“You have to leave it on until Nanna and Pa get married,” I say calmly, removing his chubby little hand from the death grip he has on it.

“No,” he snaps, scrunching up his face and frowning at me. It makes me chuckle. Not only did he inherit his mother’s looks, he also inherited her temper and stubbornness. It’s close to his nap time, so that doesn’t help his mood either. I pull his dummy out of my pocket, remove the cover and stick it in his mouth. I always carry one with me. It’s a fucking godsend sometimes. Walking towards the chair, I pick up his teddy bear and hand it to him. He cuddles it into his chest. Hopefully that will distract him until the ceremony is over.

“They’re ready,” Meg calls out as she walks towards us before taking Jaxson out of my arms. She blows a raspberry on his neck to distract him when he tries to protest. I watch as she walks towards Drew, who’s holding their daughter Isabella. She was born four weeks after Jaxson. Indiana cried tears of joy when Megan named their little girl after Indi’s mum. It was very touching.

“You ready, Dad?” I ask as I grasp his shoulder.

“Never been readier,” he smiles as we both walk over and stand by the marriage celebrant. There’s only about thirty guests here today; mainly the guys from Ross’ work and a few neighbours. They wanted to keep it small and intimate.

When the music starts to play, my eyes move to Indiana as she waddles towards us. She still takes my breath away after all this time. Her hair is pulled into an up-do on top of her head, with a few loose curls falling down over her pretty face. She’s wearing a soft pink strapless dress, accentuating her spectacular rack. It then falls loosely to her knees accommodating her large stomach. Levi is due to come into this world sometime next week.

We’re both looking forward to his birth. Her smile widens when her eyes lock with mine. “I love you,” I mouth when she gets closer. It’s not until she’s standing opposite us that my gaze then moves to my mother. She’s wearing an ivory dress that’s covered with lace. She looks beautiful, and so happy. It warms my heart to see her like this. I turn to look at Ross, whose teary eyes are glued to my mother as she walks towards him.

The love he has for her is radiating off him. It brings a lump to my throat. I love this man so much. I think I’ve been looking forward to this wedding just as much as I was my own. Finally, my mum not only got the wedding day she deserved, but the man as well.

••••

Once the vows are exchanged, calmness settles over me. I know I’m right where I should be, where I was destined to be. Everything I’ve endured over my life was meant to happen. It helped mould me into the man I am today. It makes me appreciate everything I have now, so much more.

For the majority of my life, I only knew the love of one person, my mother. Now I’m surrounded by it. I feel like the richest man in the world. Finally I’m whole. It’s taken twenty-six years to get here, but I’ve finally arrived. From this day forward I no longer consider myself a bastard. I have a mother and a father who love me just as much as I love them. I have the woman of my dreams by my side, my son Jaxson whom I adore, and our second child on the way. Life couldn’t be sweeter. My heart is so full, there’s no longer any room for the darkness that once consumed me. Thanks to my sunshine, Indiana, I’m filled with light …

Right down to the very depths of my soul.

••••

After we eat, our parents head to the dance floor for the bridal waltz. They’re dancing to ‘Only you’, sung by The Platters. Indi and I stand beside the dance floor and watch them. They look so happy. I snake my arms around my wife’s waist from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder as I gently rub her belly.

“Are you happy?” I ask, turning my head slightly to place a soft kiss on her cheek.

“Extremely,” she sighs, lacing her fingers over the top of mine.

“Same.” My smile grows, because fuck me, I am. Indiana suddenly tilts her body to the right, as her gaze moves down to the floor.

“Shit,” I hear her mumble.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I ask following her line of sight. She doesn’t even need to answer because I can see it for myself. Panic rises within me. Here we fucking go again.

“My water just broke.”

Oh fuck …

 

COMING SOON

Nineteen Letters

Nineteen. There is something about that number that not only brought us together, but bonded us forever. For a time though, it even tore us apart.

The 19th of January, 1996. I’ll never forget it. It was the day we met. I was seven and she was six. It was the day she moved in next door, and the same day I developed my first crush on a girl.

Exactly nineteen years later, all my dreams came true when she became my wife. The love of my life—my soulmate. She was my everything. The reason I looked forward to waking up every morning.

Then tragedy struck. Nineteen days after our wedding day, she was in an accident that would change our lives forever. When she woke from her coma nineteen hours later, she had no memory of me, of us, of the love we shared.

I was crushed. She was my air, and without her I couldn’t breathe.

The sparkle that once glistened her eyes when she looked at me, was gone. To her, I was now a stranger. I’d not only lost my wife, I’d lost my best friend. I refused to let this tragedy be the end of us. That’s when I started writing her letters. Stories of our life. Of when we met. About the happier times, and everything we had experienced together throughout our lives.

What we had was far too beautiful to be forgotten.

Nineteen letters—that was all it took for her to see we were meant to be.

This is our story ...

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’m going to start off my acknowledgements by telling you a story. It was a poignant moment in the life of my writing career, and therefore I believe it needs to be acknowledged. Although it was a negative experience, I quickly turned it into a positive. I could’ve easy let it beat me, but I didn’t. I know in my heart that this moment is part of the reason I am where I am today.

A little over two years ago, I sat down to write my debut novel, My Destiny. Writing is something I’ve always wanted to do, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure if it was something I was capable of doing. In saying that though, I’m the type of person that likes to challenge myself. I like to prove to myself that I can do something, even if I doubt that I can. I’m not afraid to give anything a go, even if it falls into the too hard basket.

When I wrote My Destiny, I had no intentions of publishing it. As I said, it was merely something I wanted to do, to prove to myself that I could do it. Only the people close to me knew I was writing. They were all extremely encouraging, except one. This particular person told me, “You’re wasting your time. You can’t do this. This will never amount to anything.” I’m not going to lie, hearing those words from someone I care about stung. It hurt me a lot. But, instead of using them to discourage me, I used them to drive me. If you tell me I can’t do something, you can be sure as hell I’m gonna do it, just to prove you wrong. Or die trying. LOL.

So that’s exactly what I did. Not only did I finish the book, I wrote part 2, My Forever, which was followed by Damaged, and Against All Odds. Bastard is my fifth published work. I’m already working on my sixth.

I’m not a vindictive or revengeful person, but I can tell you I got great pleasure in tactfully serving up this person, who shall forever remain nameless, a huge slice of humble pie, served with a delicious side of fuck you. Their reply, “No one will buy it.” Seriously! Again they were wrong.