Page 149 of Nineteen Letters

After Grace was born, Rachel’s career took a turn away from women’s fashion, when she started to design her own line of children’s clothes. They took off, and are now in all the major retail stores throughout Australia. She’s happy and doesn’t seem to regret giving up her dream job in New York.

Jem and I tried every trick in the book to get Rachel and Lucas together when she first moved back to Australia. But they were both so stubborn that every attempt by us failed. In the end, we got desperate.

We invited them both over one afternoon and locked them in one of the spare rooms upstairs. We told them we weren’t going to let them out until they talked. It worked. They didn’t emerge until the following morning, and they’ve been together ever since.

Jemma and Rachel are talking babies as they prepare the food in the kitchen, so after brushing my lips against my wife’s cheek, I head out onto the deck.

I see Lucas has already claimed Grace. They’re walking hand-in-hand down to the water. Bella-Rose is trotting closely behind. He’s going to make a wonderful father. He told me last week that he and Rachel are trying for a family of their own.

“Let me fill up your wine glasses,” I say to Jemma’s parents. Stephen ended up moving in with Christine a few days after Jem moved back in with me.

Jemma still makes her Sunday roasts, but instead of it just being us, we have our entire family over.

The earth’s axis has finally aligned.

Jem and I weren’t the only ones to get our happily ever after. Lucas and Rachel, Christine and Stephen … and in a way, evenmy dad. He may not remember us, but he’s out of the nursing home and surrounded by people who love him.

Jemma still wears the memory bracelet I gave her and reads the letters often. I have a letter as well. She gave it to me when we flew back to Kauai, in Hawaii, where we renewed our vows. She was three months pregnant with Grace at the time. Rachel and Lucas came with us.

The morning of the accident, I promised I would take her back there during the Christmas break, and I’ve never broken a promise to her.

Jem read out her letter to me as part of her vows. It choked me up then and still does to this day.

Dearest Braxton,

The nineteenth of January 1996 was the day I was given the greatest gift I would ever receive … you.

On the nineteenth of January 2015, exactly nineteen years to the day after we met, we became one.

Nineteen days later, I was in an accident, and I almost lost it all.

When I woke from my coma, I felt empty inside, and now I know why—I had no memory of you, our love, or anything we had shared. Up until that fateful day, you had been my heart and the air that I breathed. Without that, my life had no meaning. I felt completely lost.

You fought for us when I didn’t have the will or strength to fight. You continued to love me, even when Ididn’t love you back. You never gave up on me, or on us, and for that, I will be forever grateful. You proved yet again that you are, and always will be, my forever boy. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it, because you are my life.

The nineteen letters you sent became my lifeline. They helped remind me of everything we once shared, by giving me back pieces of our past. They gave my life meaning, a purpose, and the promise of a future. A future with you by my side. A second chance at life and love. I will forever cherish what we once had, what we have now, and you … always.

What we have will never be forgotten.

Your forever girl,

Jemma

This renewed my faith in the number nineteen.It was our number, there was no denying it. Grace was even born a few minutes after midnight on the nineteenth of June. It was fate.

In the weeks and months that followed Jemma’s accident, not only did I have to struggle to go on without my best friend, my soul mate, I had to fight tooth and nail to rekindle that magic we once shared. I was lucky enough to get her to love me once, and incredibly fortunate to get her to fall in love with me for a second time.

Things are different this time around, but with a lot of love, persistence and understanding, we have built a better us … astronger us. We now know how fragile life can be. That’s why we live for every second, every minute, every hour, and every day.

Love with your entire heart while you have the chance, because life is far too precious to waste on an uncertainty.

This was our second chance at love. Our happily ever after.

Nineteen letters was all it took for her to realise we were meant to be.

Bonus Letter

Braxton