Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

Epilogue

ONE & A HALF A YEAR LATER

"Come to Mama,"
I cooed gently.
My eyes widened slightly as I watched my just barely over 1 year old daughter who just started walking stumble towards the cake that was sat on the table. I did not want to startle her and make her  run straight to it and trip into it. I had learned that me trying to keep her from something only made her want it that much more; she was a lot like her mother in that aspect. I just had to bring out something that would catch her attention more.

"Violetta Rose," I said more sternly, making her cast her big, beautiful blue-green eyes toward me. They were filled with so much wonder and happiness it made me falter in place for a second because I just couldn't believe I created something so perfect. That we created.

"Mamm?" She managed to gurgle out in her baby talk, not quite being able to say Mama all the way correctly yet. But it made my heart melt into a puddle in the middle of my chest how it always did. So after I had my moment of awe, I pulled one of the flowers that was placed ever so strategically in my hair. I knew that Nia would freak if she knew I had just undone a piece of her work that she spent hours on trying to get my hair exact perfect because it just had to be "my best hairstyle ever", but that wasn't hard to do sensing as I usually just wore it not brushed most days.

"You want the flower, my love? Look at the pretty flower," I said coaxingly, while wiggling the flower in her line of sight. For a minute she stopped teetering around and cocked her head to the side and began reaching out for the flower that I extended towards her. "That's right, take the flower my girl, not that expensive cake," I encouraged her. Her little fingers had almost reached the stem of the flower, and I almost believed we were in the clear, but then she took off the faster than I had ever seen her little legs go.

My eyes widened in terror as she made a b-line to the three layered, gorgeous cake, and it was like I was stuck in quicksand and couldn't get out to reach her. All I could do was scream "No!" as she crashed headfirst into the most gorgeous dessert I had ever laid my eyes on.

Next thing I know Nia is busting into the door with a terrified look on her face and a random lamp in her hand, and she screamed, "What?! What is it?! Who do I need to fight on your perfect day?" I couldn't help but laugh a little bit when I pointed my manicured finger over to a giggling Violetta who is pulling her icing coated face from the bottom layer of the cake.

"Looks like not every aspect will be perfect," I sighed softly, then turned my eyes back to Nia who was lowering the lamp and smiling teary-eyed at Violetta who had starting stumbling around the room and leaving a trail of icing in her wake , "but what else would you expect from this family? Something has to go wrong, even at my wedding."

"Also," I said with my eyebrows furrowed and a smile on my face, recalling a fond memory when I first met Ashton, "why is it always the lamp we go for? It's like you were meant to be my mom." Nia laughed and sat the lamp down on the nearby table where wedding gifts littered the table. "It's the first thing I saw, and you never know who's gonna show up at the wedding of an ex gang leader," she shrugged, and went to grab Violetta and hold her.

She looked back to me and tears brimmed her eyes again as she looked over her handy work on my makeup and hair, and my heart restricted in my chest. I knew how much she wished her daughter was here instead, but she had no idea how grateful I would be for her forever. "You look so beautiful," she sniffled, pulling Violetta closer and whispering to her, "look how beautiful your Mama is." Violetta babbled happily and reached out for me and I blew her a kiss.

"No ma'am, we must get you cleaned up first, we can't have you ruining your Mama's beautiful dress with all that icing on her big day," Nia chided gently, trying to brush through her icing coated hair with her fingers. It warmed my heart that she automatically assumed the role of Violetta's grandmother without anything even having to be said. If she didn't, she would have never had a grandmother, at least not one I fully trusted.