Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 1045 : Holding Onto Strength and Victory

Chapter 1045: Chapter 1045 : Holding Onto Strength and Victory

*Bianca*

I might have been stuck in the hospital but I couldn’t be more at peace, which I never would have been able to expect considering I was constantly being poked and prodded by the medical staff.

The constant beeping of the machines and the antiseptic smell have become a strange comfort though since I received the news that me and my babies would be discharged from the hospital in the next few days.

It ended up being another week before we could be released but I found that I didn’t mind too much. I had my children and we were going to recover just fine.

That was all I could ask for.

If I was being honest anyway, I needed the extra few days to just be with my babies. When we returned home, things would change. I would have to figure out what came next with my life. Would I go back to school? Would I get a job?

I didn’t want to think about any of that stuff. I just wanted to cuddle my babies and be with them.

In the hospital, that’s all I was required to do.

It was the kind of break that I didn’t think I would need postpartum.

The last few days were filled with bliss. I smiled down at the two little beings that I held against my chest. They were both nursing. Breastfeeding was a little difficult for me at first. My daughter wasn’t strong enough to nurse on her own for the first few days. It was only the last couple of days that she finally latched on and suckled alongside her brother.

I couldn’t believe that I had been a mother for over a week now. The very thought still caused a flutter of butterflies to go through me. I already loved my babies so much. They were everything to me.

I dipped my head so I could press a soft kiss to the top of my son’s head and then to my daughter’s. They were both growing so much already. My heart constricted at the thought. I was just glad to see that my baby girl was growing. She had been so small when she was born, and so fragile. I felt much more comfortable holding her now that she had visibly grown some.

My son was growing as well and at a much faster rate. Even after just a week, I felt like he was a bit longer. It might have been my imagination but I was already getting the feeling that he would grow up to be a tall young man.

I became overwhelmed as I started to imagine what they would be like when they were older. There was so much love and excitement but also a touch of fear. I wanted to be the best mom for them. I vowed to be encouraging and loving as they grew up.

I decided that I shouldn’t think about all of that now. I needed to enjoy this time with them. They definitely wouldn’t be newborns forever. Most of the moms I spoke to said to stay present and treasure this time. It would be over before I knew it.

I shut my eyes, just savoring this moment with my babies, relishing in the feel of them against me. I became overwhelmed with emotion almost immediately and before I knew it, I was singing an Italian lullaby that my mom used to sing whenever I had trouble falling asleep.

I heard footsteps enter the room, and my head snapped up. I smiled when I met Leo’s gaze. He was watching us with a gentle grin on his face.

“Don’t stop,” he requested.

I hadn’t even realized that I had paused my singing until he mentioned it. I obliged and resumed, letting the words of love and laughter fill the hospital room. Leo approached us slowly as if moving too quickly would cause this warm moment to be ruined.

Leo stood by the bed and lowered himself down on the edge, sitting beside me so he could wrap an arm around my shoulders. He shut his eyes and then rested his cheek on top of my head, just listening to me sing. Once I was done with the final note, he shifted so that he could press a soft kiss to my lips.

“That was beautiful, love,” he murmured when he pulled away. He sighed deeply then and brushed the pad of his thumb across my cheek.

I frowned up at him. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

Leo shook his head. “Everything is perfect,” he assured me. He looked down at our babies and sucked in a breath. “I’m just so glad to see all three of you doing so well.”

“It’s all thanks to you,” I said, my throat constricting as more emotions flooded me. I shuddered when I thought about just how close I probably was to not recovering from the difficult birth of my children.

It made me want to cling to Leo even harder.

I smiled when my mom entered the room. She smiled softly at us before hurrying over so that she could hug me tightly and then give each of my babies a kiss on the head. “My grandbabies are so precious,” she cooed. Then she looked over at us and raised an eyebrow. “I hope that you’ve come up with names so that I can address them properly.” She winked.

Although she was teasing, it was still true that we needed to come up with names. It was the last thing that was keeping us in the hospital since the birth certificates still needed to be signed.

I gave my mom a sheepish look and then glanced at Leo, who shrugged helplessly. I glanced back at my mom. “We’re still working on it,” I told her.

