Chapter 35- Raphael's Captive- Final

Five Years Later

“Love always finds a way. Years may pass, people may change but love always remains the same. As for these two, they knew their journey had only just begun, yet they couldn’t wait to see where this road called life would take them. The end.”

Tami beamed brightly at her husband as she read the finishing line of her book. It had been quite a hassle getting it there, but she was proud that she did it.

Raphael returned her smile wholeheartedly as he gently caressed her shoulder, but the glint in his eyes told Tami that he was about to make a joke about something—something that she is not likely to like.

“Hhhmm. It was great and all, but I still don’t like that the male lead went to prison for four years,” he said as his smile grew wider.

Tami glared up at him and used the stack of paper to slap his chest.

“It’s realistic and it gives the end an unexpected twist. Not everyone can get away with kidnap like ‘The Raphael De Léon’, you know?”

“Sshh.” He placed his index over her lips, and she playfully bit it to get rid of it. “I’m just kidding, mi nena. I love it.”

“And I love you.” Tami’s smile only grew as she connected her lips with Raphael’s. Five years and his kiss still feels like magic every time.

A lot had happened and a lot had changed, but their love was the only thing that remained the same.

“Ew! Mama, papa. I told you that kissing is yucky!” The four year old waddled from the sand and under the beach umbrella to pry his parents apart.

They both beamed down at the little troublemaker as he scowled at his life givers. He has always been like this. He had his father’s seriousness and his mother’s stubbornness and determination. But above all, he was the sweetest baby they both had ever known.

“Lucas, I kiss your mommy because I love her,” Raphael said as he ruffled the toddler’s hair.

“I don’t care,” Lucas said stubbornly as he launched himself in Tami’s arms. “Only I get to kiss her.”

Raphael shook his head with a chuckle as Tami gave him a pointed look. Lucas also inherited Raphael’s jealousy, and always got defensive whenever Raphael ‘kissed his mama without his permission.’

In any other aspect, Lucas and Raphael had the closest father-son relationship. But when it came to Tami’s attention and love, the four year old wanted it all.

“Okay little man. You win,” Raphael joked as he kissed Lucas’ head. With a satisfying smile, Lucas wobbled from his mother’s lap to resume his playing in the sand.

The morning was cool and felt like the perfect day to have a beach day, and so they decided to take a trip down to their ‘private beach’ as Tami likes to call it.

Life over the past five years has literally been a dream come true for Tami.

After they won Raphael’s preliminary hearing and everything seemed like it was back on track, Tami discovered that she was pregnant only a week before she was supposed to leave for medical school.

At first it was an extremely scary time for her, but Raphael assured her time and time again that they would make it together. That helped a lot, but there were still so many factors to consider like school, her family and her dreams.

Even though she finished graduate school, medical school had always been her goal, so Tami knew she didn’t want to give it up. But after Tami finally told her mom and sister the day before she was supposed to leave for California, Sarah was surprisingly supportive and suggested that she take a gap year to have her baby.

Sarah also offered to keep baby Lucas for Tami until she finishes medical school, and Amy was also 100% ready to play the aunt role to her new nephew.

Raphael knew he didn’t need anymore affirmation to make her his wife. He knew that Tami was his life-long partner, and he didn’t want to spend another minute without her bearing his name. After making the plans with her mom and sister, Raphael took Tami on a ‘vacation’ to Paris, where he popped the big question and presented Tami with the most gorgeous diamond she had ever seen.

They got married that same month with only a few friends and family, yet it was the most magical moment they had ever had. It had been on their honeymoon night that Lucas gave Tami her first kick. It was then that she knew that she had found her entire heart in the form of a baby.

As Lucas grew inside her and she finally grasped the fact that she was having a little human of her own, Tami knew she couldn’t stay away from her child for four years, and soon her son became her main priority and biggest dream.

Having Lucas was the best part of her life. Even Raphael’s heart the tiny human had stolen.

He provided both his parents with so much joy and peace, that they felt forever inclined to give him the best life that he could ever have. And so Tami took him to California with her, where the three of them lived in a house Raphael had bought, only five minutes away from campus.

At first it was only a trial period. Tami wanted to see if she could be a mom and a student, and if being a student demanded too much of her mom time, she was willing to drop it.

But oddly she balanced perfectly, and they both raised little Lucas in the best way they could.

Raphael had been a great dad. He did everything that his own father never did for him, while running and expanding his enterprises. Lucas had never lacked love. He had his parents, his grandmother, his aunt and even Mrs. Garcia to give him all the love in the world.

Everyone adored him. He was the light that drove them all back to utter happiness.

After Tami graduated medical school, they returned t Grand Bahama to the house where it all began. To Tami, it felt like home and to Raphael, home was anywhere where his wife and son were.

It had been like that ever since, and they were completely happy.

It so happened that in Tami’s final year of medical school on Lucas’ third birthday, she finally decided that she would write this book, even though she didn’t know the first thing about writing. But she decided that she had read enough books to give it a shot, and writing this story was definitely something she’d love to do.

And so she did.

She finished the first draft only days ago, where she read a few portions to Raphael each day. They had just ended it, and even though Tami had no clue what the next step would be, she was glad that she crossed such a milestone, and wrote an entire story about it.

“Do you know what I was thinking about?” Tami asked in a soft voice, never once taking her eyes off Lucas as he shoveled more sand into a little red bucket.

Raphael, who was watching the baby too, turned to the love of his life to give her his full attention. “No, what?”

“That day when you fell at camp and I helped you, I was only eight, but I felt like it couldn’t have only been your clumsiness that made you fall. It was destiny, wasn’t it?”

Instead of answering, Raphael smiled at her as he reached over to caress her cheek.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if you said it was anything else. That little girl with big pink ribbons and the kindest smile changed my life forever.”

“I had pink ribbons?” she asked as a small simper grew on her lip. Raphael simply chuckled, knowing that the memory was clear in his head as he held her hand and placed a lingering kiss on her knuckles.

It was then that Tami’s eyes drifted towards her wedding band, and even after seeing it everyday for the past five years, she had just registered why he had chosen her a pink diamond.

Her smile grew wider at the very thought.

“My ring…” she whispered in an almost inaudible voice. But it was amazing how he would’ve gotten something so meaningful and sweet—stemming from the very first time they met here on this island.

“It only took you five years to notice.”

Her lips quivered as the image of her husband became blurry as tears filled her eyes.

“I love you so much, Raphael.”

“I love you even more, my queen. Forever,” he said with all his heart as he embraced her wholeheartedly. Soon after they felt a tiny body wiggling himself between them, but this time, he hugged them both together.

“It’s okay papa. You can kiss her just this once,” Lucas said as he wrapped his tiny arms around the two of them. “Only because I love you both too.”

Tami and Raphael met each other’s gazes at their son’s words, and they knew, just knew, that wherever this life takes them, they would be okay, because they will always have each other.

Always.

The END.