Epilogue
Natalia
Nine months later
When I woke in the hospital nine months ago after Tim had come to Sandstone Heart and attacked me, I thought the most difficult thing I’d endure was the conversation that I’d have with Reid about what had happened between us mere minutes before I was attacked.
Unsurprisingly, Reid found a way to make me feel reassured about the future of the retreat and about us.
So, I considered what my next big hurdle would be, and it hit me when it was time to leave the hospital that I had to return to the cabin I’d called home and felt safe in for eight years.
But Reid took me to his cabin instead. He let me rest and recover there, so I didn’t have to worry about horrible memories assaulting me.
And he took care of getting things for me from my place as I needed them, never complaining about it or expecting me to just do it on my own.
Eventually, he moved all my things from that cabin and into his.
We considered using one of the houses on the property, but since we were still working out things between us, we decided to keep it simple.
With my body on the mend and my living arrangements dealt with, I worried about the consequences of Reid’s actions the day he’d stepped in to defend and protect me. He pleaded with me not to worry and insisted that everything was going to be fine.
Miraculously, after weeks of stressing about it, I was relieved to learn that no criminal charges were being filed against Reid.
It was at that point that my focus shifted, and I learned that Reid was interested in taking me out. Not just on a date at a restaurant. He wanted me to go out. Into the real world. Outside the confines of the retreat.
He wanted me to join him on a couple of weekend trips to Pittsburgh while he worked on figuring out the details of making his move back to Cardinal and keeping the show running on his business.
He wanted me to enjoy places I’d always enjoyed when I was younger but had been too terrified to visit for far too many years.
And so, I believed that would be the thing that would break me, that would finally have me meeting my match.
While it turned out that my first trip back to Lake Erie was challenging, it didn’t break me. It liberated me. And being there with Reid made it so special.
Every time something popped up in the weeks that followed the attack in my cabin, I worried and stressed over the outcome. And every single time, it all worked out the way it was supposed to.
So, when it was just shy of three months since that attack when Reid was served with a civil lawsuit, I was confident the downward turn had arrived.
As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one injured the night of the attack.
Tim was, too. When Reid went after Tim and landed the first blow that sent Tim falling to the ground, he’d whacked his head on the arm of the couch.
Yes, there had been punches and kicks after that, which resulted in bruises and broken bones and split lips and surface lacerations, but it was decided that it was likely that initial whack on the head that led to Tim suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
The result of that injury left Tim with some long-term neurological deficits, and Tim was now suffering from paraplegia and was wheelchair bound. Evidently, he believed Reid was to blame.
Not the fact that he’d abused me for years.
Not the fact that he’d attacked me weeks earlier at Lake Erie.
Not the fact that he’d trespassed on private property.
Not the fact that he’d come into my home and attacked me.
No.
In Tim’s mind, it wasn’t any of that which led to him winding up in this position. He believed it was the unwavering love one man had for me, to defend and protect me from the likes of Tim.
When I learned about the suit, I felt nothing but devastation. Because Reid didn’t deserve this. He’d come back to Ohio for what was supposed to be a six-month stay, and he’d wound up finding himself with legal troubles because of his involvement with me.
But like the man he always was, Reid assured me that nothing bad was going to happen, that everything would be fine.
And so, the next difficult task for me was trying to find ways to enjoy my life and my work when this thing was lingering in the background.
I did my best to be present in every moment and during every celebration—our birthdays had been one of the few instances when we both let go of anything weighing us down and relished in the joy.
For someone who’d thrived on creating and living in a state of utter happiness for so long, it was no surprise that the last several months had been challenging.
I tried hard to be positive, and I was mostly successful, but there were times, especially after Reid received word of that lawsuit, when I couldn’t stop the sadness from leaking in.
It was those moments I deemed to be the worst of what I had to face.
But like everything else I’d endured since Tim attacked me in my cabin, I soon learned I was wrong once again.
Because it wasn’t the stress of the impending lawsuit that was the worst. It was this moment.
The moment in this courtroom as I sat pinned between Barrett and Sylvia, my hands gripping theirs like I was terrified they’d get up and walk away.
It was me sitting directly behind Reid as he awaited the decision.
