Second Chance.

Chapter Seven.

(((Avery Lily Moon in the picture)))

Four and a half years later:

"Mommy! Wake up," Avery says as she jumps on top of me.

"One more minute," I tell her.

She starts to count and I laugh. She likes to try and count to 60 whenever I tell her to give me one more minute. She always struggles since she's four and that gives me at least 5 extra minutes to wake up. I decide to cut her a break today.

"Okay I'm up," I tell her and she gets off my bed and runs into the kitchen.

I follow after her, "What do you want for breakfast?"

She puts her finger to her mouth and tilts her head. I call this her thinking face. "I want fren toast," she smiles at me.

I laugh, "Okay fren toast it is." She has a hard time pronouncing the -ch part so I find it absolutely adorable whenever she says french toast. I make her breakfast and after she's finished I tell her to pick out an outfit while I clean up.

These past four years with her have been the most amazing years of my life. She is the gift Kellan gave to me from that heartbreaking night. For that I am truly thankful which is why I ended up giving her his last name. She's starting to ask me about her father lately because she sees that all her friends in preschool have fathers. My heart breaks everytime she asks me and I don't know what to say so I dodge the question by distracting her. That's not going to work forever.

I moved out of my aunt's place a little over 2 years ago and got my own place. It's only an apartment but to us it's home. I work in retail at Bloomingdale's and the pay is amazing. I also work side modeling gigs every once in awhile to save as much money as possible. I want to be able to give my daughter the world.

"I'm ready mommy!," Avery says snapping me out of my thoughts. I look down and she did indeed bring me an outfit but she managed to pick the most interesting outfit. Not one item matches with another.

"Good job," I tell her. "I have a better outfit in mind if that's okay with you?"

She nods at me and I pick her up, "Let's give you a bath first."

Avery is excited because we're going to visit my parents in California today. She absolutely adores them and them her. We try to fly there at least 3 or 4 times a year. Lately that hasn't been enough so I've been contemplating moving back home but my thoughts drift off to Kellen and I decide against it.

After I finish getting her ready I put on her favorite movie, Frozen, to keep her occupied so I can get ready myself. She likes to sing along to the movie and sometimes I sing with her. We even recorded a video of us singing one of the songs together.

Once I'm ready I call a cab and put our bags by the door to wait. I sit down next to her and watch the movie with her. About 10 minutes later the doorbell rings and it's the cab driver.

"Time to go My little Lily," I say calling her after her middle name. She gets up and almost trips because of how fast she runs to the door. I turn the movie off and follow her. I hand the cab driver our bags and grab her car seat to put her in the cab. Once I make sure I have everything I lock the door to the apartment and get in the cab right next to her. We make our way to the airport. When we arrive I check our luggage and her car seat comes with me for the plane ride. Better safe than sorry. We go through security and before long we board the plane. She can't stop smiling and seeing her happy makes me smile as well.

When we land in California. My parents, brother, Zari, and Jacks are waiting for me. Jacks and I have gotten close ever since lunch that day and he's been a real help with Avery whenever we visit, she even calls him Uncle Jacks. He still doesn't know that she's Kellan's and Zari asked him not to mention Avery to anybody. I don't want Kellan to find out so she told Jacks that I just wasn't ready for anyone else to know yet.

Avery runs over to everybody and starts talking their ears off. I'm just happy that she is doing that to someone else for once. I grab our bags from baggage claim and my brother helps me.

"It's nice to have you home," he tells me.

I smile at him, "It's nice to be home."

"How long are you staying?"

"I don't know I guess we're just gonna go with the flow. Avery is on summer break and I took vacation time at the store," I say to him.

He helps me put the bags in our parents car then gives me a hug.

"I'll see you later," he tells me.

"Where are you going? We just got here," I remind him.

"I know but I have a training session I'll see you tonight don't worry," he says and jogs away to his car.

I found out a couple months after I left that Kellen made Aiden one of his warriors. Dad was so proud of him. I was heartbroken and still am. He has no problem accepting Aiden I guess it's just me who isn't good enough. I've managed to avoid seeing him whenever we would visit over the past four years. 'This time will be no different' I think to myself.