Taylor's POV
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Emilia Rachel Gilbert Scott, her name is fitting. It suits her small button nose, it suits her locks of brunette hair and it suits her pink cheeks and blue eyes. I blink looking down at my baby, number two, my absolute mini me. I can tell she will be just like me. Even though she's but minutes old, my mum gazes down at her as I lay in our pool in my bathing suit, and my mother gasps telling me that she's absolutely the image of me as a baby. Sweeping her own brunette hair back as she wipes a tear from her eyes.
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"Your daughter" Valeria smiles looking up at Jay, kind eyes and a kind heart that supported me both through my pregnancy and through birth. The most vulnerable place a woman can ever be in, yet I feel strong and empowered and down right emotional.
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"She's beautiful" he sighs wiping his eyes. His arms outstretched as he holds her and I watch him sobbing the water collecting around him as he holds her in the pool.
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"You okay Taylor" Valeria asks supportively and I nod, all good here, I'm just a mamma of two crying over her husband's tears as he looks upon his tiny daughter.
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"Okay daddy" my mother asks Jay smiling slightly as she watches him. He nods uncomprehending as he looks down at Emilia before gazing upon me.
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"She's you through and through darling" he smiles and I giggle as Valeria aids me out of the pool, handing me a soft towel.
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"Birthing pool is the way forward" I announce smiling as I wrap myself up before feeling Jay's arms surround me. Valeria checks over our new little bundle of joy. Jay had built a changing table made of Scandinavian redwood, standing shirtless for hours sawing wood and perfecting a unit to fit a cushioned mat with shelves. It stands proudly, a finished piece of work in our modern pool room. Holding our new baby on the cushioned mat as Valeria checks her over. Ferns and shrubs in terracotta pots under the soft lighting of candles and the scent of burning lavender wax filling the air as I stand in his arms his wife and bearer of his children.
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"You're incredible words cannot" he begins whispering in my ear playing with strands of my hair as he pulls it out of the bun on the top of my head. Handing me my clothes that I had placed in here for after the successful birth of our child. His dark golden blonde curls wet from the pool, I birthed our child with his arms around me. Laying back on his strong chest and feeling his strong heartbeat reverberating through me as I pushed.
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"Congratulations both of you" my mother smiles wiping her eyes and pacing outside back into the farmhouse and the warm kitchen.
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"Here" Valeria smiles passing me Emilia, small tufts of brunette hair that I run through my fingertips. I thank her profusely before Valeria leaves the pool room.
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The pool room was an addition to our little bubble of paradise in Italy, a construction team built an extension that fitted the same aesthetic as the rural Italian farmhouse. Using the same terracotta stone, two natural stone pillars open up to a set of glass double doors which leads you into a room so tranquil and still. Underground pool lights illuminate the water and arched windows that look out over the Italian countryside, the rolling hills and the olive trees. I had decorated the vast space with large terracotta pots holding shrubs and plants and Jay had built all of the furniture and the storage to hold towels and all of the essentials. Large panes of domed glass in the ceiling let in natural light, however at eleven pm we are showered by the moon light and the many stars that peer down on us.
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"She's so beautiful" he whispers as I lounge back on the rattan lounge set and look up at the skylights illuminating the moon and stars. Resting my baby over my chest as she latches on instinctively.
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"Mon amour" Jay whispers, stroking the babies hair, a stark contrast to his blonde locks that I fell in love with. Her naturally dark hair similar to my own and her olive skin, so strikingly beautiful.
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"I owe you the rest of my life" he smiles looking down at her on my bare chest. Jay Gilbert Scott, my husband and CEO of his deceased father's company, stares down at me with eyes wide and full of love as I smile completed by our new addition to our family. I watch him snuff out the many candles and the vast room grows dimmer, tall pillars candles and candelabras that he individually blows out. He had joked that it would have been easier to have electric lighting installed however I had insisted that I wanted a rustic feel to the space. No electricity, just wooden beams and outdoor plants and the natural light afforded to us from the Italian skyline.
