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A miserable woman named Gabriella thinks she can do everything by herself and has complete control of her life until God takes everything away through a storm and her guardian angel. She is then brought together with her husband to be who will help her become a better person and save her soul. Will she accept this new life given to her or fight to regain the control that she thought she had?
*The cover for this story was remade by @An_dres_art (on Twitter).
“Gabriella, will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, I do!” Connor barely manages to
get the ring on my finger before I tackle him and shower his face with kisses. Some
of the people around us laugh.
“Okay, okay! Calm down. People are watching.”
“So what? This is the happiest moment of my
life. I’m going to enjoy it to its fullest.”
“If you’re going to do that, then I’ll do the
same,” Connor says while reversing my hold on him, pinning me to the sand, and showering
my face with kisses. As we look into each other’s eyes, he says, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say before we kiss. For
the next couple of hours, we sit on the beach enjoying the sights while holding
each other’s hands. We then get up around twelve and decide to get lunch on the
boardwalk. “Um. Are we going to cuddle all night like we did last night?”
“I don’t know. I have work and, knowing you,
you’ll try to keep me with you for as long as you want like you did this
morning.”
“And? What’s your point? You can tell your
boss that your crazy fiancée can’t let go of you. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“I don’t think he’ll accept me being late to
work on a daily basis because of it.” Connor’s hand slips from mine because of
his embarrassment, so I quickly grab it.
“Hey! I want to hold your hand for the entire
day today. That means holding it while you’re eating and driving too.”
“Well, it can’t be for the entire day. I’ll
eventually need to let go when I have to take a shower for tomorrow.”
We could…no, no, no. At least not until we’re
married. “You still have to do what I want for the most part. You don’t want to
ruin this special day for me, do you? A happy wife means a happy life.”
“I don’t want to ruin it, but I don’t have to
do everything you want. It’s my special day too.”
“How about this? We wrestle over who gets to
decide what we do for the rest of the day. Whoever gets the other to tap out
wins, okay? Are you ready?”
“Wait, hold on!”
“Go!” I tackle Connor again this time at a
part of the beach where the water from the ocean touches the beach so we end up
getting wet. “Tap out! You can’t win.”
“That’s what you think!”
Connor and I wrestle together laughing and having
a fun time until I end up tapping out. I don’t mind that he gets to decide what
we do today since I like most of the decisions he makes anyways. Without him, I’d
be my old miserable self.
Without what God did, I wouldn’t be this
happy, so I have to thank Him and my guardian angel as well. I thank you now
and will continue to thank both of you until the day I die for all of the blessings
I have and will have in the future even if they come in the form of challenges and
struggles because I know that there’s something better at the end of it all.
“Of course you would. You would’ve also made
each other late for church. Speaking of which.”
“It’s going to be okay. They get along with
everyone! I wonder if my brothers and sisters are going to be there. Oh yeah, I
forgot to mention that I had them. Do you have any siblings?”
“Hello!” the man says before hugging Connor
and me.
“Hello, sir. It’s an honor to meet you.” I
didn’t even think about what I would say to his parents. How do you introduce
yourself as the woman your son is going to marry?
“The honor is mine. My name is William. Come
in. My wife, Valentina, is almost finished making breakfast for us.”
As we go in, I notice that Connor’s parent’s
house is decorated like his with many religious statues and pictures along with
pictures of his family. The woman in the kitchen must be his mother, Valentina.
Honestly, when looking at both of them, I’m not sure who Connor takes his looks
after the most. “Hello, Gabriella. My name is Valentina. It’s good to finally
meet the woman that my son has been talking about a lot.”
“It’s good to meet you too.”
“Take a seat and relax. Brunch is ready. Tell
me all about yourself and how you met Connor. I want to know how you stole his
heart so quickly.”
“Explain how I…ummm…heh.”
“Mom, you don’t need to cut to the chase so
quickly.”
“Oh, but I do. Her suddenly appearing in your
life and you falling in love with her makes a mom like me overly curious as to
how it all happened.”
“I’ll explain it then while we eat.” After I say grace along with the family and we begin to eat, Connor explains how
he met me, my circumstances, and what we’ve done since. Thankfully, he leaves
out the time I tried to kill him and the two times I’ve tried cuddling with
him.
“Wow, you’ve really been through a lot and
changed a lot over the past few days, Gabriella. It really is an act of God.”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you’re not telling me to
prove that I can see and have conversations with my guardian angel.”
“It’s fine. We believe you. Now, for the big
question. When are you two getting married?”
“I still have to get the ring.”
“Oh. Well, we have plenty of family rings you
could use. Why don’t you take one of those and propose to her right now? I want
to record it and also have a framed picture of it.”
“Um. I don’t know. Hey, any of my brothers or
sisters stopping by today?”
“No, but we should be seeing them soon for
our monthly family dinner. We’ve made some changes to the house since you left.
Want to see them while the girls continue their chatting?”
“Sure thing.”
Oh no. Valentina is really forward with what
she’s thinking about. I’m not sure if I can sit here with her by myself. Where
are they going anyway? They’re not getting one of the rings, are they?
“Want to see Connor’s baby photos? They’re
really cute.”
