Chapter 22

"M-Maybe we should just go to the airport instead." I turn to Ethan nervously.

"Hm? No. You said we're telling your parents, and we're here now. We can't just leave." He grabs my hand, leading me to the front door "Plus, I haven't met them yet."

I sigh, nodding.

It's not that I don't want my parents to meet Ethan. It's just that I don't want to tell them I'm married.

Or that I'm pregnant.

Ethan knocks on the door and I hear a few muffled shouts before my mother opens it, a smile on her face.

Once she sees Ethan she freezes, the smile still on her face but she blinks a couple times.

"Hello..." She says slowly, moving out the way for us to come in.

I had told her I wanted her to meet someone, though I didn't say exactly who.

Ethan walks in first, and when I pass by my mother she gives me a pointed look. I chuckle nervously, grabbing Ethan's hand quickly.

"Take off your shoes." I mumble to him, taking mine off and putting them on the shoe rack.

Ethan slips his off and I place them next to mine.

"Your father is already in the living room. Go and sit down, we got something to tell you too." My mom pats my back.

I grab Ethan's hand, leading him to the living room where my father is sitting in the single seat recliner, reading a newspaper.

When we walk in, he pushes his glasses further up his nose and stares at us as we sit down.

"Oh my. You done brought a white boy in my house." He folds up his newspaper, crossing his arms.

"Shut your mouth! You know damn well this ain't your house!" My mom scoffs, walking in with a tray of drinks.

"Do you like tea?" I ask Ethan quietly.

"Sure." He nods so I hand him a cup.

I grab one for myself as well, the two of us thanking my mother before raising the cup to our lips.

"Me and your momma got a divorce." My father blurts out, and Ethan starts choking on his tea.

I set the cup down, staring in shock at both my parents.

"You're a damn fool. You ain't supposed to say it like that." My mom shoves a cup of tea in his hands before sitting down.

"Why? You wanna make it all nice and pretty? Just say it straight out. Right Nova?" My father looks at me.

I knew my parents didn't have the best relationship when I was younger.

Actually, I expected them to get divorced back then. But I guess I had just assumed that their relationship had gotten better since I didn't see them arguing anymore.

"Baby, we been thinking about this for a while. But we thought it'd be better if we stayed together until you got out the house. So don't think we just did it on a whim." My mom says softly.

"Oh." Is all I can say.

"So, what did you want to tell us?" She asks, looking at me worriedly. "Is this boy your boyfriend? You wanted to introduce him to us?"

"And don't pay this man any mind to the comment he made earlier about you being white." She waves Ethan off. "He just a damn fool."

"You the one who was married to this fool for 20 years!" My father grumbles.

"All you do is disrupt the peace. That was the worst 20 years of my life." Mom rolls her eyes, the two of my parents letting out a light laugh as they insult each other.

I stay quiet until they finish, and Ethan takes one of my hands in his.

"So, this boy your boyfriend?"

"Husband." I mumble.

"Speak up baby. That mumble thing isn't good for you."

"He's my husband." I say clearly.

"Oh. Husband. What's your na- excuse me?!" My mother looks at me like I'm crazy.

"You done lost your damn mind." My father crosses his arms after putting his cup down.

Well, I might as well rip off all the bandaids.

"And I'm pregnant."

My mom lets out an estranged cry, putting her head in her hands, her cup nowhere to be found.

"And we're going to move to Italy within the next few years!" Ethan adds excitedly.

I put my hand over my mouth, stifling a laugh.

He sounded way too happy to say that when my parents are clearly in distress.

"You ruined your life! What is wrong with you?" My mom cries. "No, it's your fault!" She turns to my father.

"Because you always wanted to start some arguments in front of her. Now she just settled for whoever! And she didn't even invite us to the wedding. She hates us!"

I roll my eyes, taking my hands from Ethan and crossing my arms as my parents argue with each other. This is so embarrassing. Ethan moves his arm behind me, placing it on my back.

I guess...I can't really be sad that my parents are getting divorced. But I feel incredibly guilty that they only stayed together because of me.

"Can you guys please stop arguing?" I sigh, standing up. "Ethan and I have to go. I'll come get my stuff out the house soon."

With Ethan pitching the idea of having another wedding reception at least, and my parents saying they'll look forward to getting to know him, we leave the house and head for the airport.

Right before we left, however, my mom made it very clear that she was not done talking to me by the very stern gaze she sported.

"They were pretty nice! I'm looking forward to meeting them again." Ethan puts his hand on my leg as we drive.

I just hum in response, crossing my arms as I look out on the scenery.

"They also didn't seem mad! They knew you were an adult now, or so it seemed.

"Ethan, my mom said I ruined my life and all my parents did was argue like usual. I wouldn't say it was a good first meeting." I sigh, looking at him. "And that's them on a good day."

"My parents fought really badly too. It's okay, I understand that." He squeezes my thigh. "Do you think you ruined your life?"

I sink further into my seat, thinking.

I don't believe I've ruined my life. But I do wish I thought about it a bit more before just getting married on a whim.

After talking to my parents...

"I'm just scared." I admit.

"Of what? He asks softly, looking over at me as we reach a red light.

"I don't want to get divorced. I don't want to spend years with someone I thought I'd last a lifetime with." I sigh, rubbing my face with one of my hands. "I love you a lot. And I know you love me too. But what if we wake up one day and that's gone? We've both grown up around bad marriages. What if we're susceptible to them too?"

The light turns green, and Ethan lets out a heavy breath as he drives.

"Babe...don't you think that since we know how bad some marriages are, we'd try our best to make ours better?" He asks. "I have no doubt in my mind that I'll love you even after I pass on. And I can promise you that if things ever get rocky between us, I'll do everything in my power to help fix it. Whether that be signing us up for marriage counseling or something else. I told you that I wanted you to be the first of many things for me. I also should have told you that I plan for you to be my lasts of everything too."

I close my eyes, slowly nodding my head.

He's right. I shouldn't think negative things like that anyways. After all we've been through, I can't see us drifting away from each other either.

"Man. I really love you." I laugh, my mood changing instantly.

Ethan glances at me, practically beaming. He grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips as he kisses my knuckles, then my ring.

"I love you too."

~

My mom was definitely wrong. If anything, I made my life 1,000x better by marrying Ethan. As we traveled through Greece, then visited different cities in Italy, I've never felt more loved in my entire life.

Ethan said before that he believes God brought me to him, but I think I'm the one who lucked out.

I'm so in love with this man. I don't want this to end.

(And that's it!

I started this back in the later months of last year before taking a really long break. I lost motivation and just couldn't pick this back up for the life of me lol. Then school got really busy as well and it was a mess.

But, one or two of you had stuck around and for that I'm very grateful :) thank you so much for reading!