The envelope feels heavy in my hands. But I have to give it to him. I want to give it to him. I never thought that I would. But everything has changed.

The car stops and the drives look back at us.

" Would you like for me to wait for you, Ms Reed?" he asks.

" No it's okay" I say as I unbuckle Roy from the car seat. " I'll give you a call when we're ready."

He nods and looks forward. It takes me a little longer to pull her out with all the excitement. She wants to see her dad and play with her brother. This has been our routine with the past couple of weeks.

Once we're out of the car she runs towards Harry's building without waiting for me. I hardly have time to shut the car door before I'm running after her. It's only half a second of not being able to visually see her through the crowds of people for me to push passed them all until I see her. 

" Roy, you know you aren't allowed to just run off like that" I sigh at her as I leaned down to her level.

" Sorry momma" she says but her attention isn't on me, it's on the building doors.

WIth Roy by my side, I look behind me to see a man with his coffee spilled all over the floor. Grabbing Roy's hands I step over towards him.

" I'm so sorry!" I apologive profusly.

" It's okay" he shakes his head looking away from me.

" I can get you a new cup of coffee" I offer.

" No" is all he says before walking away. 

But it's his familiar face that leaves me planted in front of the building watching him walk away. It's Roy's tugging that finally makes me brush off the incident.

Roy holds my hand as we the elevator up towards Harry's apartment. I try to remember where I've seen the guy before. Maybe he's a paparazzi scoping out Harry's place I've just walked passed once or twice before.

The envelope for Harry is still in my hand while we ride up the elevator. I'm nervous again. Almost as much as the day I told him about Roy being his daughter. As soon as the elevator doors open, Roys pulls me again running towards Harry's front door. She's the one that rings the door bell.

It's only a second before I hear running foot steps one the other side of the door. But it's another couple of seconds before the door is opened. Harry's eyes fall on Roy first. His smile brightens in a way that I love. Maybe because he's proud of the little girl we made. Maybe because she brings that side out of him. It's the most beautiful kind of smile. 

Roy rushes into his arms with a sweet smile on her face. Once she lets go of him she rushes over to Kian. He's wearing the big brother shirt Roy told me about. She's insisting on a little sister T-shirt because of it. She runs with him down into Harry's living room. Harry moves to the side letting me walk inside.

" Kian couldn't wait any longer to show her this" he chuckles as we walk towards the living room.

It's a fort made from the couches and bed sheets. It reminds me of the ones Niall and I used to make as kids.

" Did you help him build this?" I let out a laugh as I watch the kids crawl inside of it.

" Yeah" he admits.

I look over to see him holding a shy smile. He scratches the back of his head as he walks into his kitchen. I follow close behind holding the envelope behind my back. We listen to the kids laughter as he gives me a glass of water.

" Are you hungry?" he asks.

" I'm fine" I shake my head. 

He shrugs but still opens up his fridge. It's a very different fridge than the one we used to share back at the band's apartment. A lot more healthier options I glimpse at. No more soda cans over flowing inside. Instead he takes out a bowl of grapes and places it on the counter in between us. He makes sure it's in the middle, trying to make me feel more comfortable. And it works.

Harry leans up against his kitchen counter facing me while popping a couple of grapes in his mouth. I take a seat on the stool in front of the kitchen island and place the envelope on top.

" What's that?" Harry's asks with his mouth full.

It almost distracts me enough from my nervousness. Harry holds his own laughter as he swallows his grapes. But he waits for my answer before saying anything else.

" It's... for you" I sigh looking down at the invitation.

My fingertips play with the edges of it for a second before I take it off the counter. I hand to him. I watch him take it into his fingers and just hold it for a couple of seconds. It's unexpected but he knows exactly what it is. He's silent, maybe before he never expected to receive it or maybe he never wanted to it.

" Your wedding" he whispers finally looking back over at me. 

" After everything we've been through and with Roy accepting you so easily, I think that it would be really special if you came" I tell him.

Harry's silent again. He flips the envelope over almost opening it. But he decides against it.

" I understand if it's too much. I don't expect anything especially when it comes to me getting married to someone else" I warn him.

Imagining myself walking down the aisle towards him was something I had to bury years ago. I was never going to be his bride. I was never to going to wear a wedding dress for him. We would never get to experience this together.

" Well if you had to watch me get married, I guess I will have to too" he shrugs, bit it's a hint of a smile on the corner of his lips that changes the whole mood, even causing a small giggle to escape my lips

He's going to support me. After everything, he's going to support me in a way that I never expected him to. In a way that means the most.

" Even though I wish you wouldn't" he begins to say as I let out a sigh. 

I'm already looking for the door trying to plan my escape from this conversation. Partly because I don't want to hurt him with the reality and partly because I'm scared he'll change my mind.

" I know that you're making the best decision for you, and Roy too" he lets out a small smile.

" Thank you" I whisper glancing at the invitation for a second.

Harry places the invitation down on the counter beside him and looks over at me again.

