The Foreverlost

Chapter 8

November 22nd

"There they are! The birthday boy and birthday girl!" Anita shouted as she greeted Ville and Kaiya as they walked inside the Valo residence. She embraced her son and adopted daughter tightly, holding Kaiya a little longer, "Oh my girl, I'm so happy to have you back for another birthday." Anita whispered to Kaiya as she held her then kissing her on the cheek.

"Thank you, mama." Kaiya gushed.

Kari rounded the corner to greet his children, "Oh, Kaiya, long time no see." he joked, having just seen her earlier in the shop before closing.

"Hey, papa." she affectionately called him as she fell into his embrace.

Jesse appeared in the hall with everyone "Happy birthday, Kai!" Jesse threw his arms around her and lifted her up off the ground. "Oh, and happy birthday to you, too, I guess." He smirked at his older brother.

Ville chuckled, feeling warm fuzzy feelings about how much his family loved his girlfriend. She'd entered their lives 30 years prior, sure, but having a girlfriend that got along so well with his family was a new experience and he loved it.

Anita had prepared both Ville and Kaiya's favorite meals; Roasted reindeer for Ville, homemade Swedish meatballs for Kaiya, with mashed potatoes, peas, and lingonberries on the side.

"Ma, I told you we would have been fine with pizza. I didn't want you to have to go to all this trouble." Ville admonished.

"Oh shush. This is Kaiya's first birthday back. I'm pulling out all the stops." Anita dismissed him.

The family spent the rest of the evening endlessly talking and Anita broke out the baby pics.

"Oh my god, Jesse! I remember this!" Kaiya laughed looking at a picture of Jesse when he was 7, "That haircut was the worst."

"I tried to give myself a mohawk!" Jesse defended himself.

"And failed miserably! How did you even manage that?" Kaiya laughed harder.

"Oh, Kaiya, that reminds me..." Anita stood up and rushed out of the room for a moment. When she returned she had a small picture album in her hands wrapped in a ribbon. "Happy birthday!"

Kaiya smiled and gave Anita as she sat down beside her. She opened it to see it was full of photos of her & Jesse together, some just of her. An array of photos of Kaiya from Kindergarten to aged 15. Kaiya's hand traveled to her mouth as she tried to hold back tears. She had no idea these photos existed. She thought any photographic evidence of her childhood was long gone.

Anita wrapped her arm around her adoptive daughter, "We never forgot about you, honey."

~~~~Later That Night~~~~

Ville & Kaiya made it back to Ville's house and sat curled up on the couch together, some random Netflix horror series played in the background as each of them scrolled on their phones until Ville broke the silence as he cleared his throat. "Um, babe?" Ville spoke up to get Kaiya's attention.

"Hmm?" she responded, only flicking her eyes up from her phone for a moment.

Ville stood up from the couch, "I know we said we weren't going to get anything for each other but..." he stopped when he noticed that Kaiya started to giggle, "What?" he chuckled in response.

"I know where you're going with this, and I may have done the exact same thing." Kaiya admitted playfully.

"Oh?" Ville cocked an eyebrow, "Great minds, I guess."

Kaiya stood up off the couch and scampered over to her purse and pulled out a rectangular shape that was loosely wrapped in what looked like old parchment paper with a black ribbon tied around it. "Open open open. I've had this for a while and I've been struggling to keep myself from giving it to you early."