Isaiah squinted his eyes at a sudden brightness in the room, and once they adjusted, he opened them all the way to see Namiko silencing the alarms on her phone. He wrapped his arm around her before she could get out of the bed, and she chuckled, placing both of her hands over his.

"I don't wanna be late stink. Come on, we have to get up now." She used his arm that was over her belly to pull him up, leading the way to their bathroom.

The both of them washed their face and brushed their teeth at the sink then went to the closet to get dressed for the day. Isaiah gave Namiko a million kisses in between doing so and copped a few feels while she paid him no mind. She was so used to his affection that it was almost like he wasn't even there.

"Namiko," He said from behind her, rubbing her waistline while she did her lip combo in the mirror.

"Yes honey?"

"You nervous?" He asked.

"Yes. Can you tell?" She frowned at him through the mirror, and her frown dropped into a small smile when he pointed at her shaking hand.

"I'm trying to calm myself down but I can't help it. I hate that you pointed it out because now I'm gonna cry." She reached up to fan her face but Isaiah turned her around to give her a hug before she could.

Today was Naia's first day of school—and she was going to public school instead of being homeschooled by a tutor. She would only be doing half days this year since she was just in Pre-kindergarten but Namiko was still afraid that she would get separation anxiety from being away from her baby.

When they enrolled her last month, the school's counselor gave them a little welcome pamphlet and it discussed the signs and solutions to bullying; which was something Namiko never really learned about. Now that she knew what it was and that young children could even commit suicide because of it, the fear that ran through her couldn't be ignored.

Her little baby was just so precious to her. She hoped that everyone would see Naia the same way she did, especially since she was autistic. She hoped that they would see beyond her diagnosis—see her as Naia and not as an autistic child who struggled to understand some things. It crushed her to think about the possibility of people being mean to her.

"She gon' do well Namiko. She ain't like she was before—you taught her how to be outgoing just by being yourself. And you taught her how to be nice so the friends will come without her even trying. You gotta have faith in her." Isaiah kissed her forehead, and she sadly nodded while he wiped her tears away.

"I do I just—I'm nervous. I want to sit in class with her all school year and it makes me so mad that I can't." She childishly whined before laughing at herself, making Isaiah shake his head.

"I will stop crying if you promise to hit the parents of any child that's mean to her; and I want you to hit them really hard like—this!" She punched his shoulder to demonstrate but it felt as light as a feather to him which made her eyes roll while he laughed.

"Thought you said you ain't want me putting my hands on nobody else?"

"Don't use my own words against me. I changed my mind." She turned to walk out of the bathroom, and he laughed again as he followed her out.

They could hear Naia and Nonna Mae singing along to Where You Are from Moana in the hall bathroom while the actual song played from the Alexa speaker on the counter. Namiko almost started to cry again when she saw that Mae had already helped her into her outfit for the day.

"Mommy!" She pulled away from getting her face washed to tackle her mother's legs in a hug, and Namiko squatted to be at her level to return it.

"Hi sweetest face! Oh, I'm so proud of you mommy. You look so pretty." There was a pout on her face but a smile on Naia's.

"Thank you mommy." She leaned forward to kiss her cheek and Namiko's arms slid back around her for another hug. They'd made so much progress since picking her up from that foster home. Namiko couldn't be prouder.

"Hi daddy! Bagel?" She looked up at him after he kissed her forehead, telling him what she wanted for breakfast.

"Yeah baby. I just put it in the oven for you. How you feelin'? Good?" He held his hand up and she gave him a high five while nodding.

"School!" She then put both of her hands in the air for him to pick her up, and all three of them smiled at how excited she was.

She'd been looking forward to today—unlike her mother—ever since they went to tour the school last week with her teacher and a small group of her classmates to be shown around so that she wouldn't be overwhelmingly confused on the first day. Her teacher was so bubbly and sweet, Naia missed her already.

Anywho, Namiko rubbed her face down with Vaseline while Isaiah made her and Mae a bacon egg and cheese sandwich on a cheesy bagel for breakfast. As she ate, Namiko and Isaiah packed her lunch and her book bag together and made sure everything she had everything she needed.

"You want help getting back in bed Nonna?" Isaiah asked her, being the last one out of the house after forgetting his wallet on the dresser.

"Oh, no worries dear. I'm fine. I'm gonna sit outside on the porch for a minute. I need some sun." She followed him out the door and he grabbed her hand to lead her to the swinging bench a few feet away.

"I'ma take her out so we gon' be gone for a couple hours. Call if you need somethin', ok? We won't be far." He kissed her cheek before standing back upright, and she waved him and his worrying off.

"Have fun. Do not worry about me." She shooed him away, opening up the Solitaire game on her iPad which made him smile. He then turned and jogged back to the car so that they could head to the elementary school around the block.

