Elena

"Mom, Uncle Dominic is kidnapping Anna!" I tried to hide my laughter in my palm and looked up from the angry face of my five year old son, who was a carbon copy of his father, to Dominic, who was holding our three year old daughter in the air, running with humming sounds, being chased by Simon and the currently pregnant in the fourth month Christina.

"Dad, do something, he refuses to give it back to me!" Oliver turned his steely, tearful gaze to Victor, who slipped up behind me and scooped him up in his arms, settling him on his shoulder. "We can't let something like this happen,can we,champ, let's get them!" Victor ran forward, arms locked tightly around our son's waist as Oliver laughed at the top of his lungs, threatening Dominic in a childishly naive manner.

I leaned back trying to get more comfortable and watched Victor catch up to Dominic, Simon tried to get in his way thinking he was protecting Cristina who somehow had almost touched the back of Dominic's t-shirt laughing at the failure to stop him and take Anna away from him.

Victor lifted Oliver into the air, tossing him gently, my son burst into euphoric laughter, waving his arms and, like Dominic, began to imitate airplane sounds. "What are you thinking about?" I looked away from the group and smiled widely, holding out my arms to Emma, Ophelia and Damien's one-year-old daughter, whose birthday was the reason we were all gathered in the huge backyard of their home.

"For nothing in particular, I'm just calm and happy" Ophelia handed me her daughter with a warm motherly smile and turned her gaze to the group. "I don't know who is acting more childish" she laughed and shook her head as I enjoyed Emma's wet trident kisses.

Emma's cooing sounds took me back to when Oliver and Anna were her age. I rubbed my nose in the baby's face and with a blissful sigh I placed her on her stomach on my chest, lightly stroking her back in a circular motion, listening to her soft cooing while I watched the men playing with my children.

A few kicks from the inside of my stomach took me back to a time when I thought I would never see that moment, when all I could think about was how to save my son, whether I would live to see his first smile, to hear the coos,his voice, to see his first step, his first word, to hear him call me mommy.

I'll never forget the sight of Victor holding our newborn son, still covered in blood and amniotic fluid, this huge and strong Goliath man gently holding his son to his chest, the difference between Oliver's baby body and Victor's bearish huge strong arms. The expression of a proud father, the warm overflowing love in his eyes, the tears that swam in Victor's eyes, when our son realized that he was in his father's arms and raised his face, stopping crying, as if he recognized his father, as if he knew more from the first moment that this is the man who would do anything for him, who would destroy the world and then glue it back together just to protect him.

Unconsciously, I held Emma with one hand and placed the other under my stomach, feeling the constant movement of the twins we were expecting at the end of December. Warmth flooded my heart as I watched our family play with our children.

Everything that happened five years ago still seemed like a bad dream. I would never have guessed that Oscar could be behind all my father's actions, I would never have thought that my best friend, a person with whom I shared fears and hopes, would turn out to be such a good actor that none of us not to notice its true nature. Even Ophelia, who is basically always suspicious of everything and everyone, had not been able to see who the real Oscar actually was and for months blamed herself for not realizing that something was wrong.

It took me a while to take it all in. Oscar, his relationship with my father, my father's death, the realization that I hadn't really grown up as much as I thought, that I was still the naive little girl who refused to accept the truth about her friend and hid behind her newborn baby to overcome fear, pain and nightmares.

At first, after Victor and Damien took down Oscar's people and got to me, all I could think about was the labor that was about to end in the car on the way to the ER. But when Oliver was already born, when the initial euphoria wore off and I stepped into my role as a new mother, everything I had been denying and running from until then washed over me and pushed me so hard that I spent a week crying in bed, leaving the care of Oliver entirely to Victor, who did everything in his power to balance between my breakdown and fatherhood and honestly, he couldn't have done it better.

Again, it took me months to digest it all. Victor was amazing, supporting me every step of the way, distracting me as much as he could, helping me focus on our son, and so on until a year and a half slipped by, ending with Ophelia and Damien's wedding and my news that I was pregnant with our daughter.

Victor was so excited that we were having a girl that he talked about it for months, and then spent a few more months with sleepless nights when Anna cried at night. Then I could only stand to the side, watching my husband balance with Oliver on one arm, sleeping on his shoulder, and baby Anna, cooing on his other arm, as he paced back and forth, rocking them both.

In some of those sleepless nights I remembered what we both went through, how our marriage began, the anxieties, the problems, the attacks, I remembered the horror of the first time I saw Victor shot, I remembered the feeling of relief when he burst into the room where Oscar she held me captive and I knew that despite everything, I was happy.

I also found out many other things, such as, for example, that Victor already had a will, that he had named me as his successor as the head not only of Craven Groups, but also of his place in the organization, and I was angry with him for a long time, but how can you be angry for long to a man for whom you feel only love and gratitude? I also revealed the truth behind our marriage, here I was angry with him longer, even for a few weeks he was forbidden to come near our bedroom and bed, but that also ended, obviously, after I was six months pregnant.

What followed was Victor annulling his will, then Simon and Christina getting married, the birth of Ophelia and Damien's daughter, my pregnancy, Christina's pregnancy. Victor and Damien were then announced as Eric Caldwell's successors, and upon his retirement, they would be in charge of not only their territories, but all of Los Angeles, which came as a surprise to the organization, given the longstanding rivalry between the two, who were now first friends.

Life was so unpredictable, I never imagined that I would turn from a virgin mouse to the wife of a criminal boss, who would turn out to be the love of my life and my greatest happiness. They say that you have lived fully when you look back and do not feel doubt or regret about what you experienced, when you do not regret your decisions and choices and you can take your last breath with a satisfied smile.

