The loud sound of thunder disrupted her thoughts. Olivia turned to her window as she bore witness to the heavy rain outside. If there was anything worse than cats and dogs, that was what was happening at that moment. The splattering sound the rain made as it came in contact with the ground made it difficult for her or anyone to say anything to each other without raising their voices.

If Olivia thought there was any hopes to save the party, it was all gone, especially with all that heaven shower. She had to make sure to send the other kids home before it had started, and Benita and Lucy had to leave early too to prepare dinner for the twins so they didn't get caught in it.

It was just the rest of them now with a table filled with food and a cake Grace wasn't interested in cutting or even looking at.

Olivia turned to the couch in front of the window. She could see how Grace just knelt in it, her hands folded right on top of it while her teary eyes wandered away in the rain. She was just lost in the sight in front of her, wondering why her day had to be ruined and sobbing loudly too. It was how she had been since the rain had started, and she wouldn't stop crying no matter how much they tried to be a comfort to her. She refused to talk to anyone too.

It had to be her worst birthday ever, probably even worse than what she ever got at the Silvers, at least that was what Olivia thought, and she couldn't help but feel saddened by it. She slowly dropped the empty plate on the table while Tony and Amy helped her arrange it for dinner.

Embarrassment.

She had felt a lot of it and didn't know what to do. Olivia let out a tired breath as she felt every ounce of energy leave her while she slowly made her way to Grace. Her legs were trembling literally and her mind was clouded too. She had probably not felt so miserable in a while.

"Grace? Baby?" She called her managed to find a sitting spot close to her. Grace didn't move, she didn't take her eyes from the window and she definitely didn't stop crying either. Olivia could feel her heart cluster and break apart each time she found trail of tears rolling down her face. She slowly reached for her little hands.

"Is there anything that I can do to make you feel better?" Now she had to ask her. "Mummy doesn't like to see you this way, my heart is breaking watching you like this."

Grace slowly looked away from the window and buried her eyes on their joined hands while Olivia raised one hand to her face and slowly started to wipe away her tears from it.

"I'm sorry that mummy didn't do her best, that I wasn't able to give you the perfect birthday you had asked for. I should have done better, I should have made sure," she exhaled. "but I promise you, I'm going to do everything that I can to make it up to you."

She said as Grace kept sobbing, whimpering and sniffing while more trails of tears dropped from her face. She was hurt, really hurt and Olivia didn't know how to help her. Olivia let out a weak breath as she watched Grace struggle to catch her breath. She watched how her baby girl fought so hard to have the littlest light of hope lighten up her face again. It was obvious that she didn't want Olivia to worry. She didn't want Olivia to also feel sad by what happened.

"It's okay mummy." Grace managed to say, taking one last sob and trying to hard to force a smile on her face. "I'm not sad anymore." She lied, still sniffing and trying to hold back her tears. Olivia could see through her lies.

"It's okay."

"Poor Grace." Amy said as she left her gaze on them. "I can't believe that she also has to be affected by all of this."

Tony raised his gaze towards them too.

"How can people be so mean and ruthless? I mean, she's just a child, she didn't do anything wrong. It's really pathetic that all these parents planned with one another to hurt a child like this." She went on and then exhaled, burying her gaze back on the mug she was holding.

"I feel so bad for my sister, life has not exactly been fair to her. I mean she never had it easy, even at her lowest, life never goes easy on her."

Tony exhaled too. He didn't know what to say because he knew Amy wasn't exactly wrong. He felt for Olivia, he couldn't imagine how she had not fallen apart with everything that she had been through. Even in her lowest moment, even in times she was supposed to be celebrating, there was always something that brought her to her knees again.

It was almost the same for Rafael.

He understood Amy's worry for Olivia because it was the same way he worried for Rafael. Fighting his family had to be one of the toughest choices Rafael had ever made. Making and keeping his family by his side was one of the hardest things to do for Rafael. For some reason, it was like he was alone in everything. He never really got a chance to be happy, to be genuinely happy, or to have a family. Each time he got closer to his own happiness, he had to watch it slip through his fingers.

He exhaled weakly and turned to Amy.

"When are you going to tell her?"

Amy quickly raised her head to him. She didn't need him to explain what he meant, she already knew. She knew what he was talking about, she knew it was related to her working at the night club as a men entertainer. She looked away from him quickly.

"I thought we agreed never to bring that up."

"She deserves to know. You owe it to her and to yourself-"

Amy hit the towel she was holding on the table immediately with frustration and turned to him.