The drive was less than seven minutes and they were there in no time. Instead of going through the drop off lane, Isaiah parked in an open visitor's spot because they wanted to walk her to class. He was so happy to be doing things like this again. God really favored him.

"Daddy?" Naia let go of his hand to wrap her arms around his leg, pulling him back to stop him from walking into the school that now had hundreds of kids instead of the group of ten that she was with last week.

"Home, daddy please." She turned her body away from the school and tugged on his sweatpants so that he'd pick her up.

"It's alright mommy. How about we just go and see Mrs. Feathers? We can say hi and then we'll go back home right after." Namiko squatted in front of her, stopping Isaiah from picking her up.

"And then home?" She repeated to be sure, watching Namiko nod in response. Naia seemed to be in deep thought for a second before she nodded as well, taking her hand again.

Isaiah smiled because he knew that although that was just a tactic to get Naia to go inside, Namiko really would take her back home if she didn't want to stay. Pre-K was optional unlike kindergarten, so if she wasn't comfortable going this year they'd just come back next August.

Naia's eyes roamed the halls and all of the faces they passed on the way to her classroom on the first floor, and she moved closer to her mom as tears welled in her eyes at how loud it was in the school. It wasn't anything like this when they visited last week so she was more than confused.

"Why hello, Naia! Welcome back sweetheart. How are you feeling today?" Mrs. Feathers greeted her with a warm smile and a pink sticker at the door. She gave the sticker to her to let her decide where she wanted to stick it.

"Skye.." She said quietly while placing the sticker on the back of her hand.

"She's right over there." Mrs. Feathers chuckled, pointing to a little girl who was standing near two other girls by the cubbies.

Naia looked up at Namiko who quickly wiped away her own tears before nodding to give her permission, and Naia slowly let her hand go and headed in the direction of the girls. When she got there, she lightly tapped Skye's shoulder and moved the opposite way so that Skye wouldn't know it was her, and then they laughed together when she got caught in the act.

"See? She gon' do just fine." Isaiah wrapped his arm over Namiko's shoulders as the two of them watched Naia get introduced to the other girls.

"She's forgotten me already. I can't do this." She dramatically whined, making Isaiah laugh.

"C'mon crazy girl. That one hers." He pointed to the cubby with her name taped in front of it, and Namiko put her backpack and the lunch box inside of it.

"Momm—I mean, Naia," Namiko corrected herself in fear of embarrassing her, and just thinking of Naia being embarrassed by her made her want to cry.

"Go with Skye." She pointed, asking for her permission again.

"Yes just—can I have a hug before you go?" Namiko asked hesitantly. Naia smiled as she tackled her in a hug, almost knocking her down in the process. Her tiny hand rubbed over Namiko's belly before she raised it to bring Isaiah in on the hug.

"Have a good day fat. Give me some." Isaiah lowered himself to her level and she gave both of them a kiss on their cheeks.

"You want to stay or do you want to go back home?" Namiko asked, getting her attention again.

"School now." She gently pushed Namiko's hands off of her, making a sad smile grow on her face.

"Ok baby. Your phone is in your backpack. Call me or daddy if you want to leave early, ok? I love you so much."

"Love you." Naia gave her one more hug before running back over to Skye and the other kids as Mrs. Feathers called to gather them in a circle on the carpet.

"She's gonna do fine." Namiko reassured herself, rubbing over her necklace to ease her nerves. "Ok baby we can go. I'm alright."

"Yeah? You sure?" He chuckled, leading the way out after she nodded again. She rubbed the back of his hand and held underneath her seven month belly at the same time, blowing out a slow breath.

Motherhood was so bittersweet. Namiko was so proud of who her baby was becoming but she was extremely sad to see her growing up. It felt like she was just an infant yesterday and now she was already at her first day of a public school.

It scared Namiko to think about Naia experiencing a childhood that she knew nothing about since she grew up in the Royal life, but it was also relieving to know that she had the freedom to choose who she'd become as a person without feeling suffocated by people who wanted to control her.

She loved her little girl more than anything in this world. She hoped the world would be nice to her.

"Where are we?" Namiko was snapped from her thoughts once Isaiah opened the passenger door to help her out of the car.

"It's called a dealership. It's where we buy cars." He told her, leaning over to kiss her stomach.

"Oh. You're buying another?" She asked with confusion.

"Yes. We need something bigger before you drop. It's gon' be yours though."

"You are so sweet baby I was just thinking about talking to you about getting a new one yesterday! You are always reading my mind. I love that." She told him while he grabbed her hand to hold it.

"Or did you look through my iPad?" She turned her head to look up at him and he immediately laughed, making her eyes roll. "I knew it was too good to be true."

