapped her in a tight hug and kissed her on the top of her head. "I need to talk to you."
She looked up at me and nodded, kissing me softly. "Okay," she answered. I took her hand and turned back to Dad and Mum.
"We just need to-."
"Talk," they both said.
I nodded and gave them a hug each, before leading Nina back to the backyard. I looked around until she took my face in her hands, kissed me, and pointed to a small but sturdy looking tree at the end of the yard.
We walked towards it silently, not even saying a word. As soon as we reached it, she hoisted herself up to sit on a thick branch and I propped myself up on a stump right under her.
"You don't want to sit next to me?" she asked.
I smiled and shook my head. "Of course I do," I answered. "I just need a bit of space between us when I say this."
"Ian..."
"My love, what do I hate?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes and stopped mid-way. "Interrupting," she giggled.
I nodded. "Good girl."
She smiled and said, "What do you have to say, Mr. Somerhalder?"
I cleared my throat and looked at her softly. "To the Girl named Nina, sitting on top of a tree branch, looking incredibly gorgeous. I don't know what else to say. I read your vows to another man, another man that I hate and thank for letting you go the way he did. I read about how you said yes to him for the exact same reason I asked you that night in our Place. I read about how he made you feel and how coincidental it was that that's exactly how you make me feel. I read about how he's your who, what, where, and why and thought about how you are my who, what, where, why, when, and how. The words you wrote for him sound like the words I wish I told you sooner. The words I read about how you want him to be the rest of your life, are the words that I thought about saying but never really did. Now, I want some validation that you're ready to be Mrs. Somerhalder and you're ready for the hellish ride, because I'm more than ready to be riding it with you."
Nina stared down at me, not able to speak after what I just said.
Before I knew it, she hopped down from the tree and knelt down in front of me, taking my face in her hands. She kissed me softly and said, "Do you even need validation? Because if you do, Mr. Somerhalder, I am ready. I want to be Mrs. Somerhalder right now if it's possible."
I smiled and held her close to me. "You know you've always been Mrs. Somerhalder," I answered.
She smiled and placed her hand on the side of my face. "Every word I said to Ben, I had no idea I was writing for you," she said. "How it felt writing them for him, never felt as good as thinking about saying them to you. I'm not planning on recycling vows, but I wanted you to know that."
"Nina, reading those words, just cancelling out Ben's name," I sighed. "I knew those were the vows I wanted to hear. You could say nothing at the ceremony and it wouldn't matter. I heard everything I wanted to."
She smiled and kissed me once. "Apparently not," she said, handing me a tiny envelope. I held it in my hands and turned it over.
To him. The man my granddaughter wants to share her heart with.
"It's from your baba?"
She nodded softly. "I don't know what she wanted to tell you and I'm not allowed to know, but I'm hoping it's what you wanted to hear."
I smiled again and kissed her.
"How'd you see those vows anyway?" she asked.
"Let's just say someone else knew what I wanted and needed to hear."
* OMG OMG OMG SORRY. I know I suck again, sheesh. I hope you are still tuning in to this story, even though the updates take way too long. I know you were all expecting a hotel room scene, but I wanted to put this in here. I hope you guys like it. Love you!*