Epilogue 2

                                    

                                          
"Your mom's been bugging me all week to come out there."
                          
I laughed at the clear frustration on my father's face. I was in Italy with Lauren where the wedding was going to take place in a week. We both decided to come here early and at least try to oversee the preparations for the wedding. Both of us wanted it to be perfect, but Lauren most of all was on edge the closer we got to the wedding date.
                          
"Dad," I said, looking at my father's face on the laptop screen, "It's mom's first time in Italy after all. Give her a break."
                          
"It's my first time too and you don't see me pissy about it," he huffed one more time. Since the wedding preparations started a few months after my proposal, mom started to act like a wedding planner (even though we already had one) and even started going with Lauren, checking out wedding dresses and whatnot. And when I offered to help, she shooed me away and basically renounced me as her son and replaced me with Lauren.
                          
Of course, I knew she was just really excited for us. For years there was a looming darkness above our family. Would we ever go back to normal? Would we ever be whole again? And now, finally, we were. And not only that but, our family was going to get bigger. So who was I to take that happiness away from her?
                          
"Are you in the castle?"
                          
I shook my head. "We're at the Four Seasons in Milan, dad. Robert reserved a room for us here. We're going to Bracciano in three days."
                          
My father leaned back on his chair and chuckled. "Honestly, I still can't believe you're getting married, let alone in a castle."
                          
I laughed at his words. When Lauren's label found out we were getting married, they made a huge fuss about it. Don't get me wrong, we were both happy there was no resistance from the label about it but, in return, they wanted it to be this big public spectacle. They wanted it to be a wedding to be seen by everyone. Lauren, on the other hand, fought them off and told them that she wanted a private wedding with only our close friends and family in attendance.
                          
So after hours of discussion, we all settled for a compromise. It was going to be a private wedding with more or less only sixty people in attendance but the preparations were going to be made public for the media. On the matter of the location, however, we had no say in the matter since the label was sponsoring everything.
                          
And that resulted in the wedding taking place in Castelo Odescalchi in Bracciano, Italy which, incidentally, was where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married.
                          
"Her label's paying for everything, dad. We'll just ride it out," I added with a laugh.
                          
"And how's your wife-to-be by the way?"
                          
As if on cue, I heard Lauren's voice from outside the bedroom.
                          
"No, Ally! It's supposed to be cream, not white!" I turned towards the closed door. "I don't fucking care! Get it together, damn it!" There was a long pause before I heard her sigh. "I'm—I'm sorry, I just—"
                          
Her voice disappeared as she probably moved away from the bedroom. "Is she okay?" I turned to the screen and looked at the concern etched on my dad's face.
                          
"I don't know. I'll talk to her."
                          
"Alright. I'll tell your mom you said hi. I'll see you soon, Y/N."
                          
"Yeah, bye dad." I closed the Skype call and stood from my chair. Turning the knob, I slowly pushed open the bedroom door and looked for Lauren. I found her sitting on the couch facing the television with her face buried in her hands. She's been stressed these past few days and things might have finally hit their boiling point if she was arguing with Ally.