Chapter 759:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

Later, Ashton and I lay in the petal-filled water, surrounded by a soft, sweet fragrance. Water and petals had spilled over the edge, soaking the floor.

Curled against his chest, I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, sunlight scattered across the emerald sea, catching the surface and shimmering in a soft blue glow. A few thick white clouds floated lazily across the bright sky, looking like something straight out of a painting.

Ashton had planned diving for the day.

𝘚𝘢ve 𝘺о𝗎𝘳 fа𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘪𝗍𝘦 𝗻𝗼v𝘦l𝘴 оո 𝗴𝘢𝗹𝘯𝗼v𝘦𝘭𝘀.𝘤𝗈𝗆

Since the kids were still too young to dive on their own, he rented a submarine instead. It was big enough for the four of us. Once we descended, the shutters on both sides opened up, revealing the underwater world through wide glass windows.

Schools of fish surrounded the submarine, bright and curious. Some of them pressed their big round eyes against the glass as if they were trying to peek inside.

Mickey and Minnie had their faces glued to the window. “Wow! There are so many fish!”

“That one looks like the one in our science book. What’s it called again? I forgot!”

I stood behind them, staring out at the colors swirling through the water, just as amazed as they were.

The deeper we went, the more fish we saw. The coral and plants thickened too, bursting with color. Branching coral, boulder coral, table coral, anemones swaying gently with the current, all of it so vivid it felt unreal.

This was so much better than the last time I went underwater.

We had been moving for a while when, just as the submarine was about to ascend, a massive whale appeared in front of us. It was bigger than the submarine. When it glided past the glass, its sheer size blocked out almost everything else.

Mickey and Minnie went silent, eyes wide and sparkling.

Then Minnie said suddenly, “Do you think there might be mermaids down here?”

Mickey shook his head. “Mermaids aren’t real.”

“But the stories,” she argued.

“They’re stories. Tales. Not real.”

Their bickering was so familiar it almost felt comforting.

When the submarine resurfaced, none of us really wanted to leave.

That afternoon, Ashton told me he had a surprise planned.

He said, very casually, that we’d be taking wedding photos.

I nearly burst. We’d been married all this time and never taken proper wedding photos. I hadn’t expected him to plan something so thoughtful, and right in the middle of our honeymoon too.

Ashton wanted the kids to play at the hotel’s children’s club while a photographer followed us around the island for the shoot, but the twins refused to be left behind. They insisted on joining in.

I was soft on them, and besides, I thought it would make a lovely memory, so I talked Ashton into letting all four of us do it together.

I changed into a white wedding dress and wore chunky white heels that were easy to walk in. My long wavy hair had been braided into a soft, intricate style, and there was a colorful flower crown on my head.

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