Yes, I lost a lot, but I won a hundred times more. My life is now a real fairy tale, I no longer looked around like a frightened mouse, the Italians were pushed into the shadows, thanks to the joint work of Victor and Damien, my two best friends would remain in my life forever, brought closer together by love and the friendship between our families, our children would have close friends from birth and would always have someone to rely on.

Maybe it's not exactly the life I would have consciously chosen for myself, but looking at Victor, Oliver and Anna, I don't regret it for a second.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, smiling, feeling the September sun on my face. "Mom, are you okay?" Oliver's worried voice made me open my eyes and look at him. His gray eyes scanned my face in typical father fashion and I smiled wider. Oliver resembled Victor more than outwardly, and although he was not raised the way his father had been raised, he already showed a maturity that was not typical for his five years.

From the first moment Anna was born, Oliver became the big brother. He was never separated from his little sister, lurking by her crib almost around the clock, always concerned, protective and ready to retaliate against anyone who made his sister sad. He was smart, alert and very curious, he liked history, he liked to listen to his father tell him stories from his childhood, about his grandparents, battle incidents, he listened carefully when Victor talked about the organization and from now on he showed leadership qualities, always organized , always thinking one step ahead.

"I'm going to put Emma in her crib" I looked from Oliver to Ophelia who took the sleeping Emma from my arms and as she moved away I held out my arms to Oliver. My son climbed into the lounger next to me and stretched out on the side, hugging me under my chest. One day, Oliver would be tall and strong like Victor, hopefully the twins would also inherit their father's physique, while Anna looked like me, her eyes were green with a slight gray tint, but her hair was fiery like mine. That made me smile, at least one of my kids would look like me.

"I'm fine sweetie, I'm just a little tired" I wrapped my arms around my son who lay on my chest. "Are the twins hurting you?" he asked sullenly, but before I could answer, Anna's scream caught my attention and I laughed in amazement as I watched Viktor give a murderous look to Christina who had finally caught up to our daughter and was now running with all her might, escaping her pursuer Simon, who told her not to run.

"Lunch is ready!" we all simultaneously turned to Damien, who was holding a huge plate of hamburgers and hotdogs in front of him, leaving the grill. Oliver let out a shriek and flew out of my arms so fast it was funny how quickly he forgot why he had come to me in the first place.

"They kidnapped her anyway" Victor came and sat next to me, looking me over from head to toe with his hand on my stomach. "How are my beautiful wife and my boys?" I put my hand on top of his and smiled my biggest smile. "Tired and hungry" Victor laughed, stood up and offered me his hand. "Then let's feed you and then who's from where, you've been on your feet too long anyway" he pressed me under his arm and I raised my face, receiving a tender long kiss.

"Oliver and Anna are dead tired and in bed" Victor reported and climbed onto the bed next to me, curling up under the covers. "Admit that you're tired too" I slightly moved my book to make room for him and he didn't wait for a prompt, but wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my neck. "No more than you, my love" Victor murmured, planting kisses along his neck. "You were taking a nap on your plate just before we left" he jokingly reminded me and I giggled.

"What can I say, with so many men around, it's easy to get tired" I wrinkled my nose and Victor looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Don't tell me you're tired of me?" he asked hoarsely and his eyes lit up hungrily as his hands began to roam over my body. "Never! It never even crossed my mind to say such a thing" I laughed and slid down, leaving my book on the nightstand. "That's good, because you're stuck with me, my love, and I don't intend for that to change until we're old and I take my last breath in your arms, just like we are now!" Victor declared and I scolded him for thinking about something like that, while we both lie in our bed, and two new lives are sewn into my stomach.

"Seriously, Elena, I love you" he settled on his elbow next to me and grabbed my chin, looking deep into my eyes. "You're all I've ever looked for, all I've ever wanted, you're my storm, the rainbow after the rain, my safe place and my worst enemy, you're my everything and everything for me, my love, never forget it" his lips gently wiped mine and I cursed my hormones, sobbing with teary eyes. "I love you" I squeezed tearfully and snuggled into him, relaxing in his arms, feeling protected and cozy.

Yes, maybe I would never have consciously chosen this way of life for myself and my children, but I couldn't have chosen a better man. Nowhere else would I have found someone so caring and loving, so kind and an amazing husband and father. Nowhere else and in no one's other arms would I feel as whole and at home as I do now, with Victor.

No regrets, no doubts. I had some remaining wounds, but thanks to my husband, they stopped bleeding for a long time. Victor doesn't even suspect how much he does for me every day, he has no idea how much strength he gives me, how much I changed thanks to him, how much I rediscovered and got to know myself, relying on his love and support. No words would allow me to tell him so that he would fully understand, but I hope I show him enough.

"My fool, why are you crying?" he gently wiped away my tears and pulled me next to him, holding me tight. "I'm just happy" I rested my chin on his chest and smiled at him. "Okay, that means I'm doing my husbandly duties properly" he smirked and squeezed me harder. "Much more than it should be" I complimented him and laid on his chest, closing my eyes.

Life is unpredictable, filled with lows and highs, with joys and sadness, with love and hate. We have both been through a lot, much more awaits us, but whatever comes next, the smiles, happiness, sadness and tears, it doesn't matter. As long as I'm next to Victor, while I'm in his arms, while I hear his heartbeat, I love him and feel his love, while we're together, I know that I have the strength to meet and experience everything that fate has prepared for us.