It's time to move on

Epilogue (J)

Eight years later 

I woke up to a familiar sight of Anna sleeping soundly beside me and got up carefully, removing my hands off her waist slowly so as not to disturb her. Dabbing my chest with a tissue from nightstand that has become my morning routine ever since we started living together, I closed the door slowly behind me and entered the next room where my daughter Jean is sleeping on her bed. It’s her second birthday today and everyone will be coming to our house in a few hours for celebration. Unlike many girls, she is a mama’s girl as Anna pampers her very much while I try to be a bit strict to her making her close to her mom than I.

“Happy birthday princess” I said to my daughter’s sleeping form and kissed her forehead.

She stirred in her sleep but didn’t wake up and I left her room closing the door.

Making myself a strong coffee I walked to the living and opened the newspaper, carefully setting the cup on the coffee table.There was a time when I hated coffee but in the past few years, I am quite addicted to it.

Life with Anna turned out to be more wonderful and exciting than I hoped. Yes, we faced a few problems in our journey but everything is alright now. I can’t forget how I almost lost her once during our four year stay at Chicago; it was scary and I don’t want to face that ever again.

It was during our third year of college when we found that Anna was pregnant. Both of us were very excited and happy and though we knew we are young and having a baby complicates our lives we decided to go for it. We dreamt a lot about our baby but unfortunately during the fourth month of her pregnancy she suffered a miscarriage.    

Anna was never the same after that; though I was sad about losing our baby, I was more scared for her who blamed herself for everything happened. She didn’t leave the house for a whole month and it took almost a year for her to fully recover. The first few days she cried for hours holding me tight but after a week though her tears subsided, her pain didn’t. It killed me seeing her like that but I had George and Fergie beside me during the days of our grief. 

She was absent to her classes during that month while I kept going to mine with Fergie’s insistence that she’ll look after her. I couldn’t have gotten past that stage if it weren’t for George and Fergie and I am very thankful to our friends as well who came a month later to cheer her up and give her a better Christmas. It was only after that I found her in better spirits and back to life.

Dana, her mom and Daniel couldn’t reach us during that time since they were blessed with a baby boy three months before and I ordered them not to come since making a new born travel long distance might not be good for his health. Yes Dana forgave him, only after Anna insisted her mom that she’ll forgive her only if her mom forgave Daniel and accepted him back. Their life was back to normal and was perfect ever since.

Everything is perfect in our lives too except Harry, the dog we loved and cared so much. We lost him last year and Anna swore never to take one again since she doesn’t want to be reminded of the pain of losing someone so close. 

As to me and Anna, we got married a year after we left Chicago; five years after our engagement precisely. Yes, it took that long and I remember proposing to her a million times to get married but she insisted on doing it after we got jobs. After I got a job in ESPN we moved to New York where she found a job in a school as a teacher but we married in Pihan, our hometown.

True to her words Emily was the maid of honor while Elle, Jamie, Joselyn and Lucy were the bridesmaids. Lucy is the same girl who tried to be a friend to Anna when she was studying in a school that she attended before Westwood High. During the first week of our stay at Chicago she told me all about her life and which schools she attended which is when she mentioned about Lucy- the girl who tried to be her friend and Mary – the owner of the diner she worked. I talked to her to call them since I realized they cared about her and though a bit reluctant at first she agreed and did as told.