CHAPTER SEVEN —
( my daughter lives within the beat of my heart. )

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two weeks later.

THE FUNERAL
New York City

Diana didn't like the way their house felt without Daisy Love's presence in it. Besides the noise of movement within the home, everything else was quiet. The sound of laughter no longer bounced and echoed in every room, and the feeling of love seemed to have disappeared also. Diana found herself spending most of her days standing or sitting in Daisy's room, scrolling through photos and videos of her on her phone or looking through all of the young girl's toys and clothes. Daisy's smell was still in her bed and on her clothing, and Diana would never wash it as long as she was alive. Diana and John only really saw one another when they were going to sleep or when they passed each other in the house. Other than that, not a word was shared between each other. Diana just felt too numb to speak and John was dealing with his grief similarly but also different at the same time. He only left the house to grab food or to head down to the airport runway so that he could drive his car around at whatever speed he wanted to just to let out his anger. Diana seemed to fall back into old habits as she set up all of her old targets and brought out all of her old knives and would throw them whenever she felt herself beginning to boil over the edge.

Daisy's funeral approached way too quickly in Diana's eyes, but John knew that if they didn't have one for the child then neither of them would be able to properly begin to grieve. If Diana and John couldn't show their emotions, the weather sure did a good job at doing the job for them. The day was sad, dark and wet and rained the entire day. Even as they stood around Daisy's little casket and she was lowered into the ground, Diana had a black umbrella in her hand with John beside her. When she was placed at the bottom, Diana and John both threw in a couple of Daisy's onto the casket.

People behind the couple dispersed and headed towards their cars so that they could drive to Diana and John's house for a light afternoon snack and just gather in memory of Daisy. Diana thought it was stupid, these people didn't really know Daisy. Sure, some of them had seen the child when they took her to the playground to play with other kids, but nobody truly knew them or the little girl.

Meeting back at John's car, Diana was surprised to see Marcus standing beside it. John lead the way to meet his old friend who seemed to have also dressed in black for the occasion. "It's been a while," he greeted. John stopped just in front of him and Diana stood to the side, her eyes watching their old friend but lacking any emotion or happiness at the reunion. "My condolences. How are you both holding up?"

Diana didn't respond, she just found her eyes drifting to the side where a large tree stood tall with a man standing under it. "I keep asking, "Why her? She's just a kid"," John spoke.

"There's no rhyme or reason to this life," Marcus told them. "It's days like today scattered among the rest."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't blame yourselves." But Diana did just that. She knew she didn't deserve a happy and carefree life after all of the lives she had taken and destroyed throughout her whole career, so what made her think that bringing along a child for the ride was going to end out being a good thing? Now she was gone, and a large hole had taken residence in Diana's heart where her daughter once was.

Diana walked around Marcus and began to walk towards the man standing under the tree. He wore a black suit just like everyone else had with his dirty blonde beard neatly trimmed and his hair styled up. He however seemed to embrace the rain as he stood with no umbrella, letting the leaves of the tree above him be his shelter. Diana stopped in front of the taller man, him looking down at her with a sad smile.

"Hey, Diana," he spoke.

"What are you doing here, Thomas?" Diana asked, a frown now on her face.

"I'm here for my sister and my niece," Thomas told her, assessing his younger sister's face to see if she was going to give in or show any sign of emotion besides annoyance.

"You barely knew her. You met her once."

"I doubt these other people knew her any better. At least I'm blood," Thomas told her. Diana looked away, a disdained look on her face as she was once again reminded of the simple fact that she had family out in the world that never checked in on her or wanted anything to do with her. "You know how busy our work gets. I wanted to see you, but you seemed happy. You and Wick got out. So I stepped back and let you have your happiness, something we never had when we were kids."

"I know why you're really here, Tommy, and it's not for Daisy," Diana said, turning back to him.

Thomas rose his eyebrows. "Okay, then tell me."

"You're here on behalf of dad to see if losing Daisy will bring me back into the game," Diana told him. Thomas didn't say anything, he knew she could read it all over his face. "You're here to see if I'll go off the deep end again and rejoin our old fucked up life that John nearly died for to get for us and our baby."

"Maybe I just missed my little sister," he humoured. Thomas' eyes then moved to a figure walking towards them, his posture immediately straightening up at the sight of John Wick. "John."

"Tommy," John greeted. "Sending your condolences?"

Thomas slowly nodded his head, his gaze not moving away from John who he struggled to catch any glimpse of emotion from. "Condolences," he spoke, then looked back down at Diana. "You're nearly there, Diana. I doubt you'd last one little problem in your life now." He looked back up at John. "Look after her." Thomas then turned around and walked out into the rain and out of the cemetery.

"What did he say?" John asked, noticing the disdained look on his wife's face.

"That dad sends his regards," she muttered, then turned around and headed for the car.

