"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out." - Roy Croft
"Special occasion?" Sophia light-heartedly acknowledged the alcohol-free Champagne.
Her sarcastic tone earned Sophia a scowl from her mother. "I thought you had plans to make yourself scarce tonight." Emily had arranged for Jacob and Hannah to sleepover at Nolan's house for the evening, which practically promised at least one night of peace and quiet. "I intend to be basking in the happiness of nineteen years with your father... alone."
Sophia rolled her eyes, "Relax, mom. Chris is on his way over."
The sound of the front door bolted shut announced Daniel's return home. The commute in and out of the city was killer but, also, necessary. He moaned, in appreciation of the homemade aromas that welcomed him into the house. Daniel automatically honed into the preparation zone and examined Emily's extravaganza. He kissed his wife tenderly on the cheek, "I am..." his mouth slowly drifted to her neck, "Starved."
Their teenage daughter visibly cringed at the public display of affection, "I'll see you two later. Happy anniversary!"
Her congratulations did little to sway her father. "Whoa! Hold on, hold on... where are you going?"
"I'm having dinner with Chris..." she replied, innocent and light, before she muttered the additional words, "...and his parents."
Daniel's eyes widened into an 'I-told-you-so' expression, directed predominantly toward his wife, and Emily rushed to mediate the conversation, before he inevitably caused an argument. "The Porter's invited you for dinner and you didn't think it necessary to consult your father and I beforehand?"
"Why should I?" Sophia demanded, incredulous at the suggestion.
"Because we're your parents," her father contended, equally as offended in his response. Though the historical tension between the Grayson and Porter families had never been laid out on the table, Sophia had the wits and knowledge enough to recognise her parents unhappiness.
"Oh, please!" Their daughter dramatically rolled her eyes, "We all know, if I was dating any other guy on the planet, I wouldn't have to run anything past either of you! It's not even the fact that I'm going to dinner with Chris that bothers you - it's the fact that I'll be having dinner with his father." Chris and Sophia had discussed their parents' history at length, if only to wrap their heads around the love-triangle. "...which is only a problem because a hundred years ago, mom kissed him!"
Emily reached boiling point and her intervention ensued. "Alright, that's enough. Sophia," she pointed toward the front door. "Go! I want you home by midnight, at the latest." Sophia obligingly grabbed her jacket and stormed from the house, leaving an awkward silence between her parents in her wake. Emily stretched and twisted the kitchen towel, "Charlie called earlier. She said she couldn't get through at the office."
"The phones have been down all day." Daniel stoically replied, before he completely lost his cool, "Damn it!"
Her husband physically blew off steam and she rubbed his back, "She'll cool off." Eventually, so would he.
"It's not exactly the happy anniversary we had planned, huh?" Daniel down-heartedly reached for the bouquet of red roses he had purchased on his drive home. The small show of appreciation didn't seem nearly enough. "Here... happy anniversary."
Emily smiled, more than satisfied with the gift. "Well, I don't think we can say things have ever really gone as planned for us, now have they?" The couple couldn't prevent light laughter and Emily smoothed one hand along his jawline. "But I like it that way."
"Do you -" Daniel stopped himself, the way he always did, but the tilt of her head prompted him further, for the first time ever. "Do you ever wonder how our lives would have turned out, if we didn't get married?" Emily lowered her head, because she had witnessed exactly how her life would have played out; if she hadn't have married Daniel, she would have been Amanda Porter. In retrospect view, being Mrs. Porter sounded so boring.
"Is this because of what Sophia said -"
"Answer the question," Daniel forcefully demanded, then softened his tone. "Please." His thumb circled the diamond ring that adorned her left hand. "The day you broke off our engagement, you said you loved me despite the Grayson name, and that I didn't really fall in love with you. What did you mean?"
"Oh, Daniel..." Emily nervously squinted and avoided her husband's eye contact. The question never mattered enough for him to ask before, or perhaps he simply didn't have the nerve; either way, Emily had started to relax with the impression that he never would. "You're going back years." She visibly struggled for an explanation. "Before I met you, my past was troubled, to say the least. When we became a couple, you painted me as this perfect woman, someone so together that eventually that's what I became." It was a half-truth, at least.
"And..."
"And... it made me nervous," she confessed. "I didn't know if Emily Grayson was the woman I was meant to be if my parents hadn't died in that accident." It was so evident he failed to understand her viewpoint, his frown so heavy that the lines on his forehead deepened. "Daniel, I was a different person before I met you. I was hateful, vengeful. I resented normal people, who lived happy lives with their families because mine had been so unfairly ripped away from me. I wanted justice. I could have embarked on the most self-destructive path but you loved me through it, and I loved you. I didn't think I could love. I didn't think anyone could love me."
"You've always been worthy of it," Daniel reassured his wife, with a squeeze of the hand.