Zander's birthday had come and gone and he was very thankful Sophie suggested they change the wedding date.
He and Sophie called off of school as Zander needed to meet with Attorney Frankfurt, where he received a black card with the number "1" on it and Attorney Frankfurt wrote "haven," down on a piece of paper and advised them not to speak the name.
It was a safe, protected place and Theo did not know it existed. According to legend, Zander's great, great, great grandparents started the underground city. Next was filing the marriage certificate and getting Sophie's name on all the projects.
After that the two headed over to the bank, and Zander and Sophie signed all the paperwork and were honestly mind boggled as another 200 million donation came in for "personal usage only," from L&L and associates.
"I'll just guess this is a wedding gift from Leo and Luna but why so much?" Zander asked Ella.
"I'm not entirely sure, but with the way your businesses have been performing and how the hospital can still supply the medical care to those who can't pay, I don't see the need. However, this donation came in a month ago, which was strange," Ella said.
"Strange how, so you remember the day?" Zander asked.
"It says February 27th on the donation slip," Ella said with a shrug.
"That's around the time I changed isn't it?" Sophie asked.
Zander agreed that it was and couldn't have been a coincidence and that after Soraya said it was goodbye for a long time essentially, they both couldn't help but think this was no coincidence.
As they said their goodbyes, Ella had one more surprise, and she pulled out an amulet necklace. "This was your mothers, she gave it to me in case she wasn't there for your 17th birthday," Ella said with a gentle smile.
"It's beautiful," Sophie exclaimed and when Zander grabbed it, he felt a jolt of magic inside of him and his system said, "Congratulations, you have obtained a very rare item of Solace. This amulet will illuminate when danger is present."
He put it around Sophie and said, "this looks better on you, it illuminates when danger is present."
Zander kept it simple and had a double date dinner with Claire and Cyrus, who seemed to be doing a little bit better.
Cyrus and Claire both pitched in and got Zander tickets to a prestigious hotel in SilverCrest that also had a casino anyone 17 and older could gamble at. It was for the weekend after the wedding, and Zander and Sophie were very grateful.
Sophie didn't exactly know what to get Zander, so she made him a photo album with tons of pictures of the two of them, including one of them flying, which Zander had no clue how she took.
He sat silently and looked and touched every picture. The ones with his parents, the ones of the day they had met, and he truly appreciated how many pictures she or Claire had taken for them. He always appreciated the pictures his parents had, and after about 10 minutes of silence, Zander, who was emotional at each picture on each page, smiled and through their bind said, "this is the best gift I could have ever asked for, thank you, my love!"
Sophie accidentally said, "you're welcome," out loud, which made Cyrus and Claire feel awkward and Zander said, "oh sorry we have more sensitive hearing I whispered how much I loved the gift."
After dinner, they were watching a movie when the Grace family made a surprise visit, with the Harmony family and Hart family. Mrs Grace, being a renowned chef, had baked a very eloquent cake and brought the boys with, who were all in awe of their sister's new house.
Zander quite enjoyed the company, and around 8 PM everyone was off, saying their best birthday wishes and Sophie's mom asked if she could speak with Sophie before she left.
Mr. Grace loaded up the car with the boys and Mrs. Grace looked Sophie deep in the eyes and pulled out a small bag and handed it to Sophie. "I don't expect you tell me everything in life, but living with a boy for over a month, being engaged and now both adults I just want to make sure you're safe," Mrs. Grace explained.
"Mom!" Sophie exclaimed.
Zander had peaked out the window to make sure everything was ok. Sophie said, "it's fine," via their bind and Zander started cleaning up.
"Mom, thank you but you don't have to worry. I'm still a virgin, what's even in here?" Sophie said.
"Birth control medication, your Father wrote you a years worth of prescriptions and trust me, that's the happiest I've seen your father in awhile," Mrs. Grace laughed to try and ease the mood.
"Thanks Mom, tell Dad I said thanks!
"How the heck am I supposed to get in without him knowing?" Sophie thought.
"I know what you're thinking, if you walk in with that tonight you might think you're inclined to do something with him, but when I look at Zander, I see a young man who deeply loves you and cares for our entire family. Your brothers won't stop talking about how much fun they had on Saturday and how they hope to see you two more. Simon thinks with Zander training him he'll be the next big U18 star," Mrs. Grace laughed.
"Thanks Mom and thanks for getting everyone together. Are you ready for Sunday?" Sophie asked, with a bright smile.
"I never thought I'd say this with you being 17, but yes, I am," Mrs. Grace said.
She gave Sophie a big hug and kiss and walked to the car.
As her Mother got in the car, Mr. Grace yelled out his drivers side window,
"Great job on your tests and at school too kiddo. We got a call from the principal that you've moved up to the number three student!
With a wave and a blush, Sophie shook her head and turned to walk inside, bag in hand with a brave face.
