I stand in front of the mirror, running my hands on the soft fabric of the red sheath dress I'm wearing. The material sticks to my body, revealing my curves. I turn halfway to take a look at the back which looks just fine. My hair is parted into two and hangs around my shoulders in soft curls reaching the top of my breasts. A thin layer of makeup that my face holds, doesn't look that bad after all. I'm pretty impressed by the way the look turned out. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. Moreover, I haven't worn this dress in a long time, wasn't sure if it would fit me.

Today we are going to Dylan's parent's place for dinner. It's been 8 days since the wedding and I have managed to get along with Dylan so far.

I have been quite busy the whole week with all the work of the new hospital and stuff. Though Brad has been immensely helping me through the whole process, the greater part is on me. I just want it to be perfect, just the way Marc wanted. If that means no time for myself, then so be it. I feel like it's a way of me paying him.

This marriage was a huge set back in my process of healing, I would say. Since then every time I think of Marc, I can't help but silently apologize to him for not being able to fulfil my promise.

The knock at the door grabs my attention. Running the hairbrush, for the last time through my curls, I leave the spot in front of the dressing table. I walk up to the door and open it to find Dylan standing in front of me in a white shirt, tucked inside his narrow blue jeans- looking breathtaking, may I add. His hair is pushed away from his forehead only a single stand sticking out, making his face look heavenly. Although I might never develop any feelings for Dylan, there is no harm in accepting that the man has got some amazing features.

His eyes rake my body head to toe, just like mine did. Bringing his eyes back to my face, he says softly, "you look gorgeous."

"Thank you. You look good yourself," I smile at him.

His lips curl up into a smirk as he says, "I know that." Rolling my eyes playfully at him, I grab my purse from the bed and head down. Bear was already in the kitchen with Mrs Griffin. When we reach the living room, I find him happily running around the living room with his smiley ball. I glance at Dylan cautiously only to find him smiling at the cute sight. Sensing my eyes on him, he looks at me and on noticing my expression, he gives me a small nod, relieving me. I call Bear towards me and bend down to caress his fur for a while.

"I think we should get going," Dylan says after some time.

"Yeah," I say and stand up. Bear sits up near my feet while Mrs Griffin enters the room. "Are you sure you can manage?" I ask her for the hundredth time in the last three days. Right from the time she said she could take care of Bear when we are out, I've been wondering if it's going to be too much provided that she has other works as well.

"Yes, honey. I can. Just go. Dont worry." She picks up Bear in her arms and gives me a reassuring smile.

WE REACH his parent's house after about thirty minutes. It's not a big extravagant house like Dylan's mansion, as I thought it would be but it is quite big yet gives a cosy welcoming atmosphere which gives the vibe if a perfect place goes be called 'home'. The front yard is surrounded by beautiful flowers and shrubs. I haven't yet entered the house and I'm already head over heels in love with this one.

"Shall we?" Dylan's voice distracts me. I look at his direction to find him holding his hand out for me to take. I put my hand on his, and probably at the same time, we both notice my wedding ring. My eyes move to his and our eyes lock. And I know we just got reminded of the relationship between us.

He wraps his fingers around mine and leads us into his parent's house. I would've knocked but Dylan just opened the door and let us in. That's something new to me. I've always knocked at the door whenever I went to visit my Uncle and Aunt. Maybe that just applies to our parents.

"Oh, honey! At last, you are here!" A sweet enthusiastic voice booms in the living room, as our greeting. I see Mrs Walker dressed elegantly in a navy coloured dress reaching her knees, approaching us. Reaching us, she pulls me into a bear hug, "I'm so happy you're here. Welcome, darling."

"Thank you for having me." She pulls away and smiles cheekily at me. I can't help but notice the resemblance between Dylan and his mother. They look so similar. Dylan's eyes are the same shade of grey as Diana's and their smiles are identical. Yet Diana has a soft petite look while Dylan processes a sharp intimidating edge.

She moves to hug Dylan when Mr Walker appears to greet us, wearing an apron. A smile spreads on his lips as he approaches. He hugs me first, then moves to Dylan. After pulling away, he pats on Dylan's shoulder and says, "Let's go in. I'm almost done."

We move to the sit on the couch in the living room. It feels so good. A homely vibe. I've always stayed alone after Marc and never really wanted a 'home' provided it was a person for me. I've never belonged to anywhere after that. Only brick walls and ceilings for shelter isn't home, is it? It feels so good to be seeing that someone is at 'home'.

I notice how the whole room has pictures surrounding it. The peach coloured walls consisting of so many family photos, photos of a boy, I assume Dylan, from his childhood days to teenage days and in every picture, there's a huge smile on his face. A smile glowing with life. Which makes me think how he doesn't smile so often.

Dylan and Mrs Walker start a conversation about the charity foundation next week where I zone out looking at the pictures. Especially focussing on the difference between the boy in the picture and my husband. Soon, I hear a holler coming from Mr Walker saying the dinner is ready.

I am pretty anxious, to be honest. It's my first time in a while at someone's place for Dinner. Especially someone, I dont know.

Mr Walker joins us in the dining room, this time without his apron. Dylan and I sit on the one end while his parents sit opposite to us. The table is beautifully laid on a pure satin table cloth along with a flower vase, holding fresh flowers at the centre. Everyone gets settled and we dive in.

After a while, Mr Walker begins the conversation. "So Olivia, you're a vet?"

"Yes, Mr Walker." I almost forgot that they call me Olivia. And I no more feel like correcting.

