31. Epilogue
She was gorgeous.
The most fucking beautiful baby I had ever laid eyes on.
And she slept so peacefully, I was almost jealous.
Amelia Celeste Walker.
My fucking daughter.
She was only two weeks old but I already couldn’t get my fill of her. If it wasn’t for work, I would be spending my days at home staring at her and wondering how the hell something so perfect could have ever been half my fault.
She looked exactly like her mother at the exception of her eyes. One of them was brown, like Nova’s, but the other was green like mine. A mix of both her parents.
A hand on my shoulder startled me and made me look back.
My wife stood there, a small grin hiding at the corner of her mouth. “Seriously? This is the fourth time this week that I find you staring at her in the middle of the night.”
“But she’s so perfect.”
Nova’s eyes fell on our little bundle of joy, all wrapped up in a pink blanket crocheted by her Grandma Miranda, and she smiled, “She is, isn’t she?”
“Just like her mom.” I pulled her to me, making her sit down on my lap ans she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I’m far from perfect.”
I hated seeing the way she looked down dejectedly. Pregnancy had been difficult for her. We had to change some of her meds because not all of them were compatible with having a baby and now with post-partum hanging over her head, it was challenging.
That was the reason why we’d decided Amelia would be our only. I was getting a vasectomy in a few weeks.
“You’re absolutely perfect. You just have no fucking idea how much, but it’s okay, I’ll spend the rest of my days reminding you if needed.”
Nova smiled shyly, even ten years later and she still did that.
So much had changed along the way but so little at the same time. Her father remarried and was expecting his first kid with his new wife who, Nova loved even though she took it hard at first. It felt weird telling myself that my daughter would be having an uncle who would be younger than her. But Damon too deserved his happy ending.
Rory was in her first year of vet school and even though she still struggled with memories from the past, she was doing drastically better than the first two years after the tragedy.
Cece was fifteen and still very much a menace, especially when Bianca and her reunited during the holidays.
My sisters too were thriving, especially Sammie who had gotten married a year ago, to none other than Devon fucking Starling. The two had met after she started an internship in their firm during her first year of law school and… it was hate at first sight.
I still had no idea how they came to be a couple, but I didn’t care enough to ask. All that mattered to me was that my sister was happy with a man who only had eyes for her.
Although it did create some weird family dynamics. Devon was Nova’s uncle but also… her brother in law? Fucking weird.
Mom still lived in Ravenbridge, but she visited us often. As soon as my apprenticeship ended, I started working with Gray in his tattoo parlor. Two years later and he asked if I wanted to become co-owner, which I immediately said yes to.
By then, I had been making enough money to pay Nova’s father’s for rent. I hated to be living free of charge, I wanted to show him that I could take care of Nova now, and I did.
Nova and I married a year after she started fashion school, much to Damon’s dismay. Actually, we did it in secret because we knew he wouldn’t approve. He nearly bashed my head in when he learned about it but by that time, there was nothing he could do; his daughter was mine.
I watched as Nova’s smile dimmed a little and apprehension filled her eyes, still taking in Amelia in her crib, “What if she ends up being like me, Aiden?”
I wrapped my hands around her waist tightly, “Like you? You mean beautiful, smart, successful and kind? The horror.”
Her lips stretched in a small grin of their own accord as she chuckled lightly and I kissed her neck.
“If she inherited it, then it’s okay. Lucky for her, she has a family who loves her more than anything and parents who would literally kill for her,” it was no secret for Nova what I’d done to Kerill all these years ago. She never talked about it, but that night after I came back to our small motel room, she hugged me tight and said she loved me no matter what.
“She’ll be just fine baby.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”