“Okay.” The photos that Valentina shows me
are really cute. She describes each one as if they happened yesterday and says
that seeing them makes her feel that way.
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-five.” I stop myself before I ask her
how old she is. She’s probably older than me, but she looks younger.
“Connor is twenty-eight. Did you know that?”
“No, I didn’t. My guardian angel did say he
was young, but I didn’t really think about how much younger or think to ask him
his age.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t have a problem with it.
The age gap isn’t too big and God did bring you two together.”
“Right.”
“How many kids are you planning on having?”
“Ummm. Uhhh.” The thought of having children
was in the back of my mind. Still, I never thought I’d have to answer how many
I guess I should’ve because of Valentina’s traditional mindset.
“You should aim for three or four. That’s how
many children I’ve had. Maybe I’ll consider having a couple more in the future.
I’m also fine with just one if that’s all God chooses to give you.”
“I ummm. Okay…” She really is too much. I
appreciate her bluntness, but still. Connor, where are you?
“Since you’ve been living together, have you
also been sleeping with-”
“Hello, we’re back! You weren’t asking
Gabriella any weird questions, were you, honey?” Thank God both of them are
back!
“I was actually. I want to know if they slept
togeth-”
“Come on, stop embarrassing them.”
“Okay, fine. I still have more I want to talk
about anyway.”
“Actually, mom, we should go. We have a lot
more things we wanted to do today, didn’t we, Gabriella?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
“You see? You’ve scared them off.”
“Oops. I’m sorry. Come back soon!”
“Okay! Thanks for everything, mom and dad!”
Connor says while taking my hand and quickly leaving the house. We get into the
car, wave as we drive away, drive around the corner, and stop in a place
where Connor’s parents don’t see us. “Whew! I hope mom didn’t ask you anything
too embarrassing.”
“You heard what she was about to ask. Anyways,
do we actually have any plans for the rest of the day?”
“I was thinking about going to the garden
park by the lake for a bit and then I’ll make dinner back home. It’s Sunday so I
thought we’d take it easy.”
“I’d like that. Let’s do it.” Going to the garden
park where many flowers and plants of the state are shown off in areas around
the lake is a relaxing experience. Besides the gardens, there are small cafes, restaurants,
and ice cream parlors here. There's also a playground, a small library, and a little carnival
area with games for kids. It’s great to see so many people happy in one area.
What’s also amazing and strange to me at the same time is that I see myself in
the place of the mothers with their happy families as if I’m seeing a glimpse
of my future self.
Connor and I don’t talk much during our time
here, but we don’t need to since being with each other here is more than enough
to keep me happy and worth it. We hang around until the fireworks show happens
at sunset, kiss in front of it, and then go back home for dinner. Like the rest
of the nights, we sit on the couch. This time we’re watching some nostalgic movies.
Around ten o’clock, Connor says to me, “You
know. I think I’ll sleep with you on the couch tonight.”
“A-are you sure?”
“Yeah. I don’t really have work on Mondays.
Sometimes I do and sometimes I have work on Saturdays depending on what parts
of the diocese I have to help, but never mind it. Let’s just rest together. We’ve
had a long day.”
“Yeah…”
This is the perfect way to end the day and I’ll
have Connor all to myself again for one more day. We cuddle up to one another
and I fall asleep in Connor’s arms. I get one more day with him. One more day…all
to myself…
But his heart won’t completely be mine. He’s
completely devoted to God, so he won’t have me as the center of his world.
That’s fine. God is why Connor is such a good
person and it’s better that he’s this way so that he can teach me to become
better than I once was and happier in life than my parents.
But still, what happens if Connor gets sick
or is unable to work? I may not be able to get a good job for a while because of
my ruined reputation and the remaining money in my bank account can only
sustain us for so long. My life is completely dependent on him.
I’m being paranoid if I think like that. Honestly,
my life is better now than it was before. It’s strange to admit that I’m glad I
lost everything I had and got Connor in return. I’m sure he won’t let me down
and we’ll find a way to get through life’s hardships together.
But what if God takes everything away from me
again? Who knows what he wants at any given time? If I do what he wants, he’ll
chain me to his truth. He’ll chain my freedoms just like how my guardian angel has
chains.
I’ll just have to trust Him then. He does
seem to have my best interests in mind and has proved that I was on my way to ruin
my life just like my parents ruined theirs.
I see that there’s no changing your mind
right now. I hope you enjoy giving your life to someone who took away everything
you had.
Huh? I wasn’t thinking to myself while asleep.
Who was that?
“More demons trying to tempt you. I’m glad
that you were able to prevent them from influencing you.”
Why were they bothering me? I’ve gone to
church and prayed.
“That’s exactly why they were after you. They
leave those who are already chained to their sins alone.”
I’ll also be chaining myself just like that demon
said if I pick God’s side.
“Such is life. You either chain yourself to a
loving or a hateful master. Who you chose dictates how you live your life, values,
goals, and everything in between. There are no options besides these two. I have
chosen a loving master. What choice have you made?”
I guess I’ve made the same choice you have
seeing awful my life was with the other one.
“That makes me happier than you can possibly
imagine. If the demons ever bother you again, I’ll be here fighting for you. Do
not be afraid to call on me whenever you need help.”
I won’t forget you, my guardian angel.