Epilogue-Melanie
The settlement conference with Ben was the end of one chapter in my life and the beginning of a new one. After months of chaos and uncertainty, I had finally been able to start healing from all the damage he had inflicted.
When I returned home from the detention center, Griffin had announced his ‘intentions’ to my family and asked me out on a date. A mortifying memory that I was sure would haunt me for the rest of my life.
My parents, Griffin, Kyle, and Lily were all waiting for me when I got back to the rental after the meeting.
“Now that you are free, I have something I need to say.” Griffin had wrapped me in a hug after I told my family that Ben had finally done the right thing and agreed to set me free.
Griffin placed his lips gently on the top of my head, and I looked up at him, confused by the seriousness in his voice.
Kyle and Lily had been too busy bickering about something ridiculous to hear his quiet words, but my parents had and were both smiling softly. Which only added to my confusion.
“Kyle, I told you that I would let you know before I pursued your sister.” Griffin said my brother’s name loud enough to pull his attention from Lily. Kyle’s eyes narrowed at his words while my jaw dropped.
“You did,” Kyle confirmed through gritted teeth. The smirk that had been on Lily’s face dropped into a scowl at Kyle's defensive tone. She turned her angry eyes on him and smacked his arm at the same time.
“What was that for?” he sputtered, his narrowed eyes going wide as he spun to look at the angry little woman beside him.
Lily weighed a whopping 120lbs and stood at roughly 5’3, with short, wavy, black hair, sparkling honey-colored eyes, flawless mocha skin, and bold facial features.
What she lacked in size, she made up for in personality.
“Don’t take that tone with me and don’t give Griffin a hard time!” she hissed at him, and I snorted.
“As I was saying,” Griffin interrupted with an exasperated sigh, “I promised that I would let you know when I decided to pursue your sister. Consider this your notice.” Griffin turned back to me and wrapped his hands around mine.
“I know that things are still messy for you, and I don’t want to rush anything, but I need you to know that I’ve always seen you, not only how beautiful you are, but how talented, kind, and intelligent you are.
I’ve spent all these years keeping my feelings to myself because you were taken, but I would be a fool if I kept them to myself now and gave someone else time to swoop in.
Melanie, would you go on a date with me?
Would you allow me the honor of showing you how you deserve to be treated? ”
“I’m pregnant…” I said and took a small step back.
His eyes softened, and he smiled.
“I’m aware.”
“I’m going to get fat.” The words slipped out without any permission from my brain, and my eyes widened in horror. Lily groaned loudly and snagged my arm to drag me into the other room as she stomped past me.
“One minute.” She yelled over her shoulder. Once we were in the other room, she spun around and grabbed my shoulders. She gave me a tiny shake as she stared at me. “Melanie, you will not turn that man down. You will not run from the chance of real happiness.”
“We saw how that turned out last time.” I mumbled like a petulant child.
“Your narcissistic high school boyfriend was never going to be your happily ever after and you know it.” She scoffed. I furrowed my eyebrows at her, wanting to argue but knowing deep down that she was right. There had always been signs, beyond just the cheating, that Ben and I were not compatible.
“My life is a mess!” I exclaimed and threw my arms up.
“A mess that he’s been by your side for.” She reminded me, her eyebrows raised slightly, and she tilted her head the tiniest bit as if to say ‘DUH’.
“What if he realizes I have too much baggage?”
“It’s a date, not a marriage proposal, you can take it slow and let someone treat you how you deserve…
You’ve only ever known Ben.” Lily spun me back around and pushed me into the living room, where Griffin was still waiting for me.
My parents and Kyle had conveniently disappeared, and when I looked back for Lily, I discovered she hadn’t followed me.
“Uhm…” My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I panicked.”
“Come here.” He said softly. I took a hesitant step forward and then another until my hands were in his again. “There’s nothing to apologize for and you don’t need to panic. If you need more time I will wait.”
“I’ll go on a date with you.” I blurted out before I could change my mind.
Griffin stayed true to his word; he had spent every day of the last five months showing me how I deserved to be treated.
