White Veil Occasion: short story [h.s.]

epilogue

HARRY

FIVE YEARS LATER

A lot can happen in a lifetime, and some things you can't control...

Some said we wouldn't make it, some said we were doomed from the start.

I love you so much. I-

The sound of little feet pattering down the hall just before the office door creaking perks my ears up and I immediately start smiling and stop my writing to turn around.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" I turn to see my daughter stepping through the crack in the door. She rubs her eye with a tiny fist and she yawns meaning she just woke up from her nap.

"C'mere and see," I say softly, putting my arms out for her. She quickly counts how many steps it takes to me before I'm lifting her up into my lap. The piece of paper I was just writing on sitting in front of us, and Vada yawns again either she's seemingly uninterested in what I'm actually doing, or she's still tired. Which means she's going to be cranky and that's not good for either me or Stella.

"What is it," her tiny voice asks. For only three years old, she is very inquisitive. She wants to know everything, every answer to every question. Which is why she doesn't hesitate to ask all the time. I'm pretty sure her favorite word is 'why.'

"I'm writing a letter to momma," I tell her.

"Why?" Vada asks and I tickle her sides to hear those beautiful little giggles that leave her mouth. The sound of them letting me know that I'm alive.

Vada Petunia Styles was not planned in the slightest. Stella and I thought we would at least get married first. But when Stella told me she was pregnant after much deserved messy car sex with my girlfriend, I was estatic. I didn't care in the slightest that we weren't doing the steps of our lives together in order. All I cared about was doing it with Stella. I was over the moon at the thought of becoming a dad, and to think I might have never got the chance because Kiera never wanted kids.

Stella Taylor hands down gave me the best gift I could have ask for. Vada is my pride and joy and I am so lucky to be her father. She like sunshine on a rainy day. She never fails to make me smile, and I swear each time I see her, a spitting image of her mother, my heart grows in size.

"Because momma and I are getting married tomorrow," I say to her. Yes, that's right, finally after five years of being together we are finally getting married. I proposed to Stella within a year of us officially being together. And we planned to get married pretty quick. But then Stella got pregnant and everything got delayed by a few years. We wanted to wait until Vada was a little bit older, so she would be able to actually understand what was going on.

"Oh yeah," she smiles, remembering now what's taking place.

A small intimate ceremony filled with all our closest friends and family. We didn't want a big wedding because we both realized that wasn't really our style. All we really needed was each other and of course how human incarnate of the sun that is our daughter.

"You wanna help daddy with his vows?" I ask her, and I have to place my hands over hers when I realize she started to pick at the dust in between the cracks of the desk. Vada as of late has been starting to show signs of OCD. We didn't know if that was possible since Stella has been better at controlling her compulsive urges. But, when we took Vada to the doctor, they said it can be genetic.

Stella was terrified that Vada was going to turn out like her. She was nervous that once Vada's old enough to start going to school, she would get bullied like she did when she was kid. I had to reassure her that nothing was going to happen to Vada and if she was to turn out like Stella, then that was just another reason to love both of them even more than I already do.