The Accidental Wife (Emily and Julian)

on her.

"You look absolutely stunning!" I gushed as my best friend twirled in the wedding dress I made for her. It looked perfect on

"It's amazing! Thank you!" she exclaimed, giving me a tight hug. We were currently at the atelier at my house and that was the final fitting for the dress

Her wedding was in ten days, and I was pretty excited for her. Sam was the perfect man for her, and he made her really happy. She deserved someone like him, and she was the perfect partner for him.

I was glad that I was the one who played the matchmaker in their relationship, and I always made sure to tease them about that.

"Rosie, what do you think?" Maya asked my little girl who seemed a little bit sullen. She had been acting like that for the past five days and I didn't understand what was going on. I tried to get her to talk, but she refused to tell me anything. Even Julian tried to get her to talk "You look beautiful." she smiled at Maya, but I could tell that it wasn't my daughter's real smile.

"Cupcake, is everything okay?" I asked her as I knelt to her level.

"Yes." She gave me another fake smile and nodded. I heavily sighed and pulled her into a hug, and she surprised me with the way she held me. She beld

on to me tightly, as if she was scared.

"Rosie, you know you can tell me anything, right?" I said, looking at her face.

"I know." She nodded. "I'm going to play in my room."

Not wanting to force her to stay, I nodded and let her go.

"What's wrong with her? Maya wondered and I shrugged.

"I don't know what to do. She has been like that for a while. One day she was all good and the next she was in a constant bad mood" I sighed, rubbing my forehead

"Did anything happen recently?" she asked me and I shook my head.

"I even made sure that she wasn't home when Matt came over to talk to me about Julian," I told her, I had told her before what happened, but I kept some parts to myself. Precisely, I kept anything related to the way I had been feeling out

"Just take slow steps with her and she's going to open up to you," Maya assured me. "Speaking of Julian, you sure you don't mind inviting him to the wedding?"

"Yes, I don't mind. I have learned to co-exist with Julian and things have been good between us," I told her as 1 helped her out of the dress.

My phone started ringing, so I went to check who was calling

""Hey, Harper," I answered.

"Hey. How are you?" she said.

"I'm good, you?"

"All good. Listen, I'm taking the kids to the arcade, and I was wondering if it's okay with you to let Rosie join us," she requested.

"Of course! She has actually been really down bately and I don't know what's wrong with her. She doesn't want to talk, but if you can get her to, that would be amazing," I told her.

"I will do my best. Get her ready and I will pick her up in an hour" she assured me.

After she hung up, I made my way to Rosie's room and found her playing with her dolls. I sat down on the floor beside her and kissed her cheek. "What's my most favorite girl in the world doing?" I asked her. "Playing with my dolls. Do you want to play with me?" she asked me, giving me one of the dolls, specifically, her favourite one.

"Well, I'm actually here to ask you if you'd like to go to an arcade, I wondered as I took the doll from her. I gently picked her up and placed her on my lap.

"With you?" Her eyes lit up.

"No, cupcake. Auntie Harper is taking your cousins to the arcade and told me that you can tag along if you want, I told her, caressing her hair. Her eyes returned to how dull they were and I frowned. I didn't know what was wrong with her. "Rosie, why are you upset?" I asked, kissing her temple.

"Mormy, you love me, right?" I was taken aback by her question. Why would she ask me that question! Had I been neglecting her?

"I love you and I love every single thing about you," I told her, holding her close to me. "You're my entire world and there's nobody else in this world that I love more than you."

A real smile appeared on her face and she muzzled her face in my chest. "You won't be upset if I go, right?" she asked and I immediately shook my

head

"Let's pick a nice outfit, yeah!" She gave me one of those bright smiles that I absolutely adored. The two of us got up and we picked a nice together. After dressing her and fixing her hair, the two of us went downstairs. Maya was already there, making lunch for us.

Luckily. Rosie's mood improved and I was relieved that she was doing well Was all she needed was to hear me tell her I loved her? Didn't I tell her enough?

I knew that I had been busy lately, but had I not been paying her attention? Maybe I needed to take her on a vacation after the fashion show. I wanted to make it up to her. I didn't want

to be the mother who picked her career over her child. She was my number one priority and if I had to take some time off to take care of her, then I was going to do that

I spent the rest of the day with Maya, doing some things related to her wedding. Thankfully, everything was good and nothing was delayed. She had a great wedding planner, who made sure that everything was

on track. Although Maya could have left everything to the wedding planner, she chose to be involved.

"Sam is on his way," Maya told me. The three of us were going to have dinner together. Rosie was going to have dinner with her cousins, then "Harper was going to bring her home.

I checked on her twice and Harper informed me that she was happy and enjoying her time. Maybe all she needed was a day out. I hadn't taken her out in almost five days. She could have told me though. I would have taken her out if she wanted.

"I think I haven't been paying attention to Rosie," I told Sam and Maya while we were having dinner.

"You not paying attention to Rosie?" Sam chuckled. "That's just like saying Earth is flat."

I told them about her question and how she started to get bener afterwards. I also told them about how she was happy with her cousins and aunt. Clearly, I had been doing something wrong.

"Rosie is a child" Maya told me. "Maybe she watched a bad video or had a bad dream and doesn't want to talk about it." I wasn't convinced, but I just nodded.

After half an hour, Rosie came back and I loved how joyful she looked "Did you have fun?" I asked her, earning a vigorous nod from her. I was relieved that she was finally happy. "Do you want to drink hot chocolate?" I asked her. "Yes!" she excitedly said.

I ended up making hot chocolate for the four of us since Maya and Sam were still at my place. As we were watching tv, Rosie accidentally knocked my cup of hot chocolate while bringing hers.

Instantly, her eyes went wide and she looked at me with pure fear in her eyes.

ΠΕ

"M-mommy. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it. I will clean it up!" she stuttered, making her frown. Why was my daughter scared of 1 I done something that made her scared of me!

Lof me like that? Had

"Rosie, it's okay. I'm not upset with you, cupcake," I assured her, bringing her close to me. I didn't care about anything but her. Why did she freak out like that!

Maya started to clean up the coffee table while I focused on my daughter

"I didn't mean to do it," she cried. I looked at my friends in confusion and they seemed to be as confused as me. "Please don't make me leave. I will be a better girl, I promise." Tears streamed down her rosy cheeks and my frown deepened What did she mean?

"Make you leave! Cupcake, what do you mean by that?" 1 softly asked her.

"Aren't you planning on sending me away to live with Daddy, I love Daddy, but I want to live with you." She sniffed and I straightened my back for a moment. "I'm trying to be a good girl and not cause you trouble, so you won't send me away." Maya and Sam seemed more confused than ever and I was utterly baffled.

"Rosie, this isn't true. I'm not sending you anywhere. Is it because of the night you spent at Daddy's place? Did you think that I'm going to send you to live with him?" į needed to understand what made her think like that. She slowly shook her head, then looked down

"Aren't you going to make a new family and forget about me?" Her questions had me baffled. Where the hell did they come fromtCòntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

"Rosic, Mommy loves you so much and she would never let you go, Sam assured her.

"Who told you that, sweetheart?" Maya asked, placing her hand on Rosie's back.

She seemed scared and refused to look at any of us.

"Rosie, I'm always going to keep you safe. You have nothing to be scared of. Somebody has been telling you lies, and Mommy needs to know who that person is, I tried to explain to her. Slowly, she lifted her head and opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Please, cupcake. Tell me who told you, that," I begged her.

She took a shaky breath and uttered one word, "Matt"