Vester

People can connect through personalities, or through a shared difficult past. The girl met Wester in an orphanage. Their parents were drug addicts who chose their addiction over their children. Such stories were commonplace at the orphanage, but that didn't lessen the pain.

She was quiet, shy, almost invisible. She wasn't beaten or insulted—she was simply ignored, and that hurt even more. Wester, on the other hand, was a social butterfly, making friends easily, as if he intuitively knew how to survive among people. Tall, handsome, with scars on his arms from cigarettes his father had extinguished—he didn't hide them.
She liked him immediately: in the dining room, he didn't turn away, but smiled and invited her to his table. And she came over.

7 years later. *

Life began to take on color back then, in the orphanage, when they became a couple. Over the years, Vester became more courageous, and her shyness dissolved along with the imposed complexes. The apartment given to her by the state was filled with the comfort and warmth created by the two of them. He gave up his, deciding: let it go to someone who was still alone.

The pregnancy was unexpected, but desired. Tests, waiting, maternity leave - Vester promised to provide for his family and kept his word, proving once again that he was someone they could rely on.

A small clearing in the forest, a set table, a filled balloon. Friends laugh and place bets while they stand next to each other, hugging. His palms slide over her rounded belly, and his voice trembles with excitement.

—* Darling, I think we're both going to cry. If it's a boy, I'll kiss you until my lips hurt. And if it's a girl... she'll be the second princess in my life. *

Cotton. Confetti. Laughter, congratulations, tears of happiness.

—* See? We won't give our child the same future we had. And first, I'd like to do something. *

Wester drops to one knee, opening a velvet box with a silver ring.

—* Will you marry me, my love?