Chapter 27 - Fireworks and Flowers with a box of chocolate and ring

"Is she already done?" Mrs. Gonzales asked one person from the glam team when she entered Ayesha room. The party well start five minutes before seven. All the guests have already arrived and they are just waiting for the birthday girl.

"Yes, she is already done Mrs. Salvador. She's good to go." the person who was being asked answered. Ayesha's mother walked towards her daughter who was now watching herself from the mirror, seeing her gorgeous daughter made Mrs. Salvador tear up.

"Mother how do I look?" Ayesha asked her mother when she saw her walking towards her direction.

"Very lovely, just like your mother." Ayesha's father was the one who answered as he walked inside his daughter's room and wrapped his arms on the waist of his wife. He looked at Ayesha, his baby girl is already a woman, she is not a teen anymore.

"Thank You father." Ayesha took a step forward and gave both her parents a hug.

"Okay let's go now, the guests are already waiting for our beautiful birthday celebrant." Ayesha's mother said as she separate from the hug.

Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales walked first downstairs and signaled the Emcee to start the party.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let us all welcome our birthday celebrant for tonight, Ms. Ayesha Myne Gonzales." the emcee spoke and all the guests stopped what they are doing as they followed the spotlight, and there they saw standing at the top is a beautiful and gorgeous woman. As she gracefully walked down, she emits an elegant aura of a young heiress. Her turquoise sleeve lace dress is perfectly fitted to her body, it emphasizes and hugged her thin waist perfectly. Knight was watching her with full of adoration and admiration in his eyes.

As soon as she reached the last step of the stair, a hand was extended before her. She glance at the owner of the hand, it was Knight. She smiled at him and gladly took his hand, he ȧssisted her towards the stage in front. Ayesha sat down at the center right beside Aria and on her left is Knight and beside Knight is his Grandmother.

At the very corner of the mansion, a pair of eyes is intently gazing at Ayesha, longingness and sadness are the emotions that can be seen in his eyes but it was immediately change into admiration and full of love. He then gazed at the person beside her, his gaze is like of a lion's who is ready to kill his prey. As he was looking at the two people in front a woman approached him. "Are you alone?" the woman asked. He just stared at the woman with his cold gaze, his secretary immediately went to his said. "Excuse me Miss, my master don't like to be disturbed when he is alone." his secretary politely said to the woman, the woman immediately leave without saying a word. And the man once again gaze at Ayesha.

"Please let us all welcome the Grandfather of the birthday celebrant to give us all an opening speech." the emcee spoke, Grandpa Felix stood up, he still look strong despite his age and appearance. He walks towards the emcee and got the microphone from the emcee's hand.

He spoke in a very autocratical yet quite gentle voice "Good Evening young ladies and gentlemen, I just want to welcome you all to my granddaughter's birthday party, this party is the first ever party that my wife and Ayesha's mother have organize since eight years ago. Our dear Ayesha despise having a party when her own birthday comes but because she now a fully grown woman, not a teen anymore, her Grandma blackmailed her to have this party.

Grandpa Felix turned to Ayesha's direction and he spoke softly, "Ayesha, Grandpa would like you to know that I love you so much and happy birthday once again." he then looked at the guest, "And thank you for coming to my granddaughter's twentieth birthday party. Dinner will be serve first and please enjoy the party after the dinner." Grandpa Felix lastly spoke and handed the microphone back to the emcee. Dinner was first serve, Ayesha and Aria are quite starving already. Aria was definitely drooling at the serve food in front of her.

"You look so beautiful today." Knight whispered as he complimented Ayesha.

"Thank You Brother Liwei." Ayesha replied as she dig in to her food.

"Happy Birthday, I will just give my birthday present after the party if it is okay for you." Knight again whispered to Ayesha's ear. "Oh no. It's definitely okay for me. No need to rush in giving me my gift and beside I already receive an advance birthday present from you. Remember when you gave me the wing shaped bracelet yesterday." Ayesha said as she looked at Knight's face.

"Oh that bracelet, it was a present from someone else, he told me to give it to you." Knight uttered without saying Ayesha's brother's name. He was trying to hide the nervousness of his voice. Fearing that Ayesha might suspect something.

Ayesha frowned, she was curious of the givers name but she didn't further asked for more questions, she just went back to eating her dinner.

While Ayesha and Knight were talking to each other, they didn't know that some of Ayesha's classmate are eyeing the two of them.

"I didn't know that Ayesha personally knows Mr. Salvador." one of Ayesha's classmate uttered as she looked at the two people talking in front.

"Look they look like a sweet couple, aren't they perfect for each other?" another classmate said.

"They could be a thing if only Mr. Salvador is not a professor in our school." another girl said while chewing her food. The other girls agreed.

All the guest went back to their places for the blowing of the birthday cake. The emcee called Ayesha, and aske her to make a birthday wish before blowing the candles. Ayesha closed her eyes and wished, "I wish that I could live a happy and peaceful life along with my love ones." after she have said her wish she then blew the candles. All the guests clapped their hands. The cake was cut and was distributed to the guests, while they are eating Mrs. Gonzales gave a speech for her daughter.