She shook her head. “I’ll leave you two alone so you can get on it,” she said but then she smiled gently. “I know how important choosing a name can be. Yours didn’t exactly come easy to me either but once it did, I knew it was the only one for you.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said.

Mom nodded. “I’ll go get you some breakfast,” she said to me. She patted Leo on the shoulder affectionately and then took her leave.

“I haven’t been able to give their names much thought,” Leo informed me apologetically once Mom was gone.

I nodded in understanding. I was having the same issue. I felt a little guilty about it but coming up with names just hadn’t been high on the priority list, especially next to their health as our daughter struggled through her first week of life.

We were both officially out of those woods just a few days ago and since then, I have been focused on just being with them and nurturing them. Leo and I spent hours each day just staring at them, marveling at the two perfect bundles that we created together.

Friends and family who have visited me in the hospital all gave me their suggestions and while most of them were completely fine and beautiful names, none of them really stood out to me.

As I looked up at Leo and just once again marveled at how far we had come and how much we had been through, I suddenly had an idea.

“I think I’ve come up with the perfect names,” I told him. “But of course, we would have to talk about it before we made them official.”

Leo’s eyes lit up and he cupped my cheek gently in his palm, looking down at me with clear adoration. “I’m sure that I’ll love any name that you could pick out,” he said. Then, his eyes suddenly became stern. “Except for Tadeo. That would get an immediate ‘absolutely not’ from me.”

I giggled lightly but then tightened my mouth when I realized that Leo was being slightly more serious than joking. Tadeo was Taylor’s real name. I looked up fondly at my overprotective fiance.

“So, Taylor would be fine then,” I asked, unable to help myself. I pretended to think about it. “You know, we could actually name them both Taylor since it is a boy’s name and a girl’s name.”

Leo glowered down at me, his eyes narrowing into thin slits. He lowered his mouth to the side of my neck and nipped lightly, causing me to gasp. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end when his warm mouth found my ear. “I wouldn’t joke about that if I were you,” he growled quietly, causing me to squirm slightly.

I pulled away to find that he was grinning at me teasingly. “Now, what names have you actually come up with?” he asked pointedly.

I took a deep breath in, trying not to cry as I thought about everything that had happened between us. “We’ve been through so much together,” I started to say. I reached out and took his hand, careful to adjust my arm so that our daughter’s head was still supported.

Leo’s face softened immediately. He squeezed my hand. “Yes, we have,” he said simply.

“And it’s been tough at times,” I continued but I grinned up at him lovingly. “But there is no one else I would rather do this crazy thing called life with.”

Leo gazed down at me in amazement and then bent to kiss me again, his lips lingering on mine longer this time. His eyes were eager now as he waited for me to continue.

“It felt like the last nine months were the perfect combination of impossible odds for our children to survive and grow up,” I said, my voice catching in my throat as tears threatened to leak from my eyes.

“Yes,” Leo said, his voice rough with emotion as well. “Our kids are already so strong. They are fighters, just like their mother.”

“And their father,” I added before taking a deep breath. “But yes, that is exactly my point. After everything that we endured, this is our happily ever after, our happy ending.”

Leo waited, watching me with so much intensity that I felt my cheeks burn a little.

“This is our final victory lap before we get to start our blissful lives together as a family,” I said in awe, realizing it for the first time as I said it aloud. “And that’s the feeling I want our children to carry for the rest of their lives. Our gift to them will be their names. I want our son to be called Valerio and for our daughter to be Vittoria.”

“Strength and Victory,” Leo breathed. He bent down and kissed each of our children on top of their tiny heads before looking up at me with warmth in his eyes. “I love it.”

“I have no doubt that they’ll be faced with challenges in this life,” I continued, leaning against Leo’s shoulder now. He wrapped his strong arms around us, holding us close to his chest as if he planned to shield us from the whole world.

“But even when they do, they’ll be strong and brave and they’ll get through it,” Leo finished.

“Yes,” I murmured, tears coming to my eyes. “Exactly.”

I had tears of joy streaming down my face when minutes later, Leo and I were signing the birth certificates. I was sobbing from pure happiness as we carefully set Valerio and Vittoria into their car seats so that we could finally bring them home.