"Oh no call me Jack." He waves his hand.

"Okay."

"Dylan said you met at his office for the first time." As soon as Mrs Walker says that, my food stops halfway to my mouth and Dylan makes a choking noise. I snap my head around to look at him while he reaches across the table and pours himself a glass of water. Even Dianna and Jack are now focused on him, with a worried expression on their faces. While sipping, Dylan peeps above the rim of the glass at me and seeing my glare, he looks away hastily.

"I'm okay," he says in a hoarse voice, putting down the glass.

"He said you fell in front of his cabin and he helped you," she says in an amused tone. My eyebrows shoot up and I look at Dylan who very desperately avoids looking at my direction.

"He said that?" I ask in an astounded tone. Diana nods and I look at Dylan and cry out," liar." He looks at me with a tensed expression. I glance back at his parent and say, "he tried to help me but ended up falling himself." With a triumph smile, I look at Dylan.

He narrows his eyes at me and then nods and says, "well, you were the one who started crying like a baby." I manage to contain my gasp. He did not just say that. He lifts one eyebrow challenging me.

"That's because you fell on my arm and that hurt. How much do you think you weigh?" I smirk.

"Well. That's some story," says Jack. Dylan keeps glaring at me, unamused.

"Yeah. I almost forgot about it," I say, still not breaking eye contact with my husband.

****

"You have a dog?!" Diana almost squeals, as we walk up the stairs. The conversation pretty much shifted from that topic, immediately at the dinner table. After dinner, we all helped clean up the table and sat at the living room, drinking wine. Diana said she wanted to show me the house and especially Dylan's room so now we are on our way there.

"Yeah," I answer her and pull out a picture of Bear from my phone and show her. "Look."

"Oh my god. He is adorable." She stares at the picture in awe. Diana is one of the most bubbly people I've ever met. It's like there's always a positive vibe around her. I wish Dylan was like his mother instead of the arrogant ass he is.

She opens the door to the far end of the hallway revealing a soft grey coloured room, a typical high school boy's room with video games on one corner and football and a bunch of unnecessary stuff filling up most of the space. I did have a lot of video games in my room, in high school under the influence of Marc but instead of the unnecessary stuff, I had books of my favourite authors.

Although the room is filled with useless stuff, yet it's organized. The room is regularly maintained. It doesn't have to be mentioned as to who does that. "This room is beautiful. You maintain it, dont you?" I ask, stepping into the room and looking around.

"Of course I do. That lad is too lazy to clean his room. Especially now that he's got a new one too," she says, chuckling. Even within these complaints, the love that she processes for her son is unmistakable. "Sit. Sit. I gotta show you something. " she pulls my hand and leads me to the edge of the tiny bed to sit. I fold one leg under my body and sit down, swinging the other.

Diana, circles round the bed, bends down and pulls a big cardboard box from under the bed. I take it from her hand and help her bring it in front of me. She sits opposite to me, keeping the big box filled with papers- pictures, I assume- between us. "What are these?" I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.

"These are Dylan's pictures. I wanted to show them to his girlfriend. I didn't meet you as his girlfriend, but as his wife, you deserve to see this." I smile softly at her. Eyes filled with excitement, and with an enthusiastic smile on her face, she starts shuffling through the pictures. She pulls out one picture and smiles mischievously before looking at me, "look!" She turns the picture at me taking me by surprise.

The picture is of a Naked Dylan, 1-year-old, I assume, laying on his curb. I am at the point where I dont know whether to close my eyes, study the picture minutely or roll on the floor laughing. The funniest thing is Diana's face. It holds a full-on a smile as if she has achieved the meaning of life. "He's...naked," I manage to say.

"I know." With that, my laughter breaks free. She joins me almost immediately. Frankly speaking, I like my mother in law better than my arrogant husband. It feels awkward to be calling people by these names even though they are practically strangers to me. I usually take a long time to bond with people but this wasn't the case here.

She pulls out another picture, still shaking with laughter and holds it out. "Who is this girl?" I cry out. It's a picture of a cute chubby girl, almost 3 years old, in her princess dress. I remove my eyes from the pic to look at Diana only to find her holding back her laughter. Her expression answers my question. "This is Dylan!"

Laughing hard, she nods. "Yeah. Your husband was the Disney Princess."

"I can't believe it. Won't he get mad if he knows you're showing me these pictures?"

"Oh, I am not afraid of that lad." I chuckle, shaking my head and look down at the princess picture, now in my hand.

"But why would you dress him up like this?!" I laugh.

"You'll understand when you have a baby." She starts laughing but then composes herself almost immediately. A worried expression shadows her face. I realize it because of me. Immediately, I smile and look down.

"Yeah. Maybe." Leaving out the fact that it's never going to happen.

"You okay, darling?" She touches my shoulder softly. I stare at her worry-filled eyes with a smile.

"I'm fine."

Nodding, she pats my cheek softly and starts showing me the other pictures but the enthusiasm is gone. I am already getting worried about her. Is it because of the way I reacted? I do hope not. I didn't want to hurt her.

"You know?" She starts. My head snaps in her direction and I give her my whole attention. "I wanted to play with my grandkids but my luck won't be favouring that. However, I'm thankful to see you as my daughter in law, before leaving."

"What do you mean?" I frown at her. Everything seems to have tangled up.

"Dylan didn't tell you?" Diana asks. I shake my head, clueless. Closing her eyes for a brief moment she turns her face to the side and takes in a deep breath before speaking. "I have breast cancer. Final stage. So, I have three months with my family at the most."