"Ayesha as you turn twenty today, I just wished that you would be more responsible on your action, you are not a teen anymore darling. I hope that as you open a new chapter in your journey as fully grown woman, you could be more optimistic and that you will always accept the mistakes that you made because you can never change them the only thing you can do is accept them, because these mistakes can make you more stronger. And I hope that you would forgive yourself, it was not your fault on what happened that day. I love you baby always remember that and Happy Birthday again darling" Ayesha's mom said as she wiped the tears that are rolling in her cheek. Ayesha stood up and gave her mom a tight hug.

"I love you to mommy, thank you for everything." Ayesha whispered to her mom's ear as she was also trying to control her tears that are attempting to escape from her eyes.

The emcee spoke again and this time Ayesha' father will give his message to his only daughter.

"Good Evening everyone, thank you for coming to my daughter's twentieth birthday party. Ayesha, daddy loves you so much and I will always be here for you, you will always be daddy's little girl even if you are already a fully grown woman and if ever you will get married someday, nobody could change the fact that you are my baby girl. Happy birthday again baby. I love you." Ayesha's father said and he looked at Ayesha's direction. "I don't want to shed a tear today because I know for sure that your mom won't stop crying if I would make my message longer." he added and gave the mocrophone back to yhe emcee and walked his way to Ayesha and gave her a hug. He then wiped the tears of his wife and gave her a peak in the lips.

"That was so sweet, now it is time for our birthday celebrant's bestfriend to give her speech for Ayesha." the emcee said and Aria stood up and got the microphone.

"Hi! Ayesha, wow this is just like you are having a second debut." Aria joked around that made the guest laughed. Aria then spoke seriously this time, "Happy Birthday to you, my one and only bestfriend since fetus days. I am very grateful and thankful that both our mothers are best friends since their college days, because of them we two meet each other. Thank you for being their always for me even if you would tease me about my height and you would pair up with my lion brother just to tease and make fun of me. Thank you for all those sad and hapoy memories that we've shared together. Remember always that I will forever be your gorgeous and stunning best friend, I'll make sure that no one can replace me. For better and for worst I will always support you and your love life is one of that. Happy Birthday again Ayesha. I love you." Aria ended her speech and she run towards Ayesha and gave her a tight hug.

"That was so sweet of you Ms. Aria, you were actually making a vow earlier." the emcee commented. "And now to formally end the party, let us hear our birthday celebrant's speech." the emcee uttered as Ayesha stood up, Knight also ȧssissted her in getting up. Ayesha then took the phone as soon as she stood at the center.

"First of all I would like to thank my mom and Grandma for organizing this amazing party" Ayesha looked at her Grandma and her Mother's direction. "To my glam team for making me look like a human for tonight." Ayesha joked as she looked at the table across her, where her glam team seated. "And to all of you for attending and coming to my birthday party." Ayesha looked at her guests. She then spoke again, "Eight years ago, I told my parents that whenever my birthday would come, I don't want them to organize a party for me, because during my thirteenth birthday, my brother also died." Ayesha voice cracked as she was narrating why she stopped having a partu whenever her birthday would come. "For eight long years, I have blamed myself but then I realized that my brother won't forgive me if I can't personally forgive myself from what had happened. To my family, thank you for always being there for me in times of my difficulties and trials in life. To my bestfriend, Aria, thank you for being my clown and energizer whenever I'm down. To my friend out there, thank you for not judging me. And to those people who also judge me, thank you because without all of you, I wouldn't be a strong person. I thank all of you for becoming the source of my strength. I formally now end this party. Thank you once again. Good Night and have a safe trip." Ayesha ended her speech, everyone clapped there hands.

Some of the guest where already going out because it was also past midnight and some gueststayed for a while to talk to the Gonzales family. The Salvador family where guided to the guest room, Ayesha insisted that they should stay because Knight's grandma also needed to have some rest. Aria also went to Ayesha room, she was already sleepy.

While no one is watching, Knight grabbed the chance to bring Ayesha to the place where he planned to give his birthday gift to her.

"Where are we going Brother Liwei?" Ayesha asked as she let Knight dragged her gently towards his car. Knight didn't answered her question instead he revive the car's engine and drove towards a bridge. They stopped there and Knight went out from the car and he ȧssissted Ayesha in going out.

"What are we doing here?" Ayesha asked and then exactly a firework made a "boom" sound. Ayesha turned around and saw the a fireworks display was happening. She looked at Knight's direction who was now holding a bouquet of red rose and a box of chocolates, he then handed it to Ayesha.

"Is this your birthday present for me? Ayesha asked as she receive the flowers and chocolates. Knight hugged her and he spoke softly and sweetly into her ears, "Yes, did you like it?" he asked. Ayesha nodded and Knight separated from her hug, he then bend down to one knee and opened a small velvet blue box. Ayesha's jaw dropped as she saw a blue sapphire ring and in front of her is her english professor bending down his one knee, she was totally speechless.

"Ayesha Myne Gonzales, I know that you still don't have feelings for me but I just want to formally propose to you. Will you marry me Ayesha even if this is just a marriage alliance?" Knight asked Ayesha who was still frozen and speechless. It took three minutes for Ayesha to respond.

"Yes Brother Liwei, I will marry you, I also don't have a choice but to say yes." Ayesha jokingly replied and Knight stood up and slid the ring on Ayesha finger, he then gave her a hug. He was so happy on the inside that he couldn't help kissing the woman in front of him.

The two were so indulge in kissing each other that they didn't even notice that someone was watching them from a far. The man just clenched his fist as he was witnessing the sweet scene that his two eyes saw. His heart ached as he saw her being cuddled and kissed by another man.