Should this be the last thing I see

I want you to know it's enough for me

'Cause all that you are is all that I'll ever need

~*~*~*~*~*~

Five years later

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sunday, June 18, 2026

"Stil zijn, okay, William?" I whispered to my three-year-old son, asking him to be quiet in Dutch.

William nodded. "Yes, Mommy," he whispered back. He clutched the banister with one hand as we descended the stairs, holding my hand with the other.

"Jij ook stil zijn, okay, Allison?"

My one-year-old daughter just giggled up at me as she sat on my other arm. I shushed her with a smile, and we continued our slow descent down the stairs.

When we finally reached the bottom, Kal and Persephone greeted us happily, and I thanked the stars that they didn't bark. "Hey, babies," I told them. "Come with me, and I'll give you guys your breakfast."

"Can we have breakfast, too, Mommy?" William asked. "I'm hungry." He would be turning four in two months, but he was very intelligent for his age. I tried not to pressure him into learning, however. If he wanted to learn, that was great, but I wasn't about to raise him like my aunt raised Caitlin. She was fourteen now, and already getting quite rebellious.

"I'm gonna make some as soon as I've fed the dogs, all right?"

"Okay, Mommy."

"Mama!" Allison shrieked happily.

"Shh," I reminded her, but I couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up in my throat.

We reached the kitchen and I put her up in her high chair as William clambered onto a regular chair. I handed William his coloring book and crayons to keep him pacified, and gave Allison her favorite picture book. As William colored and Allison looked at the pictures of animals in the book, I couldn't help but smile at my children, feeling my chest grow warm with love. William had his father's curls and my green eyes, but Allison had her father's eyes, right down to the brown specks in her blue irises. She was nearly two, but still too young to really see what her hair was going to be like, though the ends of the short, brown strands were already starting to twist up a little, so I suspected she'd have curls as well.

As the children were busy, I filled Kal's and Persephone's bowls with dry dog food. Then I washed my hands before getting out the ingredients for chocolate chip pancakes. I sang as I cooked, William doing his best to sing along as he colored.

"I'm a little hunk of tin, nobody knows what I have been," I sang, mixing the ingredients together in a bowl.

I started in on Mary Had a Little Lamb by the time I put the pancake batter in the frying pan, but William had already lost his interest in singing along.

"Allie, draw with me," he said, and he scooted closer to her, taking his coloring book with him. He handed her a random crayon, and she seemed a little confused as to what to do with it. "Here, Allie, like this." He set his blue crayon to the paper and started moving it, inspiring his sister to do the same with her green one.

I smiled at my children as they colored together, giggling at their own personal inside jokes. Later, there would probably be sibling rivalry between the two of them, fighting all the time about nonsensical stuff, and I tried my best to appreciate the peace that still ruled this household. For now, at least.

"William, honey, go wake your daddy, okay?" The pancakes weren't done yet, but they would be soon. If I timed it right, Henry would come downstairs just as I was plating them up.

"Okay, Mommy." He turned to his little sister and said, "You keep coloring, okay, Allie? I'll be right back, I promise, and then I'll color with you again. Maybe Daddy will even join us."

Allison gave him a bright smile and continued to scratch her green crayon violently over the picture of Winnie the Pooh.

William slid off his chair. "I'll be right back, Mommy."

I smiled. "Don't forget to bring your daddy with you when you do."

"I won't, Mommy. Ik beloof het," he promised.

"Wees voorzichtig op de trap," I said, telling him to be careful on the stairs.

"Ja, mama."

Henry and I had decided to raise our kids bilingually because we'd heard that raising them like that improved their learning skills. Also, I'd personally always wanted to raise my kids bilingually, way before I'd ever met Henry, because I'd been raised that way, and I wanted to share that with my kids.

William padded off towards the stairs and I continued making the pancakes. I made a heart of chocolate chips on the top pancake of Henry's short stack, and just when I finished plating up, I heard footsteps too heavy to be William's coming down the stairs.

I put the plates on the table and turned to the door opening with an expectant smile on my face. When Henry finally did walk through the door, William on his arm (William had become much too big for me to carry him like that, but of course his superhero daddy could still easily do it), my smile widened. "Happy Father's Day, handsome."

Henry broke out in a big but tired smile. Every time I saw him, even after almost five years of marriage, I was still amazed by how good he looked. His dark curls were a mess, his white T-shirt was rumpled, but none of that mattered. Not when his smile was brilliant, his eyes were alight with love and happiness, and his stubble was just the right length. Not to mention that his biceps were bulging with the strength it took to hold William up. Henry had turned forty last month, but he still looked as gorgeous as he did that day I first met him, seven years ago—possibly even more so.

