Happy Moments

Happy Moments
When I finally came to, the first thing I heard was the steady beeping of the heart's monitor. I blinked reflexively as the bulb overhead hurt my eyes some.

I tried to raise myself to a sitting position but a groan escaped my lips.

"Hailey." Someone rushed to the bed, helping me to sit up.

It was Jared.

"W-what happened? I had a dream. A weird dream." I told him, looking quite disoriented.

"Really? What kind of dream was that?" He asked, tucking hair behind my ears.

"I saw Zaya. Zion was holding her hand and they...they..." Emotions swamped me, making it difficult for me to continue speaking.

I swallowed hard, trying to dislodge tears suck in my throat.

He heaved a sigh. "It was not a dream, baby. Zaya is alive. I'm as shocked as you are but after uncle Pete and Miss Nancy explained all that happened, I am just thankful she's alive." Emotions rose to his throat.

"No." I shook my head, not wanting to believe. "No, no. Zaya died. I saw her body. She...she laid there unconscious and not breathing. The doctor confirmed her dead." I sniffled back tears.

"She..."

Jared words was cut off by the new arrival into the ward I was in.

"Hailey, you're awake. I'm so glad." Celine came to hug me. "I brought you fresh clothes."

I raised puffy eyes to appreciate her with a teary smile but my attention was captured by two small movements coming into the room.

"Mommy!" They yelled excitedly, running to throw themselves at me.

I half-expected Zaya to disappear the moment I held she and her brother but she didn't. She was solid in my arms. Oh my goodness! My little girl was alive but how?

She was in a critical condition. She couldn't survive... didn't survive it, I amended remembering the doctor's words.

"Hi."

I looked up to see uncle Pete and Miss Nancy, changed into a casual attire step into the room cautiously.

One question came to mind. "Why?"

Uncle Pete wore an expression of solemnity and plea. "I'm sorry, Hailey. I...we didn't want to tell you until everything was over."

"Were you in on this too?" I sharply turned an accusing gaze to Jared which I paid for by having my temples throb at the sudden movement.

"Of course not." Jared defended.

"No, he doesn't." Miss Nancy put in, she was twiddling the strap of her purse, that showed she was nervous.

"You kept the secret of my daughter being alive from me?" The tremble in my voice was unmistakable.

"Mommy, don't be angry. They wanted to heal me and keep me safe." Zaya's presence beside me made it feel like a dream. A surreal one.

It was hard to believe.

"Come my darlings, let's go get some ice cream." Celine beckoned on my twins. She wanted to give us privacy to talk about it without the children present.

"Let's go with aunt Celine, she's nice and looks beautiful when she wears a gown." Zion informed her sister, readily jumping into Celine's arms.

"I look pretty too when I wear a gown." Zaya flicked her hair sassily, trying to outshine Celine in a way that was so child-like and hilarious.

But instead of laughing, I broke down into more tears, hearing her voice... I...I never believed I would be lucky to hear my daughter speak ever again.

I'd both being worried and bereaved knowing their sixth year birthday was near and it pained me that Zion would begin school without his sister.

The three of them left with Zion and Zaya arguing who was prettier in a gown, Celine chuckled all the way.

At the door, Zion stopped and turned to me. "Miss Nancy told me that God was watching over Zaya and He was healing her, she said God promised to bring Zaya back." With a bright smile, he completed. "And He did."

"Mommy?" Zaya called, stopping as well.

"Yes baby." My voice was barely above a whisper and it was because I didn't want my children to see their mother cry.

"When I woke up and asked what happened, Miss Nancy said God missed me and wanted to play with me, that's why He allowed me get sick. She said God saw how sad you were and decided to give me back to you. I like Miss Nancy, she's nice and she tells good stories. Bye mommy."

"Bye mommy." Zion waved too.

"Bye babies." I waited until they left before giving in to the stream of tears.

Uncle Pete was at my side in no time, comforting and apologizing. "I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you guys tell me she was safe?! You let me go crazy. You watched me lose my mind and cry myself to sleep. Why?!"

"It's my fault, blame me. It's not his." Miss Nancy confessed quite regretfully.

"No. We both did it. She brought the plan, I agreed to it." Uncle Pete cut in.

"Let me explain, Hailey, please." Miss Nancy pleaded.

I sniffled. "Alright, I'm all ears."

"The challenges were coming wave after wave. I wasn't here when it all started but Peter kept me up to speed, I suggested we take Zaya away from the troubles, far from the storm. I had a feeling she might be kidnapped or...I don't know but I just wanted her to heal peacefully. So I introduced Peter to some really good doctors and they agreed. We paid for it, of course, well, Peter did."

"Was the pediatric doctor attending to Zaya aware?" I asked.

"Yes. There was no way we could just have her fake Zaya's death without telling her the truth, she understood and did as we asked." She answered, observing my expression.

I turned the matter over and over in my head. They had meant well and not telling me was part of it. I wasn't angry, at least not anymore, at what they'd done but the fact that they had kept it from me was quite disappointing.

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness, both of you. But I think I should have been told, regardless." I told them.

"Yes, we should have and at one point, Peter wanted to but I stopped him. I felt you were going through too many problems to have another heaped on you."

"Zaya is my daughter, she's not a problem." I countered reasonably.

"And I accept my mistake, I'm sorry. But I felt Peter and I could handle it ourselves." She said.

I nodded. "I understand. And I guess I should be saying thank you for saving my daughter's life."

"It's nothing, Hailey." Relief spread over Miss Nancy's features.

"So how did the surgery go? Was it difficult for these doctors who operated on her? The other doctor said it was risky and because of her age, her chances of surviving were really, really slim." I looked at both their faces.

"They did their best and God did the rest." Miss Nancy replied smiling.

"Okay." I noticed I was still in my maid of honor's dress. "I hope I didn't ruin your wedding. I'm sorry if I did."

"Are you kidding? It was perfect and to be honest, I couldn't wait to get out of the wedding dress. Beautiful but heavy." Miss Nancy chuckled.

"Remind me to tell my Italian designer friend to make mine beautiful but easy to wear." I let out a soft chuckle.

Jared squeezed my hand, kissing my temple. "You'll look beautiful in anything, baby. Thank you for agreeing to embark on this journey with me for the second time."

"Only if there's no Mia." My heart swelled with love for him.

"No more Mias, just Haileys." He leaned in to kiss me.

I hit him playfully. "You do know Hailey is a pretty common name."

He laughed, getting my meaning. "Only one Hailey. Mother of my children."

We kissed and it was a beautiful feeling.

"So when will you guys go for your honeymoon? In fact, you should be there right now." I directed to the new couple after the passionate kiss.

"Yes, we wanted to but when Jared told us what he was going to do at the reception in his hotel, Peter and I decided to put it off until after your wedding."

"That's beautiful. We would all go together then, and as a family." I was in glee.

"My thoughts exactly. And that's why uncle Pete and I jointly bought a privately owned island in Honolulu for a family vacation. We figured we all could take the break and just have fun." Jared said.

Miss Nancy obviously had no idea because she clapped her hands in excitement, she almost looked like a child. I noted the way uncle Pete stared at her with so much love in his eyes.

He deserved the best, after everything he'd gone through in his first marriage.

I turned to mind Jared but saw he was also giving me the same look I'd seen in uncle Pete's eyes. My smile widened, I couldn't lov him enough.

"You're a blessing to me, Hailey. The best to have ever happened to me."

"Oh Jared." I brushed a tear that had escaped away.