"I don't owe anyone any explanation for making any decision in my life." She tried to keep her voice as low as possible so Olivia wouldn't hear, but raising it at him at the same time.

Tony exhaled weakly and turned to face her fully. He looked into her eyes and slouched.

"Then just quit. Stop working there and take my offer to work at my company instead."

Amy rolled her eyes.

"If you're not comfortable working with me then I could talk to some of my friends to get you something, even Rafael-"

"Could you just stop." She told him in a hurry, still maintaining her tone. She had to stop him, he was doing too much.

"There's a lot going on right now, we don't have to talk about this today."

Tony exhaled.
Amarachi was right. Things were still unsettled between Olivia and Grace and the least they could do was be there for them and keep every other conversation until later. He was about to say something when-

"Daddy Rafael!"

They both turned to Grace as they watched her jump from the chair immediately and run to the door the moment it opened. Olivia slowly turned to the door with a surprise look on her face, she had no idea what was going on. She got up quickly from the couch the moment she realized that Grace hadn't made it up. Rafael was standing right in front of the door, barely wet from all the rain with a wrapped box in his hand when Grace ran to embrace him, almost causing Rafael to fall to the ground.

"Woah." He said in the calmest tone ever as he bent over to look at her, dropping the box on the ground while everyone else found their way towards them with huge smiles on their faces. "Hey Champ."

She hugged him tight and showered him with five kisses on his right cheek to show her excitement, while Rafael chuckled lightly. Olivia watched how the atmosphere had suddenly changed, how the room that looked so dull a moment ago, lighted up perfectly. She could see how Grace, who looked like she had had the worst day of her life, suddenly got filled with hope and excitement. It was almost as if she hadn't been crying before, like she no longer cared about the day she had.

"You made it." She hugged him again, this time even tighter than the first.

Rafael slowly reached for her arms and pulled her away from him gently so he could look at her. He could see the trail marks that her tears had left on her face, and a drop that still threatened to fall. He could feel a sudden sadness in his heart as he slowly raised his hand to her face and cleaned it gently. He let out a weak sigh.

"I'm sorry I made you wait for so long." He told her. "Do you think you could ever forgive me?"

Grace sniffed to take back the snot that was threatening to fall from her nose, and let the most sincere smile cover half her face. She shook her head.

"It's okay God daddy. I'm not sad anymore now that you're here."

Rafael smiled and gave her cheek a gentle squeeze. He gently grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace. He hugged her and shut his eyes, patting the back of her head with his hands.

Tony let out a relief exhale.

"Crisis averted." He whispered as Amy hurried towards them and grabbed the box Rafael had come with while Grace slowly pulled herself from his embrace.

"I made you something God daddy." Grace managed to keep the smile on her face as she sniffed again, reaching into her tiny purse that was sewn on her dress. She got out a brooch and gave it to him. Rafael took it from her slowly and looked at the silver brooch shaped in the form of a sunflower. It was her birthday, he knew she didn't have to give him anything, the only person that needed to be gifted was her.

He let out a smile.

"Thank you." He gave her cheek another gentle squeeze that made Grace smile even more brightly.

"Oh". He clicked his tongue. "I also got you something special." He slowly reached for his back pocket and took out a small box. He opened it and stretched it towards her to show her the small diamond earrings in them.

"Happy birthday Grace." He said with the warmest smile on his face as Grace gasped in excitement, clapping her hands as she turned to Olivia for approval. Olivia smiled warmly too and nodded her head and boy the excitement she felt right after. Grace turned back to the box even happier. She took it from Rafael and gave him a big hug.

"Thank you so much God daddy. I love you so so much." He chuckled and grabbed her, lifting her up the ground as he got up quickly with her.

"Thank God something is finally going good today." Amy said as she retreated to the table while Tony walked towards them.

"It's a good thing that you came." He told Rafael.

"Of course I would." Rafael smirked. "There's no way I'd have missed my precious God daughter's birthday." He turned to Grace and gave her many kisses on her cheeks that made her laugh in excitement. She was so happy and she didn't let him go. Rafael slowly found himself turning towards Olivia who had unconsciously allowed herself to smile so brightly.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hey." She answered softly as he walked closer to her, still holding Grace in his arms. "You made it."

He looked into her bright eyes. They were beautiful as always.

"I did." He told her.

And that was it, the awkward but intense silence that followed right after as they just stood there, staring into each other's eyes but being unable to say a thing.

"Since everyone is here, I guess it's not too late for the celebrant to cut her other cake since she didn't get to cut the first one." Amy announced as she hit a wine glass with a fork repeatedly to get everyone's attention.