"Thank you, love." He set William back down on his chair before walking up to me and giving me a kiss hello. "Good morning."

I cupped his cheek, reveling in the feel of his stubble under my hand. "Good morning. William, have you wished your father a happy Father's Day yet?"

William looked up from his drawing. He nodded and grinned. "It was the first thing I did after I woke him up, Mommy."

"Good. I'm proud of you. And you, Allison, can you say 'happy Father's Day'?"

"Happy fas day!" she called out, and then giggled loudly.

Henry laughed. He walked up to where she was sitting in her high chair and lifted her up, cradling her to his chest. "Thank you, Allie. Give me a kiss." He pursed his lips for her, and she gave him an open-mouthed kiss. It made Henry laugh, which she had known would happen, and she giggled in return. "I'm gonna have to teach you to stop doing that before you're even remotely old enough to date, little giggle monster." He kissed the top of her head before settling her back in her high chair.

"You're always so cute with her," I said, getting the orange juice out of the fridge.

"It's easy when we're all such a cute bunch," he joked. He walked up to me to give me another kiss, a little harder and a little longer this time. "Thanks for making breakfast, by the way."

"No problem," I said with a smile.

Henry kissed my forehead before stepping away. "Okay, guys, let's clean up your coloring stuff so we can eat breakfast. You can go back to it when we're done, okay?" He grabbed William's coloring book as William gathered up all of his crayons. As I set the table, Henry put both the coloring book and crayons away.

I cut William's pancakes up and gave him a plastic Superman fork, and gave Allison a single pancake to eat with her hands, seeing as she was still too young for utensils. Once I was sure everything was on the table and everyone had what they needed, I sat down as well. "Dig in, everyone."

Henry tugged on my chair to pull me closer and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "I love you," he whispered.

I smiled, resting my hand on his cheek to pull his face closer, and kissed him softly. "I love you, too," I whispered against his lips.

He gave me one more kiss before picking up his knife and fork. "So, what were you coloring with Allie, Will?"

"A bear!" he said, excitedly straightening up in his seat. "Just like Uncle Keegs! Because he's not crazy; he's a bear."

"Keeg!" Allison yelled, crushing the edges of her pancake with her tiny fists.

I laughed. The kids, especially William, loved Keegan to pieces. To make them laugh, Keegan would say, 'I'm not crazy; I'm a bear.' Other times he was a plane, and other times he was a cookie. Mostly, though, he claimed he was a bear. "Should we take a picture of your drawing when you're done, so we can send it to Uncle Keegan?"

William nodded so fast I was afraid it was making his brain tumble all through his skull. "Yes!" he said, before shoving another forkful of pancake into his mouth.

Breakfast went by with a lot of laughter and talk. Once William got started, he was incredibly chatty. He'd probably spent too much time with Hanna, his godmother, already. When we were done eating, Henry helped me clean up while William and Allison went back to coloring in Winnie the Pooh.

"We're done, Mommy!" William announced, putting down the crayon he'd been using. "You can take the picture now."

I walked up to my children, leaning over them to see the final result, and had to fight a laugh. It was quite easily discernible who'd colored what. William had tried to stay within the lines, though he'd used colors that weren't usually associated with Winnie the Pooh, but Allison's main goal had mostly been to just scratch her crayon over the paper. Still, I did what any good, supportive parent would do—I lied. "Oh, wow, guys! That looks amazing! I'm gonna take a picture right now and send it to Keegs. He'll love it, I'm sure."

I took my phone from the pocket of my sweats and took a picture of the drawing. I sent the picture as an attachment to a text to Keegan:

The kids colored a drawing of you. Literal quote from Will: "Just like Uncle Keegs! Because he's not crazy; he's a bear."

Seconds later, I got a reply:

HAHAHAHA! Glad to see I'm making an impression on Will. Tell them I loved it. Actually, ask them if I can have it so I can put it on the fridge.

"What did he say?" William asked eagerly, smart enough to know whenever my phone received a text.

"He loves it. He wants to know if he can have it so he can put it on the fridge."

"Of course he can! Right, Allie? It's your drawing, too, so you can say."

"He have it!" she said, clapping her hands together happily.

