Breaking From the Past

Chapter 14: Years Passed

"Honestly Hailey!!! Stop running around  for 5 minutes!" I yell after my 5 year old daughter running around the house.

"Mommy can't catch me!" Hailey teases me as she runs around a corner and sticks out her tongue. Her light brown hair flowing gently behind her as she quickens her pace.

"Ohhh but daddy can!" Conrad peeks around the corner, picks up the toddler and scoops her up into the air, swooping her around above his head. "My little girl can't escape me." He nuzzles his nose against Hailey's, both smiling away.

I can't help but think of the past when Connie was a mere robot trying to peel away from his father and everything he was to him. Now he is a loving father and is doing his best to stay in contact with his father, which I think is great because Andreas is becoming the father and grandfather he really hoped to be when he met us in New York 10 years ago.

A soft knock tapped on the front door, Conrad and I looked at each other wondering who it was. Hailey paused as well when Conrad stopped swinging her around.

"Rina, who do you think it is?" Conrad asked, pulling our daughter down to his chest.

I ponder the question as I walk to the door and pull it open slow enough to see who it is. "Harp-Dad, I mean. What are you doing here?" I say, laughing at the way he is dressed. "Why are you wearing such an old looking suit?" I wave my hand in the doorway inviting him inside. Conrad leads Harper into the living room and sits down on the sofa with Harper, letting Hailey run free.

"I want to take you two out to dinner. You know for the special occas-" I wave my hands around in no specific pattern telling him not to say anything. "Oh, uh yeah. I want to take you to dinner because I heard about your promotion at the publishing house. I am proud of you for making it to chief editor of your department. It's really an honor. You know I remember when you were a small boy turning blue because of your terrible asthma." Harper preaches about how he saved Conrad and everything when he was still an EMT which Connie thinks is completely over used.

"Okay dad, how about we just go to dinner." I laugh, my nerves on end thinking about the night ahead.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea..." He laughs too.

Conrad volunteers to get the little one ready and himself while I get ready as well. "Dad!" I slap Harpers arm as hard as I thought was necessary. "Why the hell would you do that!? I even told you it was a secret! Ugh..." I moan in annoyance as my father shrugs off the problem. "You are a pain, ya know that..?"

"That's what I'm here for." He bellows out a hearty laugh then it fades away little by little, his cheeriness is replaced with sadness. "Have you visited her lately?" His voice grows sad and depressed like he is missing his long lost dog after 5 years.

I smile. "I went yesterday." My smile fades as well. "I haven't cried since the day she died and I have no idea why, it's like she wants me to stay happy even though I want so bad to cry every single day. I know she is telling me not to." I laugh, a feeling of regret comes flowing into me, knocking down the wall I had built long ago. "It's just, if I had gotten home sooner that day maybe I could've saved her... or-" My voice becomes solemn before my father cuts me off.

"You have no reason to blame yourself, your mother did it because she felt she was a burden to you. She needed to escape the hellish world so you could be happy, at least that's what I could gather from the whole situation." A smile spreads across his face, I can tell its fake, but still it's a smile.

Hailey runs through the living room. "That's still no reason to-" I say before my daughter wraps her small arms around my waist, wriggling her face into my lower stomach.

"Mommy, it's going to be okay." Her high pitched voice is muffled by my shirt.

I laugh and hug her tight against me. "I know it will. Thank you. By the way, is daddy ready....?" I trail off as I see the man I fell in love with at 7 years old, come walking down the stairs in an expensive black suit. His purple and blue striped tie, wrapped around his neck in a perfect knot. I stare at him in awe as he walks with grace in every step. "Rina can you stop staring. It's making me kind of embarrassed." He scratches his head and finishes his descent down the 5 or so stairs.

"S-sorry. I have to go get ready. Wait for me" Connie laughs at me as I rush into the laundry room and put on some clean work clothes that are decent enough, but are right for the night. I end up with a peach summer dress with a small white belt wrapping snugly around my slim waist. I grab a pair of white flats from the closet by the front door and rush back into the living room, with 99% less grace than my husband that's for sure. "Okay, I'm ready." I say out of breath from my rushing.

Everyone in the room laughs at me like I have three heads, but I don't care because I love them.

"Okay, let's get going." Conrad led us out the door and into the car, I strap my lovely daughter into her car seat and plop myself in the seat next to her, while Conrad drives and Harper in the passenger seat. Honestly the things guys talk about is beyond weird like not even weird more like abnormal.

"Did you watch the game last night?" Harper begins.

"Nah, I had to catch up on Orange is the New Black, but to be honest season two was kind blah. I did hear about the steelers lost against the Eagles 3-0. I want to know how they keep losing, if they keep this up there won't be another super bowl in their future." Both of the guys start to laugh like something is extremely funny.

After about 10 minutes of driving and football conversations, we make it to the restaurant. We are seated and a drink order is taken, while the waitress brings out our drinks, I look at my dad raising a brow, wondering if it is the right time. He nods, Conrad not noticing anything because his nose is stuck behind the menu deciding what to get.

I tap Connie on the shoulder, bringing his attention away from the plastic covered paper, to me. "Connie, I have some news." I can feel butterflies in my stomach as I get ready to spill the beans. My heart is pounding as I take in a deep breath preparing for this moment.

"What's wrong? You look like you're going to barf or something?" Conrad lays down the menu and feels my forehead with the back of his hand. "You're a little warm, but nothing to be worried about."  He pulls his hand away and stares at me.

I think it over one more time and just let it out in one breath. "I'm pregnant." The joy on his face was all I needed.

That night when we got home, Hailey went straight to bed and so did we, but we didn't sleep, I won't say what happened, I'll leave it up to you to figure it out. That was the second happiest moment of my life, the first being our marriage and telling him about Hailey, but that's a whole other story.

☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

Wow I can't believe it's over. I honestly really enjoyed writing this, it was and is one of my favorites.

I want to let you know that over the next few weeks I'm going to be going through each chapter and sprucing them up a bit since I learned a little more about writing recently so I'll be using that to my advantage. For now enjoy this and I hope you loved it or at least liked this story. I'm sad to see it end, but I'm also kind of happy that I found a way to end it decently.

Anyway, thank you for sticking with me and I hope to hear your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to vote too.

See you then,
Bye.
-Stars