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"I love you Mr Gilbert Scott" I whisper handing him his second baby. Our first born son, Henry Gilbert Scott after having celebrated his first birthday is asleep in his bed, tucked up in the farmhouse unknowingly he will wake up tomorrow to the birth of his baby sister. And to the realisation that they share a birthday. That will mean joint birthday parties, like twins but a year apart. I laugh slightly changing into a silky gown that is the same shade as the blue water. Deep and shimmering silk that glides over my skin and falls to my knees.
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"I love you Mrs Gilbert Scott" he whispers back clutching the baby into his chest, before grasping my hand and gazing at my wedding finger. My rings glistening under the light of the moon as he delicately kisses my hand before guiding me over to the glass double doors. I take in the breathtaking views of our farmhouse, the vineyard and the outdoor pool. The sizeable property with several floors alight and welcoming as I imagine our friends inside waiting patiently for news of the birth.
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***
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“Guys we have a surprise” Jay exclaims as he waltzes into the expansive kitchen, large wooden beams and marble worktops completed by top of the range appliances. He holds Emilia wrapped in a large fluffy blanket with his blonde hair pulled back and his chest bare, I rub his back gazing over at Rachel and Christopher our long standing friends who now live in Italy in their own country mansion. Rachel smirks at me pushing her blonde hair back.
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“You’re not already pregnant again are you!?” She quips and I laugh out loud, it’s becoming a long running joke seen as we conceived Emilia just after the birth of Henry.
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“Gosh no” I laugh as she bounds over to us, taking in our bundle of joy as my eyes sweep over Matthew James Henderson, Jay’s long term best friend. Clad in his suit, his shirt open due to the Italian heat. He sets his glass of whiskey down and holds my eyes in his own for several seconds. His eyes brooding as they sweep over my silk gown and my trailing curls.
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“Let’s see her” Ross says next to him and I find my eyes cannot leave Matthew’s. Ross with his blonde hair and his kind smile cuddles my baby as Rachel and him fawn over her and how much she looks like me.
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“She looks just like you, Tay” Matthew whispers gazing down at the baby. His stare holding his longing. Matthew and I had been romantically involved with one another for years, eighteen year olds that reached all of the milestones any new relationship strives for. We had been engaged, we had conceived twins. I’ll never forget the time when he got down on his knees and kissed my forming baby bump in our home in California, when I look into his green eyes full of longing I feel a huge pang of regret, a desire to erase the pain.
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Wiping his eyes and blushing he reaches out as Ross hands him Emilia, the sight of him holding her makes my heart skip a beat. He laughs slightly looking up at me unable to wipe the tears from his eyes. I swipe my finger over them delicately and wipe away his tears from his ruddy cheeks.
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“What’s her name” Rachel asks Jay as Christopher congratulates him on the birth of his second child.
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“Emilia” he whispers as I stare into Matthew’s eyes.
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“Hey I totally wanted that name if I have a little girl!” Rachel laughs.
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“She is beautiful it suits her” Matthew comments almost to himself, as she sleeps in his arms. Humming slightly as he rocks her. My hand holding onto her tiny hands.
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“Congratulations Jay” he says looking up and remembering where he is. We had lost our twins, tragically and before they were even successfully born. He longed to make things right between us, however our relationship died alongside them. I watch as he passes the baby over to Jay, a long look shared between them before he collects his car keys. A deep breath as the others busy themselves rather awkwardly avoiding him and the current turmoil clearly running through his mind.
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“One sec” I whisper to Jay as he watches me follow Matthew out of the large oak door and through to the porch. The warm amber lights flicker on in the porch and I gaze out over the water fountain and his Aston Martin parked out front as he turns and pulls his arms around me. Matthew breathes heavily as I hold him into my chest.
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“Congratulations Taylor” he whispers finally his tears slick on my neck and his mouth by my ear.
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“I..” I begin slowly knowing that I can fix his pain with my words, I can always fix him. However he pulls his red eyes away from me and disentangles himself from my embrace. Instantly walking over to the Aston Martin, I watch as he escapes in his car. Charging down the gravel as I stand in the porch watching the shiny black car disappear into the distance until I start to believe it never even existed in the first place.
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