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VEE'S POV
Today is my fourth wedding anniversary, and I'd be lying if I said every morning waking up since that day hasn't been a dream. In fact, every day waking up since the day I told Tom I loved him has been a dream. There is nothing greater than rolling over in our bed and seeing his sleeping face right there, curls strewn across his forehead and lips relaxed into the smallest pout.
Things were no different this morning, as I awoke to the sun peeking through our curtains, and an arm wrapped firmly around my waist. With little difficulty, I was able to roll over and face my husband, his sleeping face bringing me an overwhelming amount of joy.
He's so cute, it makes my heart soar.
Every moment spent with him and every I love you exchanged just reminds me over and over of the difficult road it took to get here, and yet, I wouldn't change a thing about it. It was a learning experience and had it not happened, I don't think I would have been able to admit my own feelings that easily.
I thought about Isaac often, it was hard not to. He was my first soulmate, which is a sentence most people don't get to say because they only ever have one. So it was quite the conversation starter, so it was a little hard to not think about Isaac in that instance. I wasn't ashamed of my story, I told people about it to show how much I've grown, and the strength I gained from the horrific experience. It even inspired one of the stories I ran at the magazine showcasing victims, both male and female, who escaped abusive situations and were able to land back on their feet afterward, along with victims who were still working on that new life. Not to brag or anything, but the magazine did sell more after that, but I like to pretend that's just a coincidence.
As for Isaac himself, he left the company. Well...he was fired from the company, per my request. I did see him that day he was packing his things and leaving, but he never met my eye. Whether it was out of shame or anger, I didn't know, but that was the last time I saw him. I never filed a formal police report against him, so he didn't get any punishment for what he did to me, well, not in the form of the justice system imposing it. In my eyes, I think the punishment he got was having his numbers stripped from him and having his sisters find out the truth about him. I spoke to Jessie a few times after, just to check in on them because while Isaac treated me awfully, his family never did. According to Jessie, Isaac was now seeing a therapist to work on his issue, and the family was also attending group sessions once a week.
Now with Isaac out of the picture, and Tom in the picture, Mandy adjusted her guest list. I just about smacked my best friend when I sat at my assigned seat at her rehearsal dinner, which was directly in front of a place card that said "Venus Santiago-Holland." When I turned back to glare at her that day, both she and Vanessa gave me cheesy grins with a double thumbs-up. A true match made in heaven. Tom didn't seem bothered by the title, even giving me a side-hug and kiss on the temple before reassuring me that it'd only be a few years before that name was a reality. I almost passed out then and there.
Mandy and Vanessa got married in an extremely large ceremony. Seriously, there had to be at least three hundred guests there, which seemed ridiculous, but I could see the two brides hugging and greeting every guest, meaning they knew every single one of them. I cried like a baby during the ceremony, and thankfully Tom was also a bridesman for Mandy, so he was able to hold my hand while I wept. They adopted two kids, a pair of twins, shortly after their wedding, and never have I seen a more good looking family in my life.
Speaking of kids, Selena's baby, also known as my beautiful godchild, is turning seven soon. Samuel, he prefers Sammy, is the most obnoxious kid I've ever met in my life. You could very easily tell he was raised by Selena and Robert from how pretentious the kid was. He'd make a face at boxed mac and cheese, and scold you if your socks didn't match. Seriously, sometimes it felt like the kid was born for the sole purpose of making me feel bad about my life choices. I fucking love him. He'd ask to sleepover the weekends where Tom was away and try to spoon me at night, despite being half my height. He'd try to braid my hair before ultimately giving up and telling me to braid his instead. He'd tell me to make a homemade pancake, because the kid was rich and knew how to do things like that. My little Sammy is the reason I decided I wanted to have kids in the first place.
Actually, I always knew I wanted a family, but I was pretty sure I was going to wait for a while. My mom said it was very millennial of me, but I was a busy gal with a thriving career, I didn't have time for little kiddies to slow me down. Tom felt the same way for the most part, being at the top of his career and "finally being with the girl of my dreams" as he would say, it just didn't offer much time for a wailing baby to be thrown in the mix.
Then I got pregnant.
Despite insisting and insisting we were going to wait it out and get to a comfortable place in our careers where we could slow down, we didn't do that at all. We sat down one day, about six months into our engagement, and decided that I shouldn't take my birth control anymore. We said it was to prepare my body for when the official baby-making would take place after the wedding, but that didn't work out as anticipated. By the time we got married, I was already three months pregnant. Luckily, you couldn't see it that much so I wouldn't be scolded by my family for fornicating. Though, that scolded still took place when I announced my pregnancy immediately after my honeymoon and people connected the dots that no, I wasn't gaining weight because I was in love, I was gaining weight because I made love.
Fast forward another six months, and I was screaming in a hospital bed with Tom just about ready to pass out beside me. Then fast forward another few hours, and you'll see that I gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
Ava Santiago-Holland, the other light of my life besides her father.
It makes sense considering she looks more like him than me. While she did get my hazel eyes, her brown curly locks and mildly freckly face had an uncanny resemblance to that of her father's side of the family. Her adorable little nose scrunched up when she thoroughly enjoyed something, and her eyebrows were all too expressive, a side effect of having an actor as a father. I love her with all my heart.
Like she could hear me thinking about her, mine and Tom's bedroom door opened the slightest bit. I lifted my head slightly, seeing Ava poking her head into the room with those wide, innocent eyes. Seeing her dad was still asleep, she proceeded to tip-toe over to my side of the bed, before unceremoniously climbing up onto the bed. Without a word, she tucked herself beneath Tom's extended arm that was wrapped around my waist, and after a few seconds, she successfully wedged herself in.
I grinned down at her. "Good morning to you too."
She smiled up at me in response, before her attention shifted to Tom. "Why is Daddy asleep but you're awake?"
"Dunno, baby, wanna wake him up?"
"Too late," his deep, sleep-laced voice interjected. A second later, Tom's eyes were cracking open, the smallest smile spreading across his lips. "And what a lovely awakening it is." Much to my dismay, he removed the arm that was wrapped around my waist as he rolled over to his back and lifted up Ava to place her on his chest. "Good morning, baby."
"Good morning," Ava and I responded in unison.
Ava let out a gasp, her head whipping to me so fast that her own hair hit her in the nose. "Mommy! I'm the baby, not you."
"Hey," Tom extended an arm out to me, welcoming me to curl into his side, "Mum is my baby too." I grinned at him, lifting my head to press a chaste kiss to his lips. Ah, kisses with morning breath, the true indication of being in love. Ava made a noise of protest at the show of affection, her little hands covering her eyes. Tom grinned at the sight, before turning back to me. "She's already covering her eyes, may as well make it a good one."
I rolled my eyes at him, but still, I rolled over to my stomach and planted my lips firmly on his. "Happy anniversary, handsome," I mumbled against his lips.
He hummed. "Happy anniversary to you, beautiful."
"Please stop!" Ava yelped, causing both of us to laugh.
Thank you, Universe, for giving me this beautiful morning, with my beautiful daughter, and her beautiful father, my soulmate.
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ROSE'S NOTE!
only you hit 100k & it's my birthday so heres somethin special for yall
thanks for reading this book, i appreciate u all soooo much