Florence had thought that being proposed to would hopefully be a once in a lifetime thing, if someone loved you enough to ask you to marry them, they had to be the one right?

But now, for the second time in her life, a guy who she definitely loved was asking her to marry him, scrap that practically begging her judging by the agonised look on his face, she wanted to say yes, marriage would cement their relationship and stop her feeling so insecure all the time, wouldn't it?

But just for once Florence had to put sentiment aside and think about reality, the reality was that this could just be Cole's way of winning her back with no questions asked, bringing her back home happy with a ring on her finger, but how long would their temporary happiness last?

Gently she bent over and took the hand he held the ring in in her own, encasing it inside.

"Cole you know I love you, but I think we need this separation, one day I will gladly marry you, I just don't think today is our day and I'm not going to accept your proposal even if I really want to on the grounds that this all seems really rushed, like you woke up this morning and realised you didn't want to be alone and this was your way to resolve everything without putting any real effort in, a relationship isn't a one way thing"

He looked shocked, and then remorseful, he took her arm and they sat knees touching on Cooper's doorstep.

"Florence, don't for a second think that I only came here because in some twisted way I wanted to brainwash you into accepting my many, many faults I don't want you to marry me just because, I want you to marry me because I love you more than I've ever loved anyone, and it's for that reason that I should probably tell you that I haven't been at work this past month working overtime like I told you..."

She didn't know what to say, what exactly was he admitting to here?

Seeing the expression on her face he quickly elaborated.

"I got my first hint at the fact that everything I'd ever believed was a lie around a year ago, I didn't want to bring it up with you because you had your own problems and we were so happy, but a year ago I received an email, it was from a woman named Jessica Parker, a woman who worked at a Michigan Adoption Agency who said she urgently needed to talk to me, at first I thought it was a scam but something inside me told me this was important, I called her back and what I found out made a lot of things make sense. She told me that twenty-three years ago a woman named Elizabeth Warren gave up her three children, it wasn't a closed adoption if any of the children wanted to find their Mother in the future they wouldn't be prevented from doing so"

Florence's mind was spinning, was Cole talking about himself, was there more to his story than she'd ever considered?

He squeezed her hand.

"Elizabeth Warren was my Mother, my Mother by birth at least, at the age of one me and Chase were adopted by a Mr and Mrs Roberts, they wanted a new life for their two sons so they gave us their surname, usually adoption agencies try and keep siblings together but the Robert's could only take two sons, and at the same time a couple became interested in adopting the girl, Annie"

"Wait..."

Florence had to interrupt him, she could barely keep up with these new facts being tossed her way.

"So you have a sister, you and Chase weren't twins... you were triplets?"

He nodded.

"Oh my God"

Chase had died without knowing, another thing robbed from him, he had died not knowing that he had a sister, that he had been brought up being told a lie, his parents weren't his birth parents, they were his adoptive parents.

Tears pooled in Florence's eyes though she furiously tried to keep them at bay.

"Your parents never told you?" she asked Cole.

"No, they didn't I would never have found out if Jessica hadn't contacted me, she decided to contact me after Annie contacted the agency wanting to find out more about her family, she had no idea that she wasn't an only child, this whole time she's been living in Australia"

"So that's where you've been? Why your always so vacant these days?"

Cole nodded.

"I'm so sorry Flo, I just found out everything so fast and for the past few weeks I've been talking to Annie online, we have our whole lives to catch up on, I wanted to tell you but somehow every time I tried I couldn't find the words, it was all too bizarre one minute I was Cole the orphan with not a relative left in the world and the next I have a sister, a birth Mum and a whole lot of extended family to boot"

She understood, she fully understood, how many times had she kept secrets because she was too afraid to say the words aloud?

Florence kissed his cheek.

"I'm so happy for you Cole, it must be amazing knowing you have this whole heritage you never knew about, so how do you feel?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know how to feel, me and Annie want to meet each other really soon and Jessica's promised to get in touch with Elizabeth for me, I've always felt like I was alone but now I'm suddenly not, but the funniest thing is that I don't blame Mum and Dad at all, they're still my parents, they still raised me and loved me, they were probably trying their best to just protect me and Chase, I have a feeling if that fire didn't happen they would have told us one day"

She wanted to meet Annie, she wanted to know Chase and Cole's sister, wanted to hug her tight and see if she resembled them in anyway, she felt like she'd been given an unexpected gift.

"Cole Warren" she said aloud testing out how the name sounded.

He nudged her.

"I don't think I'll be changing my surname anytime soon, though you might be if you let me do that proposal again"

"First you have to promise something" she looked him dead on in the eye.

"What?"

"Promise me that from now on the two of us are going to be truthful to one another even if saying the truth hurts, I was convinced what we had was over, when I needed you most, I felt like you'd abandoned me, this can't ever happen again, tell me what's going on in your life always just like you'd expect me to do"

He fixed her with a piercing stare, and if he'd carried on like that she would have forgiven him for him for anything, it was like he could see into her soul, knew everything there was to know about her and yet somehow, inexplicably, he still wanted to be with her.

So for the second time that day, Cole got down on one knee in the exact same spot as he had before, only this time Florence was smiling happy tears.

"Florence, you're the only person who I would propose to two times in the same day, you know me better than anyone ever has and I hope I can start a family with you because I can't picture myself loving anyone else forever, I'm never going to be the most perfect of people but who wants perfect when we can be us? You were my first love and I hope you'll be my last so will you marry me?"

"Yes, yes, yes I'll marry you"

She could barely contain herself, she felt like she was bursting with love.

Cole placed the rose gold ring on her finger and she wrapped her arms around him, dipping his head into a long kiss, everything was going to work out, she could sense it.

Cooper came to the door and her eyes widened when she saw the ring.

"Both of you get in here, Sam's made pancakes and it seems you have an engagement story to tell"