🔹️🔹️Adrien Russell🔹

Four Years Later

I stared at Crystal who moved around the large hall with her notepad in hand. It was five in the evening and nineteen hours since we fought last night. And the entire day, she had been avoiding me.

I admit it was my fault but I certainly wasn't being careless or ignorant like she had blamed me to be. This day was as important and special to me as it was to her. I looked around the beautifully decorated hall. Balloons, lights and flowers decorated the high walls. Heaps of gifts were kept in a corner and the employees of Mosaic Events rushed to make the arrangements.

It would be a lie if I said that I wasn't disappointed in myself when I realized that I wasn't exactly any sort of help while Crystal had arranged every nook and corner. I had one job. And I failed.

I watched my wife as she suddenly stopped on her track and scrunched her face, as if in pain. I was already on my way towards her to check on her when she slipped her fuck me heels out of her feet and massaged them. Before I could reach her, a woman called me from behind.

I turned around to look at her. "She's ready." She smiled brightly. I smiled back and nodded at her before turning back towards Crystal, but she had already walked away with her stilettos kept in a corner. Sighing, I followed Lily.

As soon as I opened the door, my heart lightened when I heard the fits of beautiful laughter that stopped when her eyes fell on me. "Aahaa!" She called out. I took a sharp breath looking at my little girl, Eyana, dressed up for her second birthday. She smiled as bright as the sunshine and raised her arms at me.

"My god, Muffin!" I gasped at her and picked her up in my arms. "You look so beautiful, baby!" I showered her face with kisses and she broke into another laughter.

"Amazing job, Lily. Thank you." I smiled at her for dressing Eyana up.

"You're most welcome." She bowed dramatically. "Where's Crystal? She needs to look at her angel as well." My smile faded at her mention.

"She's running around looking at the arrangements." I put Eyana back in her crib and sat on the couch next to it. "She is still mad at me." I sighed.

"Well, you can't blame her." Lily said after a while. "You messed up pretty bad. You volunteered on choosing the cake and ordering it yourself but then you forgot about it until she asked."

I rubbed my hand over my face. I did fuck up big time. "I know... I- I'm not trying to give excuses but I wanted to lend a hand in the arrangements but things got out of hand at the office and it slipped out of my mind."

I had wanted everything to be perfect at the party. Even though it was Eyana's second birthday, it was her first birthday party because last year on her birthday, Dad had been in the hospital because of a minor heart stroke he had had a day before. I had made up my mind that this year will be the most memorable day for my muffin– even though she's too young to remember things– but since the fire that was caught in one of our hotels four months ago, my plans and schedules flipped upside down.

We were on the verge of getting our hotel sealed because of the fire and I gave in my everything to stop it from happening. I was hell bent on enhancing the safety and security systems in all of the hotels and improving the service quality to make up for the incident. But while I was being a responsible CEO, I failed at being a good father and husband.

"What are you guys doing about the cake anyway?" Lily asked.

"We obviously couldn't get a customized cake in such a short time so we've sent Martin to get a ready-made one." Lily nodded and continued playing with Eyana. I admired my little girl as she jumped in the crib. She was just like Crystal– a carbon copy, in fact. The same chubby cheeks with lickable dimples. The curly brown hair that was currently graced with a tiara. The only trait of mine in her was her blue eyes. Except they were a hundred times more beautiful and deep. My heart swelled with love looking at her.

I looked at my watch and realized it was time for guests to start arriving. I excused myself before pecking Eyana on the cheek and made my way to the main hall. My parents, Ethan and Hannah with their four year old son- Nathaniel, my friends Tyler and Anna with their new born, Evan, Brie and our closest friends and family– they were already here. Crystal stood with them, looking fresh as daisy like she hadn't worked her ass off the entire day and night. I walked up to greet them all one by one. Even though Crystal and I didn't talk to each other, we didn't make it obvious that we weren't on very good terms at the moment.

The guest gathered within a few minutes and waited for the birthday girl to make an appearance while Crystal and I went to fetch her in silence. Her face lit up as soon as her eyes fell on her angel and she enveloped her in her arms. I stood silently with a small smile as I watched my girls laughing with each other. Few minutes later, we all made our way outside with Eyana holding our index fingers in each hand.

The small crowd hooted and clapped when Eyana came in view and hid her face behind her hands, blushing. I laughed and picked her up before letting everyone meet her. Eyana was the star of everyone's eyes. I mean, why wouldn't she be? She is the most adorable being to exist on the planet.

When thye cake was brought to the center of the hall, even though it was beautiful, it was nothing like the one I wanted to get for Eyana. The only one to be blamed was me. We lit the candle on the cake and Eyana clapped when the sparkles rushed out. She blew on it when we asked her to while the others sang her the birthday song. Soon, the cake was distributed and the buffet was set, guests began to scatter while the children played within the watch of Lily.

