1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Chapter 1

He made it to the waiting room, where the rest of BSB was before he collapsed.

Kevin rushed over and asked in a worried voice, “Alex, what’s wrong? What happened?”

He just shook his head thinking, “If I don’t say it, it won’t be true.”

Brian’s wife, Leighanne, came over and sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulder. She had always been able to get him to spill his guts about anything and everything that bothered him.

“Alex, honey, tell me what happened. You know you can tell me.”

“N…N…Nevaeh. S…S…She’s gone.” He said, once again giving into the tears.

“Oh, honey.” She said, as she took him in her arms.

Soon everyone in the room was crying. Denise walked in from her visit with the twins and burst into tears as soon as she saw what was going on.

“Oh, Alex, honey.” She said as she took her son into her arms.

For a while everyone sat around crying, and then a nurse came into the room and asked to speak with Alex.

She sat down in front of him and his mother and said, “I know you’re going through something horrible, but I need to ask you a few questions about your son and daughter.”

“Yes, yes of course.” He replied.

“The first thing I need to know is if you have decided what you’re going to name them.”

“Yes I have. My son’s name is James Oliver. And my daughter’s name is Nevaeh Bonnie.”

“Okay,” she said writing down their names. “And then the hospital requires that I ask if you would like us to send the birth announcements out to the newspaper.”

“No.”

“Okay that was it. Oh and your son and daughter have to stay here for a few more hours then you’ll be able to take them home.” She said and left the room.

At this point he was glad that his uncle had agreed to baby-sit Gracie. God, how was he going to tell her that mommy was never coming home?

A few hours later he left the hospital with his son and daughter.

His mother stayed with him for the week leading up to the funeral, as did his uncle. His mother had taken care of the funeral arrangements for him and he was glad because he hadn’t wanted to deal with any of it.

He was the last of Nevaeh’s family because her parents and younger brother had died in a car accident not long after Gracie had been born.

“Baby, I love you.” He said as her casket was lowered.

Everyone went back to Alex’s house after the funeral was over and sat around remembering Nevaeh and fawning over baby Nevaeh and James, and Gracie.

An hour after Kevin and Kristin, who were the last to leave, left, Alex left his sleeping children with their grandmother and went back to the cemetery to say his private goodbye. ~ENDFLASHBACK~

“Nevaeh, you always said we’d be together forever. Now that’s not gonna happen. I can’t believe you left me and the kids. I know you had no choice, but it still hurts. I don’t know why this happened to us. I wish I did. God, I miss you so much it hurts and you haven’t been gone very long. I don’t know how I’m going to get through life without you, or how I’m going to raise the kids without you. I love you so much. I always have and always will. I will always remember you and I’ll make sure the kids do too. I’ve got to get home to the kiddos now. I love you.”

As he climbed into his Explorer to go home to his children, he swore he heard Nevaeh say, “I’ll never forget you Alex.”