Epilogue One
Victoria
Three months later
The phone rings by my desk and I lean back in my chair, seeing it’s Seth calling me. “Hello.” It’s been a while since our project at the church, so I’m surprised to be hearing from him.
“Hey, Tori,” he says my name, “it’s Seth.”
“Hey, Seth.” I look over to the two offices, hearing clicking coming from Kylie as she types on her keyboard. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering if you are at your office.” His tone is tight, and he has never asked this before.
“I am.” I sit up now. “Is everything okay?” I ask him.
“Not sure,” he replies, “but I can be at your office in about five minutes.”
“I’ll be here.” I disconnect the phone, putting it down and getting up to walk over to Lexi’s office. “Seth just called; he’s going to be here in five.” She looks over at me and her eyebrows pinch together. “Yeah, that was my reaction too.”
“Is this a meeting and I didn’t know?” Kylie asks when she sticks her head out of her office and walks into Lexi’s.
“Seth is coming here,” I inform Kylie, who gives me the same look that Lexi gave me.
The door to the office opens and I turn to walk out, followed by the two of them.
I stop dead in my tracks when I see Seth, who is standing beside a woman we’ve met at the church during our first visit, holding a child on her hip that is about as old as Jagger and also holding the hand of a little girl.
“Hey,” I say, smiling, trying not to give off anything, “this is a nice surprise.”
“Hi,” Seth returns. “Good, you are all here.” He looks at Lexi and Kylie behind me. “This saves me a phone call.”
“Please sit,” Lexi speaks up and points to the couch beside my desk. “Can I get you guys anything to drink?” She looks at the woman. “Water, juice, coffee?”
“No.” The woman’s voice is soft.
Seth puts his arm on her lower back and ushers her to the couch. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
“Of course,” I reply, sitting on the couch, facing the woman who is softly shaking, and I have to wonder if she even realizes she’s shaking. She moves the baby on her lap and she sits with her legs over hers while she puts the little girl to sit between her and Seth.
“I don’t know if you remember.” He smiles at us. “This is Kennedy,” Seth introduces the woman. “This is Serafina and this is baby JJ. She has been helping out in the kitchen at the church the last couple of months.”
“It’s nice to see you again,” Kylie says, sitting on the armrest of the couch I’m sitting on. “What can we do to help?”
“Kennedy is best friends with my sister,” Seth starts to say, “and she just let us know about some things that are happening at home.”
“Which is?” Lexi asks softly.
“My husband,” she starts to say and then her voice trembles so she stops, and I can feel my stomach drop.
“He’s…” She shakes her head. “No one is going to believe me.” She looks at her daughter, who looks up at her.
“He’s…” Her lower lip quivers. “He’s not right with me.
” She doesn’t need to spell it out, you can see the fear all over her body.
“How about I take the kids out of the room?” Seth says, holding out his hand for Seraphina and then grabbing JJ.
We all wait for him to walk into the other room when Lexi starts, “What about with the children?” She shakes her head no.
“It’s just me,” she shares, “but I’m afraid as time goes on, it’ll be—”
“That he’ll turn on your children,” Lexi fills in her thought and she nods her head.
“I’m ready to leave him but—” She looks at all of us. “I have nothing. He has control of everything.” I swallow the lump. “And he’s got a good job.”
“Of course he does,” Kylie says and looks at Lexi.
“He’s going to fight me for custody.” The fear is written all over her face, the bottom of her eyes filling with tears as she fights them back.
“Do you have anything documented?” Lexi is asking all the questions as I just sit here feeling helpless.
“I do,” she confirms. “I have medical records that support my claim.” Seth comes back in the room and stands by the door so he can watch the kids.
“I also have—” She looks at her hands trying to decide if she’s going to tell us what she needs to tell us, “I have hours and hours of recordings. Some while he was beating me.”
My hand goes to grip Kylie’s leg, and she puts her hand on top of mine. “I’m afraid he’s going to hurt me and then my babies will have no one.”
“We thought you would be able to help. Give her somewhere to go and help us make plans for the future,” Seth declares.
“We have a safe house,” Lexi says, and I look up at her, knowing we do not have a safe house, “but it’s in the process of being renovated.” She looks at Kennedy. “We can talk to our in-house counsel,” I look up at her, “and we can put you up in a hotel until then.”
She pulls out her phone. “We can have you talk to her privately, if you like.” Kennedy nods her head.
“I’ll call her now,” Lexi says as she walks into her office. Serafina runs back into the room with panic on her face looking for her mother. Who bends to take her in her arms.
“Have you guys eaten today?” Kylie asks and Kennedy looks at her daughter.
“This morning we had breakfast and then when he left, we left.”
“Where does he think you are now?” Kylie asks her.
“A playgroup,” she whispers, “at the church.”
Lexi comes out of her office. “Riley is on the phone,” she says of her cousin, who practices family law. “She can speak with you.”
Kennedy gets up and puts JJ on her hip and then holds out her hand for Serafina. “Thank you.” She looks at Seth. “Will you come with me?” He gets up and walks with her into Lexi’s office and they shut the door.
“Okay, what the fuck are you doing?” I look over at Lexi. “Where is this safe house we have?”
