We stop at Snowflake Gelato on our way home. Both of us getting a different flavor so we can share. Harry orders kiwi banana and I decide to try something completely different; white chocolate and rose water. Once Harry has finished paying, we head out the door to continue our walk.

"What the hell is white chocolate and rose water? It sounds like it's made from a bath bomb."

Harry giggles and shakes his head at me.

"I don't know, live a little, try something different Mr. Fruity Gelato."

I slap him on the shoulder teasingly. I take a quick taste and it's like the flavors are making love with my taste buds.

"Baby try it, it's delightful."

Apprehensively he leans forward opening his mouth accepting the spoon I'm offering him. Sticking his tongue out of his mouth before I place the spoon in. It's simply adorable watching him eat, he always does that.

"Mmm. Forgive me for doubting you, that's really good!"

He raises his eyebrows and smirks in delight.

"I stand corrected, this is a great choice love. Here try mine."

I try the kiwi banana and not exaggerating, it's fantastic as well. I think our little treat has created a deep-rooted appreciation for the Italian dessert.

"So good!"

"I told you."

Playfully he swipes some of the gelato on his fingertip and taps me on the end of my nose with it. Deep chuckles erupt at the surprised look on my face. He's continued to be playful throughout the day, yet somehow, he continues to catch me off guard.

He quickly uses his napkin to clean my face off, then grins triumphantly.

"If that's not the most cliché romantic move ever, I don't know what is. You're such a goof." I pause plotting my revenge. "Oh, Harry I forgot to tell you something."

He stops walking to pay complete attention to whatever it is that I have to say. I've distracted him to retaliate against his gelato attack. Ha, now Harry has white chocolate and rose water on his nose.

"How dare you woman!"

I squeal as I run ahead of him and dart into the lobby of our loft. Catching up to me and wrapping one hand around my waist while still balancing his frozen treat he leans in giving me an Eskimo kiss. Apologetically he rests his forehead on mine. We both giggle to ourselves and he places a sweet peck on my lips.

"Here you go love, let me clean you up."

He quickly cleans my face then his own before we step onto the lift to go upstairs.

When we get to the front door Harry unlocks it, and as always, he's a gentleman letting me go in first. The moment I walk into the living room I drop my gelato on the floor. I'm instantaneously sick to my stomach.

"What the fuck is going on?"

My voice is shrill with distress, anger, pain, and frustration. Perched on the couch is Harry's half naked, model, ex-girlfriend. Black stilettos, black lace thong and matching bra. She looks like a fucking call girl. If I wasn't about ready to pass out, I'd go over and snatch her by the hair and drag her out of here. I only know who she is because of the paparazzi pictures I've seen of them together, it's not like he ever discussed her.

Harry hasn't walked into the living room yet, but he rushes to my side worried when he hears me scream.

"Baby what's wrong, what's going..."

His voice trails off when he realizes the reason for my distress.

"Willow this isn't what it looks like, I swear! I don't know how she got in here."

She sits on the couch with a shitty grin on her face, knowing she's gotten a rise out of me.

"Really Harry? Really? Because it looks like your ex-girlfriend who's probably now your side chick let herself in and is patiently waiting for you to come home so you can fuck her brains out."

"Willow no..."

He grits his teeth when he directs his attention towards her.

"Veronica what the fuck is going on here, why are you in my house? You seriously haven't been my girlfriend in over a year. Who the fuck let you in?"

I'm shaking and about ready to faint on the floor. She stands up and begins walking towards us.

"Baby don't say that, you remember when I came to LA last month? It didn't seem like we were broken up then. You remember when you fucked me in the recording studio?" She coos.

Her fake innocent tone is like nails on a chalkboard. My anger continues to grow, and I want to punch that smug look off her face.

"You're fucking crazy. That never happened." He turns to me, staring, pleading for me to believe him then he turns back to her. "I haven't seen you since we broke up last year. And I broke up with your skanky ass because I caught you screwing your manager. Get the fuck out!"

Wow, I've never heard him talk to anyone like that. She reaches in to touch his face and he recoils from her like she's infected with the plague. I feel like I'm going to throw up, so I run towards our bedroom and lock the door. I hardly make it to the toilet before I'm retching my guts out.