"Girl shut yo' ass up. I do be reading yo' mind I just needed a little help with your pre-push gift." He shrugged.

"Whatever. So you saw which one I wanted then?" She asked, and Isaiah pointed to the side of the building where a brand new metallic gray 2024 BMW x4 was parked with a bright red bow positioned on the hood.

He'd already paid and did the paperwork for the car yesterday and didn't bring Namiko with him because he knew it would take a few hours and she was the most impatient person he knew. She hated waiting for literally anything. So, he took care of everything and the title was signed in her name and the vehicle was paid for in full by a cashiers check.

A smile graced his face when Namiko screamed at how the car already had all of the specs she'd added on her iPad, down to the metallic gray color and the peanut butter colored interior. Before she could grab the key from the employee standing next to the car, she turned around to jump into Isaiah's arms for a hug.

"Baby how much was it? It was a lot of dollars on my iPad that's why I hadn't brought it up to y—,"

"Don't worry 'bout that man. I still got some dollars left." He chuckled, in love with the way she addressed money.

"Ok.. and I'm at little mad at you because I know you didn't use the card I gave you and I hate when you do that." She stared up at him with a frown on her face, and all he did was lower his head to steal a kiss.

Namiko had 8.9 billion baums to her name when they left San Senova a few months ago. Converted to U.S. currency, that was 6 million dollars and a bit of change. Isaiah, of course, had a much lower amount in his bank account but still very substantial compared to the average American, and he only ever spent his personal money instead of the money that Namiko wanted him to spend.

She made him an authorized user on all of her accounts and gave him two of his own cards; one connected to her checking account and the other to her credit union account because she knew that she had way more money than him—but she was very humble about it.

It was stupid to her that it was almost a social requirement for the man to be the sole 'breadwinner' in the household. Isaiah even spoke about wanting to go back to work at the law firm so that he could still be able to bring money in but she immediately shut that down. She would rather them share her income than for him to go back to work. She preferred to spend every second of each day on his side.

To be honest, Namiko didn't like any conversation that involved money. She didn't even know how much she had or what it was worth—as long as she was able to swipe her card for cute things she saw at the mall or on Amazon and it didn't decline, the number after the dollar sign in her checking account was none of her concern.

She also didn't know what bills were or what kind they had to pay. They paid off the mortgage loan on their house in two months so now only the utilities had to be paid and Isaiah easily took care of that.

Anyway, money was rarely ever a conversation in their house. Isaiah, although annoyingly stubborn, knew that he was free to spend as many of Namiko's 'dollars' as he wanted without having to ask and Namiko could take his wallet to use the cash he kept in there whenever she pleased. They had a great financial dynamic.

"Thank you so much." Namiko smiled at the Asian woman giving her a very tall vanilla ice cream cone covered in sprinkles while Isaiah passed the cashier a five dollar bill to pay for it.

"You want some honey?" Namiko held it out to him once they walked away, being pulled closer by his arm that was draped over her shoulders.

"It's aight. I can think of a different kinda cream that tastes b—,"

"Shut the hell up." She pushed him away from her and rolled her eyes at the sound of his laughter.

"Nah it's good though baby. Wassup, you need to sit down for a minute?" His laughter slowly ceased when he noticed her breathing, and Namiko nodded, resting her hand on her side to support her back.

When she sat down on the bench on the side of the walkway in Central Park, she blew out a slow breath and licked her ice cream cone at the same time which made Isaiah shake his head. She didn't play about her food.

"I always love coming here. I can't walk as long as I used to though." She heavily and dramatically sighed, leaning back against the bench.

"Why you love coming here?" He chuckled, already knowing the reason.

"This was part two of my first date with this little guy I found on the street." She shrugged her shoulders, causing his laughter to return and a smile to grow on her face.

"I met my fiancé here too. I think you would like her if you met her." He grabbed her hand that had her engagement ring on it, then tucked his face in the crook of her neck where he left a light kiss before pulling back.

"You love her?" Namiko humorously asked.

"More than she would ever know." His face was in its resting state to show how serious he was as he watched hers warm with blush.

"Ugh. I know we're kidding but I love you so much more. I swear I do." And she loved how much his love consumed her to the point where she felt like she wouldn't be able to survive without it.

"Naia and Naliyah have the best dad in the world and they don't even know it." She added.

She couldn't imagine anyone else she'd rather raise her family with or wake up next to every day. This man was truly one of a kind and sometimes she still found herself curious about why he'd chosen her to be the one he married. The answer was simple though: they completed each other.

There was no Isaiah without Namiko and no Namiko without Isaiah. Being together was the happily ever after ending that they'd never prayed for but were more than grateful to be able to have it anyway.

"I wouldn't be half of that without you. You should pat yourself on the back for that." He repeated a common phrase she always used, making her laugh.

The end! Buenas noches