He traveled back and forth from Seattle every weekend, showed up for every baby appointment, helped me move into my new condo, set up the nursery furniture, sent me flowers just because, and cried when I gave him a key to my condo and told him that I wanted him to feel like he was always welcome in my home because I was falling in love with him and couldn’t picture my life without him.
We had agreed to wait until I was divorced, and he had figured out what to do about the business before we found a place together, but it felt right to exchange keys to each other’s places.
Despite the divorce not being finalized and the pending federal investigation into Ben’s crimes, the judge allowed us to sell the house as soon as the prosecution cleared it from the investigation.
The money from the sale was split evenly between us, although Ben tried to refuse his share, only relenting after I reminded him that he would need it to pay for his defense team.
About a week after the settlement conference, Kyle surprised our parents by purchasing a cliffside beach house in Palos Verdes Estates.
The realtor told him it was known as Villa Sul Mare, “Villa by the Sea”, and was practically a mansion, large enough for the entire family, and overlooked a rocky shoreline.
The appeal being that it didn’t attract the same tourism as the nearby sandy beaches, but was only thirty minutes outside of Los Angeles.
My parents were thrilled at the idea of the whole family sharing the property since they planned to travel back and forth from North Dakota.
When I asked Griffin how to go about offering to help Kyle pay for the house, Griffin had quietly assured me that their company was thriving and that buying a house for our parents was something that Kyle had always wanted to do for them.
Apparently, he had just been waiting for Mom to finally cave on leaving North Dakota.
The months that followed were filled with big moves, long talks, and growth as we learned how to heal from all that we had lost. We navigated grief, forgave betrayals, and let ourselves be hopeful for the future that was coming.
It was by some twist of luck that we all happened to be staying at the Villa when my daughter decided it was time to enter the world. I had just sat down to have my one cup of coffee after a sleepless night of back pain and reflux when I heard Griffin spill water on the floor.
“Do you need help?” I looked over at the coffee machine where Griffin was busy filling his own mug.
He was staring at me, his handsome face was abnormally pale, and he looked like he was going to pass out.
“Griffin?” I slid off my seat to hurry towards him, only to step in a puddle.
It was then that I realized my shorts were also soaked.
Apparently, my brain required coffee to recognize even the most obvious things in the morning.
Thankfully, my mother took charge because, for the first time, my levelheaded boyfriend was succumbing to panic, and I was too busy laughing at him as he ran around the house trying to dress himself and gather my hospital bag to be of any use.
We had chosen to stay at the Villa for the final two weeks of my pregnancy because it was closer to the birthing center than my condo was and would allow us to skip all of the Los Angeles traffic.
“I’m going to call Lily, one of you needs to call Ben’s lawyer.” I instructed and waddled to my room to get myself cleaned up. There was no way in hell I was getting in the car covered in whatever substance had just let us know my daughter was on her way.
I heard a phone ringing down the hall from my brother’s room as I dialed Lily’s number and waddled faster.
Is that…
The ringing stopped just as I heard Lily’s hushed voice on the line. I felt my lips pull into a delighted grin.
“I KNEW IT!” I shrieked and pounded on Kyle’s door.
“Fuckkkk,” I heard him groan through the phone and his door.
“The baby is coming. Get your asses ready and don’t for a second think we won’t be talking about this!” I giggled and waddled back to my room, where Griffin was peering out with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you really think now is the time to be torturing your brother?” he teased. He looked more relaxed than he had a few minutes before when he was sliding through the kitchen with a towel, a sock on one foot, and his shoes in hand.
“Yup.” I started to shrug, but was interrupted by a sharp cramp in my stomach that caused me to grab the doorway for support. “Ow,” I grumbled.
“Contraction?” Griffin asked, his relaxed posture went rigid again.
“I’m fine but I do need to get cleaned up before we go.” I brushed past him and hurried into the ensuite bathroom.
Lily burst in a few seconds later, “What are you doing in the shower?” she shrieked.
“Getting clean?” I stuck my head past the curtain and then groaned as another contraction hit.
“Get out!” she waved her hands frantically. “My niece is not going to be born in a shower!”
I rolled my eyes and straightened out again as the pain subsided.
A minute later, her angry little hand flew past the curtain and twisted the water to cold before shutting it off.
“LILY!” I shrieked.