I smiled at her. She was such a happy child, and I hoped she could hold on to that as she aged. "All right. We'll keep it in the book for now, and the next time we see Uncle Keegs, we'll give it to him, okay?"

"Okay!" Will and Allie chimed.

"Cool. Now, let's give Daddy his gifts, yeah?"

"You got me a gift?" Henry asked, looking genuinely surprised. "You really didn't have to."

"Gifts," I said with a smile. "Plural. And I know, but we wanted to, right?" I asked William and Allison. They both nodded. "Besides, you're always the one giving us gifts. I love any opportunity where I can give you something in return."

"You've already given me so much," he said, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me closer. "You've given me true happiness, the kind that I never thought I could have before I met you. You've given me Will and Allie. There's nothing else I could want."

I grinned. "The same goes for me, and yet that never seems to stop you whenever you give me something. So shut up and let us give you your gifts."

He chuckled, letting me force him down onto a chair. "Yes, ma'am."

I received two gifts from a drawer no one ever looked in, and gave the lightest to Allison so she could give it to her father. "Go on, Allie, give it to Daddy."

Allison reached her short little arm towards her father, and Henry reached the rest of the way to accept it. "You, Daddy!"

Henry smiled at her. "Thank you so much, Allie." He carefully unwrapped the cylinder-formed present. In it, was a rolled up piece of paper. He rolled it out, his smile widening when he saw what was on it. It was a drawing made by William. It showed the four of us, our names under it. In the sky, there were two handprints. One purple one—William's, and one smaller, blue one—Allison's. "That is the most beautiful drawing I have ever seen. Thanks, you two." He reached over to his kids, ruffling their hair lovingly.

I gave the second present to William. "Careful with that, Will, it's heavy. Go ahead and give it to Daddy."

"Happy Father's Day, Daddy," William said, padding over to Henry in his Superman slippers. He handed the gift over to his father.

"Thank you, Will," Henry said, bending down to press a kiss to William's head. He opened this present just as carefully as he had the first one. When the wrapping paper was off completely, he smiled, and I could tell he was tearing up a little. He was holding an inscribed silver plaque that he could hang on the wall. "'A father is his children's first superhero,'" he read aloud. "Thank you all so much. These were the perfect presents." He set the plaque down on the table carefully before getting up. He walked over to where Allison was sitting and kissed the top of her head, then did the same for William, and then turned to me. He gave me long kiss. "Thank you, Juliette. These really were the perfect presents."

I smiled back at him, gently stroking his cheek with my thumb. "You're welcome, baby. But that wasn't all."

Henry's eyebrows rose. "It wasn't?"

"But I thought we didn't have any more presents, Mommy," William said.

"You didn't know about this present, either, honey. I wanted it to be a surprise for you as well."

"Suppise?" Allison asked curiously.

"We're going on vacation together, just the four of us," I said with a smile. "One week to London, one week to Jersey, where your Daddy was born, and one week to the Netherlands, where Grandma Anne and Grandpa Jack were born."

"You didn't," Henry said with an expanding smile.

I grinned back at him. "I did. It's been so long since either of us has been to Europe, let alone for fun, so I thought it was high time to go again, and this time we can actually take Allie and Will. Besides, I've never properly seen England, so I can finally do that, too. And in the Netherlands, we can maybe go to the Efteling, an amazing amusement park that has this beautiful fairytale forest, and the kids would love it. We're leaving in September, so I hope you didn't have anything planned for our anniversary."

"Not yet, no. It is our five year anniversary, though. We've got to do something special."

"We will. We'll be in Delft then, so we'll figure something out."

Henry smirked, leaning in close. He whispered, "Maybe we could book a room in that hotel in Amsterdam. We could reenact our first time together. You know, without the running away part."

I laughed. "We'll see. Those weren't really romantic circumstances, so maybe we could find something else."

His smirk widened into a grin. "Who says it needs to be romantic?"

I slapped him on his chest softly. "It's our five year wedding anniversary! Some romance would be nice."

"All right, all right, all right," he relented, laughing. "But we will redo the tour, with the kids this time."

"I can handle that. I'll leave out the gory parts, though."

"Seems like a good idea."

He picked up Allison from her high chair and William slid off his stool before we walked into the living room. We settled on the couch together, Allison on Henry's lap, William on mine, and Kal and Persephone on the floor by our feet. We turned on the TV, old school cartoons filling up the screen.

As the kids were quickly immersed in Tom and Jerry, I rested my head on Henry's shoulder. "I love you," I told him.