Rafael turned first and smiled at them, leaving Olivia to take out a relief sigh. Saved by the bell indeed. She didn't know what she would have let slip from her mouth if she stared at him the away they did for an extra minute.

He started to approach the table with Grace while Amy lit the candles on the cake. Olivia followed right after. Rafael dropped Grace in front of her cake and stood right behind her, towards her left while Olivia took the side by her right. Amy and Tony stood right across them.

"Are we ready?" Amy asked them. Everyone nodded to show their approval. "One, two, go-"

"Happy birthday to you....." they started to sing together. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Gracie, happy birthday to yo...u."

Grace clapped in excitement when they were done before she shut her eyes and made a short wish in her head. She leaned closer to the cake with everyone watching her and blowed gently on her candles, causing all the fire to go off.

They all cheered her on.

She leaned closer to Tony and gave him a hi-five when he leaned closer to get one from her. She snickered and laughed. She was so happy.

"What did you wish for Gracie?" Olivia asked, leaning closer to her with a bright smile on her face. Everyone looked at her with anxiety in all of their gazes. They too were curious to know what she wished for. She shook her head. She was shy to.

"Yes Grace, tell us, what did you wish for." Tony encouraged her.

"Well, I wished that Aunty Amy would let me keep a dog as a pet in the house someday."

Amy scoffed.

"You'd have to unwish that one Grace," she chuckled, knowing that no matter how much she wanted to grant Grace's wish, her cynophobia was never going to let her. "Cause it's never going to happen."

Grace laughed hysterically, Olivia and Rafael smiled too.

"Don't worry Grace, I would let you play with Bully whenever you're at my house." Tony told her and then winked.

"Thank you Uncle Tony." She chuckled and winked right back at him.

"But that's not all I wished for." Grace went on. "I also wished that my mum wouldn't be sad anymore." She slowly turned to Olivia who just smiled and reached for her head. She gave her head a soft pat.

"I wished that her and my God daddy would finally get married like they said they would so that she and daddy Rafael, me and my baby brother or sister could live happily ever after." Grace chuckled.

Everywhere went silent quickly, Amy pursed her lip and looked away, scratching her head quickly and clearing her throat. A tiny frown covered Olivia's face as she slowly lowered her gaze from Rafael while he raised his head to her. He could see how uncomfortable she had gotten.

"Grace," Rafael turned to Grace.

"But why God daddy?" Grace turned to him. "You said you were going to be my daddy didn't you?" She asked him.

"You said you were going to get married to my mum, why haven't you? what is the matter? Don't you love her anymore? Don't you want us anymore?"

"Grace," Olivia called her name gently, too embarrassed to even look at her. She didn't in any way think that Grace would ask those kinds of questions.

"Did we do something wrong? Why can't we move back in with you, and Nanny Benita, and Aunty Lucy?" Grace went on.

Rafael let out a weak exhale and shook his head. It was none of those things and he didn't even know how to explain them to her. How was he ever going to explain it to her how his parents had killed her grandparents and caused her mother so much pain? How was he ever going to explain why it was harder for him to be in her life the way she had prayed him to. He rubbed the side of her head gently, looking at her.

"It's none of those things." He said to her. "And of course I still love your mother."

"Then why don't you want to get married to her anymore?"

"Of course I want to get married to your mother, she is the absolute love of my life, just like you are." He told her just as Olivia raised her head to him.

"But there are just some things your mother and I need to take care of first so we can both be emotionally available to give you and your baby brother or sister all the love that we can give to you both, and when it's all over, when the time is right, your mother and I would definitely get married." He leaned towards her and gave her a kiss on her cheek again, Grace laughed loudly.

"And you would get to have me all to yourself."

"Okay God daddy." She told him. "I understand, and I believe you."

"Okay that's enough kisses for one day." Tony announced and turned to Grace. "You could go ahead and cut your cake now Grace, I'm starving." He rubbed his belly just as Grace turned to her cake quickly and grabbed the knife. She cut her cake and everyone clapped and cheered. Rafael found his eyes finding Olivia's amidst the excitement and it stayed there for a while, causing her to turn to him too on reflex. She smiled at him.

"Thank you." She mouthed.
He scrunched his nose at her and they both went back to clapping with the rest.

It might not have started as the perfect birthday but Grace was grateful that it was going to end as one. Every single person in the room were the only people that she really needed. She was happy, she was genuinely happy.

It was her best birthday ever.