Guilty or not guilty.
Guilty or not guilty.
The judge was speaking, but I couldn’t pay much attention. All I wanted was to hear those two words. Two.
Reid didn’t deserve this. He’d been protecting me, saving me, loving me.
Silence fell over the room, and that was my cue to listen in again.
“We, the jury, find the defendant…not guilty.”
Air rushed from my lungs as murmurs erupted in the courtroom.
“Order.”
Silence again.
“And on count two,” the judge went on reading the specifics of count two.
“Not guilty.”
More relief.
“And finally, on count three…” He read out the legal description of the final charge.
I’d stopped breathing again.
“Not guilty.”
Tears spilled down my face as sobs consumed me. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty.
The judge spoke for a while longer, none of the words he said even penetrating. Until finally, he said, “This court is adjourned.” With a whack of his gavel, he stood and walked into his chambers.
But my eyes remained focused on Reid as he turned around, pinned his stare on me, and smiled. I stood, closed the distance between us, and threw my arms over his shoulders, the rail separating the public from the defendant’s and plaintiff’s tables, the only barrier between us.
Reid held me tight and whispered in my ear. “I told you everything was going to be fine.”
I let out a laugh through my sobs, and Reid held on tight. When I finally reined in the emotions, I loosened my hold on him, allowed his parents to hug him, and took a few more settling breaths.
For a while afterward, we remained in the courthouse with Reid’s attorney, and once again my mind drifted to all the things that we’d endured over the last nine months. I wanted to believe this was it. That it was all finally over.
Eventually, we left, and Reid decided he wasn’t interested in heading back to the retreat immediately. Instead, he drove out to the small stretch of beach on Lake Erie that I used to always visit as a kid with my dad.
He took me by the hand, led me out to the edge of the water, and offered me a handful of stones. After I let the first one fly from my fingertips, I asked, “Is it over?”
“It’s over.”
“All of it?”
“Everything.”
I tossed out another stone. Reid did the same.
A smile formed on my face as I watched them skip across the water, mine just barely nudging his out.
This was one of the things that Reid and I had done when the weather turned in the spring.
I taught him how to skip stones like a pro, and he made several valiant attempts to teach me how to streetboard.
Admittedly, Reid picked up stone skipping much faster than I did the streetboarding.
I wasn’t as awful as I had been the first few times we’d gone out to practice, but I certainly didn’t have the level of skills that Reid did.
Where I could cruise around and have fun and laugh, Reid could do the same and do tricks on curbs or rails.
No amount of confidence on the board was ever going to have me at that level. And I was fine with it.
“I can’t believe it. I think it’s going to take me a minute.”
My last stone went flying from my hand. Reid crouched to find more and said, “We’ve got all the time in the world, so take as long as you need.”
“How do you feel about everything?”
“Like this was just the end of this chapter and that there’s plenty more to come in our story.”
I smiled at him before returning my attention to the water. Following a few beats of silence, I asked, “Do you think it gets better from here for us?”
“I know it does. Here, hold out your hand.”
I reached out my hand for the stones, but what Reid placed in my palm did not feel like stones. Glancing down, I gasped at what I saw.
A velvet-covered box, and the man of my dreams on one knee.
He opened the box displaying the most beautiful diamond ring and said, “We start our new chapter now, Natalia. You and me together for the rest of our lives. Every day, all day, I want you to know that I’m always going to be committed to loving you.
I want to spend eternity with you, making you laugh and bringing you joy. Will you marry me?”
My right hand flew to my chest as I nodded and rasped, “Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
Reid’s mouth curved into a smile as he pulled the ring out of the box and slid it on my finger. The next thing I knew, I was up in his arms as he swept me off my feet and spun me around.
I kissed him as tears of joy spilled down my cheeks. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. I can’t wait to call you my wife.”
His wife.
I was going to be Reid Erickson’s wife.
After years of believing that having this level of happiness in my life was impossible, Reid showed me differently.
A long time ago, he’d claimed he had a heart of stone, but once he gave in to how he truly felt, he proved there was just as much happiness and warmth beneath.
And now, this man was going to be my husband.
Nothing would ever steal my joy as long as I had him by my side.