I keep spilling the contents of my stomach until I have no energy left. I stumble to the sink to brush my teeth to get the taste of what I can only assume is the flavor of betrayal off my tongue. I need to rid myself of the acidic reminder of the shit storm I'm in the middle of. When I finish, I become dizzy and fall onto the marble floor. My body feels feverish and the cool stone feels good on my skin, it gives me only a sliver of physical relief.

I can still hear Harry screaming at Veronica in the other room. The only thing on my mind is how dare he, he's just pissed because he got caught. I can't believe he would do this to me. Why would he go through all this trouble to propose and play happy family with me and the girls if he was still screwing his ex-girlfriend. He didn't need us in his life, as a matter of fact, he fought to keep us in his life. This doesn't make sense. Why??? I can't think straight, nothing in my head is right.

One thing's for sure; I haven't heard Harry yell very often, but he's absolutely enraged. I don't really want to hear what he has to say, but I feel I need to listen anyway. I have no energy in my body, so I just crawl my way to the bedroom door and lay there alone listening to their conversation.

Harry is now crying and sobbing uncontrollably. I hate hearing him cry like that because it makes me want to hold him, but the thought of him touching me right now makes me sick to my stomach all over again.

"Veronica why are you doing this to me? Please, you know that none of this is true. I'm begging you, I'm in love with her, I just proposed. Willow and her daughters are my life, please don't take that away from me." He continues sobbing but she doesn't say a word she just listens.

I hear Harry on the other side of the door sliding to the floor. Without seeing him I know he's crouched with his long legs pulled to his chest and he's crying. With every bit of my soul, I want to believe him, but in my past believing desperate declarations hasn't worked out well in my favor. Yet I can't resist resting my palm against the door as if I am laying my hand on his back to comfort him.

We both sit on either side of the door crying when I hear her heels clicking on the floor coming closer to Harry.

"Veronica please stay away from me, don't touch me."

She pulls in a long breath.

"Harry, I'm sorry, I can't believe I agreed to do this. This is more fucked up than when I cheated on you."

"Agreed to do what?"

I can hear the anger rising in his voice again. She stands quietly for a few moments, probably gathering the courage to confess what she was put up to.

"I got the key for your place from Gem. She said she wanted me to get rid of Willow. She thinks she wants you for your money and to be a replacement daddy for her kids. She did this because she knows you'll never listen to her if you think you're in love."

"This isn't something I have to think about. I am in love with her."

Now she's crying as well, as if she has any right to be upset.

"I've fucked up Harry, I'm sorry. I may be a bitch and I was a horrible girlfriend, but I've never seen you so heartbroken. I can see you're in love with her. Here, take the key, I'll let myself out."

Harry stands up and I hear the heels of his Chelsea boots on the hard floor. He's still crying although there's new emotions infused with his tears this time. I know he's brokenhearted that his sister would ever do such a thing.

"First of all, go get some clothes on, and second you're going in there and apologizing to Willow. You have no idea what she's been through. Stop apologizing to me, she's the one who deserves your apology, although I can't blame her if she doesn't believe you or accept it." She doesn't say anything. "Right fucking now Veronica!"

"Yeah, ok..."

***

Harry knocks softly against the door. "Baby open the door please. We need to talk." He waits for a moment and I say nothing. "Sweetheart please."

He's pleading with me and our hearts are so knitted together I know tears are streaming down his face even through the door. I can't hear him crying anymore I can just feel it. Those tears feel like thousands of angry talons ripping my heart to shreds.

I really need to set my pride aside and open the damn door. I heard what she said and yet I'm still scared because that's my default in situations like this. But listening to the pain in his voice is too much for me to handle. So, while I'm still lying on the floor I reach up and unlock the door then I collapse back on the ground.

The door slowly opens, and when Harry sees me, he gets on the floor to cradle me in his lap. My body is too weak, and I guess I'm not emotionally strong enough to resist. He strokes my hair and keeps repeating how much he loves me. He even checks to see if the ring is still on my finger. He breathes a sigh of relief when he's reassured that it's right where it should be, on my left ring finger.

Veronica comes near me and kneels on the floor beside me. I may feel small right now, but my words come out like poisonous venom as I hiss my detest towards her.