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Spending the next few hours at home with some people she barely knew almost made Diana go insane. She knew they were there to pay their respects for the loss of her child, but knowing that most of the people in the room were parents themselves and had their living children at home broke Diana's heart. Diana spent most of the time seated on the lounge surrounded by mothers and zoning out on whatever they were talking about. John himself even stood on the other side of the room away from everyone else. Nobody bothered the man, knowing he was grieving, and nobody commented to Diana on how she wasn't engaging in conversation.

The lounge beside Diana dipped, however she didn't move her gaze from the doll sitting on the coffee table in front of her. "Mrs Wick?" A feminine voice asked. "I was one of the nurses who looked after Daisy."

Diana's head slowly turned at that, immediately recognising the blonde-haired woman beside her with caring eyes. She was Daisy's main nurse, and she paid the small family a visit every hour to make sure they were comfortable and alright. "Daphne, hi."

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up," she spoke softly. "I'm sorry this happened to Daisy, she was absolutely lovely and such a gentle soul."

"She was more than I'll ever deserve," Diana mumbled.

"That's not true. That's never true," Daphne told her. "Look, I know what you and John used to do. Whatever you think you believe, just know that you were amazing parents. I saw how you acted around her, how you kept her happy even as her health began to decline. She was happy in her final moments, Mrs Wick, and that's more than can be said about a lot of other people."

Diana didn't believe her.

"I also have something for you, if that's okay. And it's not another casserole," she tried to joke, handing over a small envelope. "Read it later."

Diana took the envelope. "Thank you, Daphne."

There just didn't seem to be any point in continuing with the conversation and Daphne could sense that so she left the grieving mother alone. Time passed by in a blur and everyone's goodbyes and condolences seemed to merge together and hurry along much to Diana's delight.

Diana and John slowly began to clean the living area and took the empty glasses and platters to the kitchen to wash them later. She made her way back into the living room and noticed the unopened DVD of Tangled laying underneath the TV — Daisy Love's favourite Princess movie, and picked up the DVD, staring at the cover and at the Blonde haired Princess on the front. The movie was truly beautiful, Diana thought so at least. She just stood there staring at the cover when someone stopped behind her and placed their hands on her biceps and rested their head on her shoulder.

"I can't help but think that maybe this is my fault," Diana told John. "She was never truly meant to exist for a lot of reasons, and purely for my own selfish reasons I decided that I should have her. And this is what I did to her. I killed her. I killed an innocent child."

"All we have to do is remember the good times with her," John softly told her. "She was our little blessing, and she'll be in our hearts forever."

The doorbell went off and John kissed Diana's shoulder. "I'll get it." John disappeared and Diana brought the cover of the DVD up to her face, placing a soft kiss on it. A short moment later John walked back into the living room carrying a pet carrier and Diana frowned at it before a look of realisation crossed her face.

"Is this Sunny?" she asked.

John nodded and placed the cage on the floor. He then held his hand out and softly pulled his wife down onto the couch with him so that they were seated beside each other and they could both look at the dog before them. It was a Beagle puppy, and the little dog whimpered in the cage. Diana's eyes then turned to the envelope sitting on the table that Daphne gave her and she reached over to pick it up.

"Who's that from?"

"The nurse that looked after Daisy," Diana replied. She opened up the envelope and pulled out a card, her mouth parting in shock when she recognised the flower painted on the front. She opened it up and read the first couple of words. "John, this is from Daisy."

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking down at the card in his wife hands. ""Dear Mommy and Daddy..." Who gave this to you, again?"

"The nurse that looked after Daisy," Diana looked up at John. "Do you think she got her to say some words to us?"John didn't say anything except look back down at the card and Diana turned back to it.

Dear Mommy and Daddy,
With nurse Daphne's help, I am writing this letter to you. I love you so so much. You two are the best mommy and daddy ever and I will always love you. I can't wait to meet Sunny, she will be the best doggy in the world. Can you make sure we get her a yellow collar? I already know she loves yellow! And can we get her lots and lots of toys, please? Maybe we can get a toy dog for Bella so she doesn't miss out. I can't wait to go home and get out of this smelly hospital. I miss my bed. I love you both so so much!
Love always,
Daisy Love
xoxoxoxo <3

Diana handed the card to John as she felt her throat begin to close up and tears begin to fall down her face. She made her way through the house and up the stairs towards Daisy's bedroom, all while her chest heaved and her body raked with sobs. When she entered her daughter's room, she sat down on the bed and looked at the teddies sitting on top of the pillows and ran her hands over the yellow quilt before burying her face in her hands as sobs raked her body, making her cheeks turn a bright red as the wetness of her tears covered both of her hands. She could barely breathe as a lump formed in her throat and her hands began to shake.

"Daisy, b-baby, I love you," she sobbed loudly. "I love you so so much."

AUTHORS NOTE
I'm sorry this is so bad, I hate writing sad things. Well little Sunny has now been introduced and that means the dog is here. Won't be long until shit hits the fan now everyone :o
This chapter goes out to queens-hope!! Thank you so so much for this awesome closing gif you made for me!! You're amazing 💕
-rosepetal