"Well, how'd your talk go?" Mr. Grace asked his wife.
"She's still our perfect little angel, for the time being, that is. I'd say after the wedding is probably when." Mrs. Grace responded.
"I can't believe I'm walking our only daughter and oldest child down the aisle in five days, that her brothers actually like him, and everyone, including the Harts just seem like this will be another regular day," Mr. Grace said, noticing the kids, aside from Simon, had fallen asleep.
Simon had his headphones on watching the videos from the match they had attended, which made his parents smile.
"I feel for Claire and Cyrus, they're watching something that almost never happens, happen, right in front of their eyes and Claire isn't a magical user, no one knew Cyrus was until Zander and Sophie watched his parents video, and well, let's just say it can't be easy with how in tune our Sophie and future son in law are," Mrs. Grace said.
"I know, Sophie mentioned how she got annoyed at all the jealousy on Saturday coming from Claire and how she just kept reassuring her to trust Cyrus and that Zander and her were just, well, different," Mr. Grace said.
Sophie had finally got the nerve to walk inside, only to see the kitchen clean and Zander nowhere to be found. She could hear the water running from the third floor and figured he was taking a shower.
"This is perfect, it says to take one at night time with food and a glass of water," Sophie thought.
Just as she opened the box and got one of the birth control pills out of the packaging, her phone vibrated and it made her jump. She quickly swallowed the pill and checked her phone.
"Your Dad says he's proud of you and that if there are any side effects of the medication to let him know, love you." - Mom
Before she could finish reading the sentence, she accidentally threw up all over the sink and counter.
"What was that icky pill you put in your belly, our body doesn't like it." Scarlett asked Sophie.
"It's to protect humans from having babies." Sophie explained.
"Oh, so you don't lay eggs then? That's weird," Scarlett said as Sophie had taken her shirt off, failed to hear Zander come down to the kitchen and to her surprise, he picked up the box of medication, set it aside, ran upstairs and ran Sophie a bath.
"Is everything ok, my love?" Zander asked.
"Yes, I took one of those birth control pills my mom gave me. My dad wrote out a year's worth of prescriptions and told him to let him know if he needed to write anymore," Sophie said with a red face.
"I'll clean this up, go take a bath, we have school tomorrow," Zander said and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you babe," Sophie said, returning the kiss and when she got upstairs, Zander had run a nice bubble bath for her and a TV now mounted in their giant, whirlpool bath.
"Just in case you ever wanna listen to music or watch a show or movie while you relax, thanks for the amazing birthday, love Zander," was the note left on the tv.
"By the way big sis, I was just teasing. I know humans don't lay eggs. I was just trying to make you feel better. I'm guessing our body just rejects that medicine." Scarlett said.
Sophie was amazed at how well Scarlett could speak, being just over a month old.
Zander cleaned up the mess, grabbed the box and put it in the bag her mom handed Sophie, washed his hands and arms using his water magic to not ruin Sophie's bath. He then got changed and knocked on the bathroom door.
"You don't have to knock Zander, but you are always so polite," Sophie said.
He walked in, saw how relaxed his future wife was, soaking in the bubbles and said, "I wasn't expecting anything like this from you, let alone your parents, but my parents would have wanted me to wait until I was married. Also, I don't want you to think that means Sunday we have to do anything either," Zander explained.
He then threw the bag in the trash.
"No use keeping things that will make you sick. Zintan said it's the phoenix in you." Zander chuckled.
"Yeah, Scarlett played dumb and asked me why humans didn't lay eggs and I walked right into it, she made me laugh. I'm amazed how smart she is for how young she is, what's it's like with you and Zintan?" Sophie asked.
"I've always had him so I'll put it this way, when I, or we, see you, I see the most beautiful soul I've ever seen and Zintan knows how much I love him. It's how Scarlett feels about you and me as well. Zintan explained it to me and he was genuinely happy I found a mate, as he explained he would have by this age." Zander said.
Sophie smiled and put her hand on her heart, "yes, Scarlett feels the same way."
"I'm beat sweetie I'm headed to bed. Take your time. The principal excused us from next week, if we're able to get all our course work complete and graded by Friday so we're going to be busy."
"That's great, can we go to Southern Harmonia starting Monday for a few days? You know at 'our resort?' Sophie asked.
"That sounds great, see you in the morning, love you," Zander said and laid down, prayed, smiled and fell asleep quite quickly.
"I hope he likes it, Ella and the staff have been working on it all week and the resort will be ours from Monday-Thursday. I figured then we could fly to SilverCrest for Cyrus' gift. I'm glad Claire accepted money to pitch in for it," Sophie thought as she got into pajamas, prayed and snuck in and cuddled up with Zander, who almost inherently put his arm around her, whenever she got into bed.
"I'm so glad he didn't make that whole birth control scene awkward." Sophie thought as she drifted to sleep.