"Don't you dare fucking touch me."

She pulls her hands away placing them on her lap. It's in this moment I notice more details of her appearance. It makes me sad because her body looks malnourished, it's a shame anyone feels the need to starve themselves to feel pretty enough to grace a magazine cover. You can tell she doesn't eat and that's heartbreaking. Except for her personality flaws, she's gorgeous just the way she is.

I think her lack of self-confidence is what made her vulnerable enough to agree to this little charade. People don't do things like this if they're feeling good inside about themselves. At this point I'm less angry and more hurting for her personal situation. Society's idea of what beauty is, is completely unfair. It's obvious she's a victim to the unrealistic standards set by this cruel world.

This is a hot button topic for me, I've always lacked the confidence in my personal appearance. Harry is still trying to help me accept myself as the beautiful woman he sees. I can spot someone else who suffers from these same issues from a mile away, which makes it extremely hard to be angry with her right now.

"Willow..."

She's wringing her boney fingers in her lap; her nerves have clearly gotten the best of her. It continues to be obvious that she isn't as confident as she tries to portray herself to be, especially since she allowed herself to get involved in this mess to begin with. I know everything she said was a lie, but I want to hear her admit it. Harry is right, I do deserve an apology.

"I don't even know what to say. I fucked up, none of what I said was true. Someone asked me to do this, they wanted me to split you and Harry up."

"Who the fuck would do that? Hmm?"

I know damn well who's responsible for this, but I want someone to tell me to my face.

"That's something I think I should let Harry tell you, it's not my place. But he isn't lying to you, we haven't seen each other in over a year. Once he caught me cheating, he left and never looked back, and I can't blame him. I never deserved him and I'm not a threat to your relationship in any way."

I scoff at her words. It's obvious that stung a little but she continues with her apology.

"I'm sorry Willow, I'm fucking ashamed of myself. I don't deserve your forgiveness, but please don't run away from Harry. He loves you, there's no denying that. Anyone who sees the way he looks at you would know, if they can't see it then they're blind."

"You're right you should be ashamed of yourself. But you should also be thankful I'm a better person than to refuse your apology. I love Harry, and more importantly my children love Harry. I can't even bare to think how brokenhearted they'd be if you would've ruined our relationship."

The thought of hurting Lark and Lily obviously pains him as much as it does me. He holds me even tighter and kisses my forehead over and over to console me.

Harry finally speaks up.

"I'm sorry baby, I'm truly sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for Harry. You didn't have anything to do with this. I trust you and I never should've believed this shitty acting job in the first place."

"I know angel, but I'm sorry about who put her up to this. I know you heard Veronica and I know how badly you wanted Gemma to approve of you. I'm sorry." He sobs into my hair, not only because she hurt me, but because she hurt him. He loves her so much and all he wanted was for his sister to be happy for him and to give me a chance.

I wiggle off his lap and cup his cheeks.

"Don't cry love, I'm gonna be ok. We'll figure this out.' I kiss him lightly on his cheek.

I turn to Veronica, prepared to be the bigger person I speak to her in a kindhearted tone.

"Veronica it's obvious what you did was inexcusable, but I'm the kind of person who looks past what's directly in front of me. I can tell this isn't who you really are, use this as a lesson for yourself. Do whatever it takes to feel better about who you are as a person. When you're happy inside you won't feel the need to take away someone else's happiness because you'll have your own and that'll be more than enough."

"Wow, I can see why Harry loves you so much. He found someone whose heart is as big as his own. For what it's worth, I really am sorry Willow. And Harry...don't ever let her go, she's a keeper. Don't forget Gemma does love you, and when she meets Willow, she'll know that she's the one for you."

"Thanks Veronica I hope you're right. But please it's time for you to go."

"Yeah, I'll let myself out."

***

I still don't have much stamina in my body; the emotional roller coaster of today and the travel must have zapped all my energy. Somehow, I find a way to stand up and pull Harry to the bed with me.

"C'mere love, let me hold you."

He's still crying, and he looks like he's in physical pain.

"I'm supposed to be the one holding you, that's my job."

"Hey, we're a team, right? You're hurting...let me take care of you."

"But you're hurting too."