" I want the absolute best for you Cai, even if that's not me" Harry says. " It's the hardest thing I've had to accept, and I've been working on it since the day I left you at your apartment."

I look down at my fingernails. The memory of him walking through that door still pains me. I think he notices because when I look back up at him, his lips are pressed into a fine line.

" But with Roy in the picture, I think it all finally started to make more sense. The way you've protected her all these years, I don't know if I could have done such an amazing job" he tells me.

" I think you've done a great job with Kian" I say.

His face warms up. His eyes brighten up a little more.

" Thank you" he whispers.

He walks over to the fridge and grabs two bottles of water. He hands me one before leaning on the kitchen island across from me.

" I also wanted to ask you something" he says as he twists the bottle cap.

" What?"

Harry lets out a deep sigh, preparing himself for his next few words.

" When Roy was born, did anyone claim as her father on her birth certificate?" he asks almost afraid of my answer.

" Of course not" I shake my head. I picture her birth certificate in the back of my closet with the father's name left blank.

He lets out a sigh of relief.

" Is that it?" I ask with a small laugh escaping my lips.

" No" he shakes his head. " I want to make things official."

I tilt my head trying to understand what he means.

" I want my name on her birth certificate" he announces.

It makes me nervous. Maybe a good kind of nervous. Butterflies fluttering in my stomach. A weight on my chest. I try to speak but my words gte caught in my throat. My cheek catches a couple of my tears.

" If that's not what you want-"

" Of course I want that" I interupt him through my tears.

I wipe my tears away as a smile forms on my lips.

" Really?" Harry asks with a crack in his voice.

" You're her father, Harry" I say.

I watch as his eyes are flooded by tears. I wish I could have seen this future back all those years ago. I wish I could have seen the kind of man he was capable of becoming. The kind of father that was nothing like his own.

" But having you on her birth certificate means that this won't be our secret anymore" I warn him. I can already seen the freny of it all. The rumors. The gossip. Roy's going to become a story none of us will be able to control.

" I don't want it to be a secret, not ever again" Harry shakes his head.

No more secrets. No more hiding. No more fear of being revealed.

" I wish we could control it" I admit.

" What do you mean?" he asks.

" I don't want all the rumors and gossip once they get a hold of her new birth certificate. I don't want them to control her story" I say.

" Then we should control it entirely" 

I wait for him to continue. He takes out his phone and grabs my hand. I stare at our hands together as he drags me into the living room. I'm only able to look away once he lets me go. My chest feels heavy. I look around the living room to see Harry rounding up the kids.

" Do you guys want to take some pictures?"he asks them

They cheer as they runs towards them. Harry tosses his phone over to me. I bring up the camera on his phone as the kids take their positions with him. After a few clicks, We switch turns. It's picture I never imagined ptaking together.

Once Harry has his phone back we sit on the couch together swiping through the pictures. Harry decided on four of them. The first one is of him with the two kids. All three of them are laughing beautifully in the picture, all so genuine. The second picture he choses is of him and Roy. They're looking at each of with teasing smile almost ready for laughter to escape their lips. It's the perfect way of explaining their relationship.

Harry continues chosing his favorites. The third one he chooses is the one Kian took of me, Harry and Roy in the middle. Harry and I both look down at her with her smiling over at her father. Even with the titled frame, it's still perfect. I'll have to steal that one to frame it in Roy's room. The forth picture is his favorite, he says. It's a picture of the kids running off. Somehow it feels magical, the both of them captured in laughter and play.

I watch Harry open up Instagram on his phone and chose all four of those picture. He begins typing his caption but I look away. Instead I watch the kids play in front of us.

Things would have been so different if he would have listened to me, if he would have answered my calls. He could have been a part of her life from the beginning. He would have heard her first cries. He would have watched her first steps. He would have laughed at her first word.

" Here"

I look over to see Harry handing me him phone. He hasn't posted it it. He wants me to read it.

It's the unexpected things that sometimes turns out to be the biggest blessings. I thought that having a son was all that I needed, until my daughter came along. That's when everything felt complete. These two angels are truy what have saved me entirely. They deserve a much better world than the one I grew up in. And they'll get it, no matter how many hoops I have to jump through. I want to say thank you to them for continously making me a better version of myself. Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for gthe love that grows every single day.

It's with tears in my eyes that I hand it back to Harry. He clicks post and we wait. Notifications immediately begin popping up on his phone. It doesn't take long before they pop up on my too. The both of us sit there for a couple of hours reading every single comment and reaction. Some of them make us smile from encouragement, laugh from funny reaction, and roll our eyes from the idiotic comments. 

But it's relief that the both of us feel once it's out in the world. All we can do now is protect her as best we can

~

One of my favorite chapter to write in the last couple of weeks! I hope you all enjoyed it! I know what you are want and are looking for, DRAMA! and trust me it's coming! Might be a snowball turned into avalanche

I also wang to thank you all for supporting this story for so long. I love these characters so much and I hope you do too!

PS

Taylor's new album is perfect, and will definitely serve as major inspo for this story!