Returning Red

#50: Epilogue.

l a k e h o u s e — 4 years later

Isabella

Rachel Green wasn't kidding when she kept losing the baby on the ultrasound. It's an underrated problem that most women go through right after their scanning in their second month of pregnancy. 

Austin had to outline the baby with a marker the first time I lost it. And the second time, he had to draw the arrow mark for the right way to view the ultrasound because I was holding it wrong the entire time. 

I graze my fingers on the ultrasound that I've glued on the latest page of my scrapbook. I flip the pages backward and my eyes study the picture of Lily in her high school graduation outfit. Before that is a picture of Jessica's third birthday where May and Liam are kissing her on either cheek as she smiles widely. I flip another page backward and I see Jason kissing the top of my head. It's the day I told them we were pregnant. 

The previous page has pictures clicked on the polaroid of the same day. We hosted a dinner at the Cooper Mansion with my parents and Austin's parents as the hosts. I smile at a picture where Austin's picked up shay in his arms and he's consoling her tear-stained face because she thought we'd forget about her since we're having a baby of our own. 

There's another picture of me sitting on Austin's lap with Kate and my mother standing behind us holding Shay while Grace and Michelle are on either side of them. There's a similar picture with Frank and my dad holding Rowan accompanied by Aiden and Ethan. Rowan resembles so much of Grace and so little of Ethan, my mocking grows with his age. 

I flip another page where Austin's crying as he holds a baby shoe in his hand and I'm kissing his cheek. The dinner I told him I was pregnant. Lily clicked this picture. I had to tell her before I told him. 

I flip backward and this page is filled with Lily's seventeenth birthday that we spent in Subic Bay, the Philippines where Austin hunted down this Unicorn Themed Island that's also a water park. I spent the entire day babysitting Shay and Rowan while Austin and Lily went through each ride twice. 

I flip another page and this is in New York, a picture of me keeping flowers in front of Katherine's and Richard's grave with Lily by my side. Austin clicked this because it's one time Lily and I are laughing because we were debating on which side the Lillies should face. The grave or us. I stayed on the grave while Lily kept pointing out that it should face us. We ended up keeping it horizontally because neither of us gave up. 

"It's a crime to see albums backward, Izz," Austin said as he kept two champagne glasses filled with hot water beside me. 

He sits behind me and pulls my back to his chest. The warmth of his chest suddenly reminds me of the frostiness of the night, especially when we're out on the wooden dock platform in the middle of the night. I hold out the blanket he had wrapped around me before he went to refill our hot water. He takes it and wraps it around himself, handing me the corner with him inside it now. I lean deeper into his chest and his lips brush through my ears as he wraps his hands around me. 

"I know the rules, I'm familiar with the book: How To Read An Album, Mr. Cooper." I tease him as I take a champagne glass and sip hot water. Ah, find me a better summer night, I'll wait. 

"Reading the rules before breaking them doesn't make things better. It only makes it worse," He kisses my cheek, "Mrs. Cooper."