"Stop arguing with me. Yes, I'm bruised a bit and I wanted more than anything to make a good impression on Gemma, but she's your sister and I can't imagine how hurt you must be. I don't have siblings of my own so I can't say I completely understand, but I know how much you love her."

"I feel so betrayed Will. Never in a million years would I have expected her to do something so cold. It's just not like her."

"Love makes us do crazy things Harry and who knows why she ever thought this was ok. But we'll get through this. Give her some time."

"Oh my god I need to call Mum. I need to tell her what happened. There's no way we can do a family dinner tonight."

"Harry you don't need to tell her about this now. Just tell her I'm sick or something. She's going to be pissed at Gemma and I'm not interested in starting a civil war in your family tree."

"I understand where you're coming from. But Mum needs to know, and honestly if anyone can get through to Gem it'll be her. Trust me."

"Ok baby I trust you. But first, can you do me one thing?"

"Anything darling."

"Considering we were out in public; I didn't get the wildly romantic kiss I deserved when you proposed to me. I think you at least owe me that." I smile cheekily.

Harry's signature stare filled with deep adoration pulls me in like a one-sided tug of war. He laces our fingers and gently lays me on the bed resting himself between my legs. He brushes his fingertips along my cheekbone as he comes in to rest his lips on mine. I've never known a sweeter kiss, or such an amazing feeling. His tongue swipes past my lips playfully wandering around all the places he's memorized. My tongue returns the veracity of his. It brings literal tears to my eyes.

Harry breaks the connection and displays his dimpled grin.

"You're going to be my wife." We both giggle. "My wife, and I'm going to be your husband." He keeps repeating his words as if he can't believe this sort of happiness exists, let alone this happiness for himself. "My god I'm so happy."

"Happy isn't a strong enough word, I'm elated."

"I really am sorry you had to deal with all that shit. I know how gut wrenching it is to feel like you've been cheated on. Even though I had nothing to do with it, it still hurts me when you're in pain. I love you Willow, thank you for believing in me and thank you for making a promise to be my wife."

"I will never stop believing in you. And I will never stop loving you."

I smile lazily at him while twirling a few of his curls around my index finger.

"As much as I want, dare I say need, to lay here in between your thighs I should call Mum really quick."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I let out an exasperated breath when he climbs off my body. He leans down to kiss my forehead.

Harry calls his mum and the conversation goes as well as expected. She's furious, not with Harry, but she's furious with her daughter whom she's raised to act more proper.

"Mum I'm not trying to make you angry with Gem, but you're the only one she'll listen to. I love her Mum, but she's went too far."

"Well I am angry Harry, this is unacceptable. Take care of Willow and I'll try and talk some sense into your sister. I love you Harry, and I love Willow too. Can I speak to her?"

"You're on speaker."

"Willow I'm so sorry love."

"Anne seriously there's no need for you to apologize, you've done nothing wrong. It doesn't excuse her behavior, but if Gemma is anything like how Harry describes her then she's just worried for her little brother."

"You're such a doll Willow and you have such a kind heart. Thank you for being patient and I'll talk to her. I love you and your precious girls. I don't want you going anywhere. Do you hear me?"

"Of course, it's going to take more than this to get rid of me. I love you too Anne."

"I'll call later and check on you both."

"Thanks Mum, I love you."

"You too love."

After we finish the call Harry smiles and thanks me repeatedly.

"I love you, future wife."

"I love you too, future husband."

The word husband is all it takes, and Harry settles himself in between my legs again.

"Now, where was I?"

He tiptoes his fingers along my sides and peppers kisses on my neck while grinding his body against mine.

"Look at you, you've picked right where you left off. Can you finish what you started please?"

"Ohh gladly, I dare you to try and stop me."

A/N Please remember this is a fictional story. I love Gemma and this is in no way my opinion of her or how I think she would ever behave. This situation is a critical part to the story and there's a method to my madness. That being said, keep reading, enjoy and get ready for the next few chapters. After this one we have three left, then the sequel will start. I love you babes, thank you for all your support. It means the world to me, and I'm forever grateful. Don't forget to vote and comment. I love interacting with you all, the conversations are a lot of fun for me.

All my love ~ Em