Crystal was talking to Hannah when I decided that it was the best time for me to talk to her.

"Crys, I need you to come with me for a second." I smiled at her, then looked at Hannah and Ethan. "Excuse us for a second, please." I held her wrist and dragged her away with me. I knew she didn't like it but she didn't protest either.

Taking her away from everybody's sight, I turned around and held her shoulders. "Crys, please talk to me." I pleaded. She shrugged my hands off her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest, looking elsewhere but at me. "I'm sorry, Crystal. I know I fucked up and I just don't have a good enough excuse for it."

Nothing.

I sighed in defeat and held Crystal's hands in mine. "I understand that you are disappointed in me. You should be and believe me, so am I." I tugged her closer and kissed her head. "I wanted to give you a hand in the arrangement and I genuinely thought I could pull it off. I really wanted to make this the best day of Eyana's life. And although I've been nothing but a disappointment, Crystal, I'm not a bad father." My heart pinched at the thought of it.

"You're not, Adrien." She looked straight into my eyes. "You never were a bad father and you never will be. Just like you were never a bad husband." She took her hands away from mine and put them on my chest. "I was tired.. and frustrated with you because I was craving so much for your attention. I am ashamed about it. I should have been more understanding considering the situation with the hotel but it had just been so long since we spent some quality time together, since we had a meal together. Staying in the same house, we started missing you and I didn't like that."

"I know, Crys. I did realize how little time I had been giving you guys and it robbed me completely of the little peace in my mind. But I didn't have an option. We were on the verge of-"

"Relax, Adrien." She interrupted me. "There's nothing wrong with what you were doing. I'm sorry, I overreacted and said things that are nowhere near to truth. You aren't ignorant, you're just ambitious and it's not a bad thing."

I stared at her for a whole minute then placed my hand on hers over my chest. "Please don't be mad at me. I'll be at my best I promise."

She smiled up at me brightly. "You sound like Eyana in the next few years." Crystal rounded her arms around my neck and pecked my cheek. "I'm not mad at you."

"Thank you." I grinned. "I love you."

"I love you too." She replied. I leaned down to kiss her but stopped when I heard some giggles from another corner of the hallway. We both gave each other a look and walked towards it only to make out a male and female laugh, followed by sounds of someone making out.

Of course!

"Gross! Take it somewhere else, will you? It's a kids' party." Brie and Evan snapped their heads towards us. Evan had her pinned to the wall and there was lipstick smudged all over his face. Typical Evan.

"What are you, some horny teenagers who cannot keep it in their pants?" I taunted, causing Brie to push Evan away and run towards the dressing room, blushing. Crystal followed her and I turned to look at Evan glaring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you have to be such a prick in my lovelife every fucking time?" He grimaced, making me smirk.

"It's not my fault you fall for the girls I am involved with every fucking time." I mocked and he rolled his eyes. He joined me on my walk back to the hall. In all seriousness, I asked him. "Are you even serious about her?"

He gave me a look to check what I mean. Sighing, he dugged a hand in his coat's pocket and took out a small velvet box. "Does this look serious enough to you?" I was flashed by a diamond ring sitting gracefully between the velvet. I gaped at him. "You're proposing to her?" He nodded with a small smile. "When?" I asked.

"Midnight." He answered. Right. The day after Eyana's birthday was the day they first met. How and what happened to them? That's a story for another time. What mattered was that they were deeply in love with each other.

"Good for you." I nudged him and he frowned again. He can pretend that he doesn't like me all he wants. I don't give two fucks.

When I reached the hall, Eyana came running clumsily and launched herself in my arms. "Dadda!" I stilled. Did she- did she just- "What?" I looked down at her. "What did you say?" I looked at Evan and saw him smiling brightly, confirming I hadn't misheard anything. "Say it again, Muffin. Please, say it again."

"What happened?" Crystal came up to us and kneeled next to me in front of Eyana.

"Listen to this, Crys." I told her. "E, say that again, please. Who am I?" I pointed at myself and looked at her with anticipation.

"Dadda." She said and I swear I could feel my eyes get wet. I thought Crystal moaning my name was the best thing I could ever hear but this– this is absolute heaven. Euphoric.

"Did you hear that? She said 'Dadda'." I looked at Crystal and she nodded rapidly. "Yes. Oh my god, My angel." We hugged her together as everyone watched us with admiration.

This is my life now. With friends to support me and family to love me. This is the life I wish every good man on the planet gets.

The life I would do anything to live over and over again. With Crystal and Eyana in my arms.