Moments 3: Emily's Story

Chapter 5

Emily's POV

It was finally the day of the funeral. It looked much different from the first funeral I went to. That one was a shit show. 

As I was sobbing in the front row of the church, people kept coming up to me, telling me how sorry they were for my loss. Our friends and colleagues. His family was there. Mine, they never showed. For anything to do with me.

The pastor called me up to talk about my husband. To say a few final words to my husband. As I'm about to finish, to tell him I will miss him. A woman stands up in the middle of the church, with a young baby in her arms and a visibly pregnant belly. She has tears streaming down her face, and she looks pissed. She glares at me, before saying loudly, "He didn't love you anymore! He hadn't loved you for the last three years! We were expecting another baby! We just found out it was another boy!"

Murmurs were going around, no one had any idea who this woman was. His mother stood up, walking over to her. "What proof do you have?" She asked. I'm frozen on the spot. The woman pulls out a photo album, a birth certificate, a marriage license application, and divorce papers. My eyes search for our lawyer who looks confused at who this woman is.

"I'm Abigail Grace. We were together for almost four years. Madly in love the whole time." I had no idea who this woman was. I went to look at the proof, and there were even DNA reports to prove it. Looking at the little boy in her arms, he looked just like Alex's baby photos. Oh god. My husband has a whole second family. She knew about me? She knew and still carried on with a married man? She had children with him? What the hell?! My emotions were all over the place. I was mad and sad; I didn't know what I was. The information was too much for my already fragile emotional state.

I fainted.

Raven and Stormi helped me pick out pictures for the picture boards the grandkids wanted to do. We had pictures from years ago. We made a total of seven photo boards. One board of him and the girls and their husbands. Two boards with pictures of all the grandkids and Jefferson. Two boards with all of us on them, one with him growing up. The final, and biggest, board is filled with pictures of our relationship. Our wedding photo is set next to his urn, and a large photo of him is to the left of it.

There is a stool next to the urn for me to sit on. We're all dressed in black. The boys are all wearing little black trousers, with black button-downs, and black shades. The girls are all in black dresses with black tights and shoes. My daughters are right next to me. Both of them were in black, knee-length dresses, with their hair pulled back. My sons-in-law are wearing all black, and Beckam is wearing his cut. The entire MC is here today. Our friends we made after moving here. Our friends from North Carolina. Even some of my former employees who congratulated us on our wedding on social media had sent flowers. One had a tree planted for him. All of Jefferson's former colleagues came out or sent flowers.

He's got so many people coming in to say goodbye to him. He wanted to be cremated. I asked the crematorium if we could have some of his ashes separated into smaller bags to be made into jewelry. I ordered six black stainless steel cremation bracelets for my grandsons. To keep a bit of 'Grandpa J' with them. His name and birthday are on the ends of the bracelet, I ordered from Etsy. For the Raven and Stormi, I picked out two rectangle necklaces that I had engraved with "Dad" on Raven's necklace. And I had "Papa Jeff" on Stormi's. I also had "I love you" in his handwriting written on both of them. For myself, I had a horizontal necklace made with his nickname engraved on the front, and 'I love you, Sugar' in his handwriting on the back, so it was always pressed to my chest.

I handed out the jewelry to my girls, giving them to give to their kids when they felt they were ready. I told them if their husbands, or Kai or Parker wanted one, there were still enough ashes put aside. Plus, I had a few ideas about what I wanted to do with his ashes. Ryder has his bracelet on. Stormi is directing everyone to leave a fun story, or something we wouldn't know about Jefferson and drop it in the jar she has. She's planning to make a book for us out of them.

After three hours, the service starts. It's beautiful. The girls both get up and speak about Jefferson. They bring tears to my eyes. Ryder is the next one who stands up there, and he tells us all that his grandfather and dad have inspired him to major in law with a minor in computer science so he can continue to help people, just like they did and do. Prez gets up there next, talking about how Jefferson was family, even if he didn't get to officially prospect. Then, he handed me a cut, with 'Judge' written on the front, and the back of it had the club's name, Satan's Sinners.

Tears fill my eyes. He would have loved this! I clutch it to my chest, sobbing. I can't seem to stop. I swear, every time I think I have no more tears to cry, they flow like a river. Everyone is so kind, and thoughtful. Now it's my turn to stand up there. I tell everyone how Jefferson and I met. How we tried to ignore each other. I told them about our first kiss and our pledge to keep quiet until we retired. About our wedding, our girls, all the grandkids. All the vacations we've been on. I told them of the love we shared. The dreams we had. I told them what kind of man he was, and asked them to live a little like Jefferson. Loving, and helping people.

There wasn't a dry eye in the whole place. We shook hands with everyone, said our goodbyes, and thanked them for coming. After everyone left, we took Jefferson and went home. I set him on the fireplace. And when I went to bed, I set him on his bedside table.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to navigate this life without him. He'd been mine for thirteen years. Now I'm alone.

How do I do this?