He smiled, pulling Allison a little closer to his chest. She had proven herself to be a real daddy's girl, just as William was a true mama's boy. "I love you, too, Juliette Cavill. I still do so enjoy saying that."

A slow smile spread out over my face. "And I still love hearing you say it."

"And I love you, Allison Amelia Cavill," he said as he kissed the top of Allison's head. "And I love you, William Noah Cavill."

William turned to smile at his father. "I love you, too, Daddy. And I love you, Mommy."

I felt my heart expand, just as it did every time William told me he loved me. "I love you, too, Will."

Will had been named after his father, Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill, and his middle name had been after the character Henry had played in If You Love Someone, the first movie Henry and I had starred in together. Allison's middle name, Amelia, had been after my character. We'd made another movie together with Ryan after that (which did actually end up giving us a box set of movies, which was the exact thing Ryan had joked about), but If You Love Someone was still special to us. It was the movie that had made us meet, that made us fall in love, no matter how stubborn and stupid we may have been while working on it. We wanted to pay homage to that through our children.

"Did you clean the stone grill outside?" I whispered, as to not disturb our children as they watched Tom chase after Jerry.

Henry nodded. "Yeah, I did," he whispered back. "It's all ready to go when Scott, Hanna and Emmett arrive."

"Good. Thanks for cleaning it, babe."

"No problem," he said, kissing the top of my head.

Every Sunday evening, Hanna and Scott would come over for dinner. Hanna had officially been Hanna Tayler now for three years. Scott had asked her a few weeks after my wedding with Henry. Apparently he'd had the engagement ring for months, but had just been gathering up courage. Amazingly, and also typically us, Hanna had become pregnant with Emmett around the same time I got pregnant with Allison. We'd always joked how alike we were—I bump my head, she bumps her head five minutes later; she falls down the stairs, I fall down the stairs a week later—so I guess we should've seen the simultaneous pregnancies coming. It had all our friends joking that, one day, Allison and Emmett were destined to fall in love.

"Mommy?" William asked suddenly, looking up at me.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Are you happy?"

The question took me by surprise. It was a very existential question for a three-year-old. "Why do you ask that, Will?"

"I saw a movie about a girl. Her mommy was very sad all the time, and it made the girl sad. I don't want to be sad, Mommy."

I nearly cried at that. How could I not, especially with those beautiful green eyes staring up at me? I tightened my arms around him and pulled him closer, kissing the top of his head. "You don't ever have to be sad, William, not about that. There was a time, long ago, before I ever had you, where I was very sad all the time. But not anymore. How could I be sad, when I have the perfect husband, the perfect daughter, and the perfect son? Now I'm happy all the time."

William smiled, showing his tiny baby teeth. "Good. And Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I'm happy all the time, too."

I fought my tears as best I could, knowing William would see them as signs of sadness, while that was far from the truth. "I'm glad, Will. I want you to be happy."

"Allie, are you happy, too?" William asked his little sister.

Allison clapped her hands together. "Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy!" she sang, making Henry and me laugh. I quickly wiped a tear away while everyone was distracted by her.

"And Daddy, are you happy all the time, too?"

Henry looked at me, the purest form of love in his eyes, then down at Allison, who was still chanting, and then at William. "Yes, Will. I'm happy all the time, too. I love you for being so considerate."

William furrowed his brow. "What does that word mean?"

"It means that you care about what other people feel," Henry explained.

"Well, then I'm very considerate. And I love you, too, Daddy."

We all snuggled a little closer, our happy little family. If I compared myself from seven years ago to how I was now, I could hardly recognize myself. I went from an insecure, lonely girl to a woman surrounded by love and happiness. My anxiety attacks still came, but with a much lower frequency and intensity. I was truly happy, and content, and loved, and I knew it wasn't going to stop. This little family that we'd created was forever. I was grateful for my life, instead of resenting it. And all thanks to that one day, that one moment, where I literally fell into Henry's life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So this is officially the end... I'm not exactly sure how to feel about it. This story has been such a big part of my life, for months now—much longer than I've been uploading it. It feels so strange to finally upload the epilogue... As if it's leaving a hollow in my chest.

To everyone who's read "Make a Sound", I am so, so, so grateful to every single one of you. I appreciate all the votes you gave me, and every single comment made me dance with happiness. Thank you all so much.

Again, thank you so very much for everything. It means the world to me.

The song at the start of the epilogue is Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran.

Goodbye... for now 😉

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