“One that we are going to buy as soon as she leaves,” she confides, and Kylie nods her head. “We are going to put her up in a hotel until we close.”
“I don’t know about this,” I say honestly. “I think we need to plan more. There has to be steps taken to make sure that it’s all handled without any backlash on all sides.”
“You see that fear in her eyes?” Lexi says in a whisper. “I had that fear but hers is down to her bones. I was lucky, I had a family who had my back. I had myself to worry about; she has two children. I can’t even imagine.”
“We will help in any way,” Kylie states, “but I have to agree with Tori. This has to be done—”
Lexi cuts her off. “So we just send her back to him? Send them back to him?”
Neither of us know what to say and when Kennedy comes out of the office, we make plans to speak to her in a couple of days. She agrees that we have things set up before she leaves him.
I get up out of my chair as Lexi and Kylie go to her office and they call the realtor. I pick up my phone, calling the one person I know who can make everything better. “Hey,” Zane says, answering the phone after one ring, “how did you know this was perfect timing?”
“I have you chipped,” I joke with him and smile when he bursts out laughing. “It’s like an AirTag, just had the doctor insert it into you at your last physical.” I quip. “Where are you?”
“At the office. Why?”
“I,” I look toward the door, “I just had a really bad meeting and I—”
“I can be there in fifteen or I can be home in twenty,” he offers, and I hear him moving on his side of the phone. “Where do you want to meet?” He doesn’t even give me a chance to speak. “I’ll pick you up in fifteen. Don’t drive.”
He disconnects the phone, not giving me a chance to say anything. My eyes fixate on the screen of the computer as I replay the meeting over and over in my head. I get up and walk over to Lexi’s office. “I’m going to head out.”
“That was a lot for you,” Lexi says, leaning back in her chair. “Are you going to be okay?”
“That was the most insane thing, I think, that has ever happened in my life. I’ve been pretty lucky to be sheltered from things like this,” I state honestly.
“I come from a family has protected me and cared for me in ways not many people get. I don’t think I know anyone who has been in that situation. ”
“That’s the scary part,” Kylie says, “you probably do, but they hide it so well you have no idea.”
“That is what has me so thrown. We met her while we were renovating the playground, and we had no idea.” I look down. “How many other people are in dire need and haven’t gotten help?”
“You can only help the people who ask for it,” Lexi comforts softly as the door to the office opens. I look over to see Zane, his eyes going wild as he looks at my desk and then finds me. His chest is heaving as if he ran here from the rink.
“Are you okay?” I ask him as he walks to me.
“Took the stairs, the elevator was taking too long,” he explains.
“Aww,” I hear Lexi from behind me, “he sounds like he would run into a burning building.”
“Obviously, he’s not going to get any better than me.”
“Tell me you love yourself without telling me you love yourself.” Kylie laughs. “I’ll go first.”
“You okay?” I feel his hands on my hips and look up to see the front of his hair fall onto his forehead.
“I am now.” I wrap my arms around him. “Will you take me home?”
“Which home?” Lexi asks, knowing she’s going to be starting something.
It’s been three months since he’s proposed to me.
Three months that I have been dragging my feet to move in with him.
Why? I have no idea. I think it’s just my way of not giving into him.
Even though I haven’t slept in that house in over four months.
“Our home,” Zane says, “the one where all her stuff is at.”
“Not all my stuff.” I roll my eyes. “I do have a couple of things still left at the other house.”
“Mail doesn’t count,” Kylie teases, laughing. “Just give in already. I did and look at me now,” she says, putting her hand on her belly where her little baby bump is barely visible.
“We should be going.” I slide my hand into Zane’s. “I need a bottle of wine and a bath.”
We walk out of the office and I don’t even think about my car, knowing I’ll come and get it tomorrow. We walk into the house, and I head straight for the stairs. “Want to talk about it?” Zane asks me when I start the bath.
“I love you,” I tell him, “like with my whole heart.” He leans against the bathroom door. “And I want to have children with you.”
“That’s good to know.” He gives me one of his smirks that makes my heart flutter.
“I also want you to know how lucky you are to have me.” I give him my own smirk.
“You don’t have to remind me,” he replies as I pull my shirt off me and toss it to the side.
“After walking out on me all those times.” I point at him and his eyebrows shoot up.
“You walked away from me each time,” he reminds me like he always does.
“Yeah, but you never chased me, so technically you made me walk away.” I pull off my pants. “But anyway, today I sat there and listened to someone tell their story and the only thing I could think of was that I was so lucky I had you to come home to.”
“For the rest of your life.” He pulls his shirt off and I see the new ink he added to his chest. It’s the words “I Love You” written in my handwriting, with the date we got engaged under it, the same day he won the Cup.
“We should make it official,” I tell him, getting naked and then slipping into the bath. “Like I should officially move in with you.”
“Baby,” he says, getting into the tub with me, something he doesn’t do often but he’s done a few times, “you already officially live with me.” He reaches out and grabs me so I can straddle him as he wraps his arms around me.
“You are in our bed every night,” he reminds me.
“Your clothes hang in our closet.” I turn my head to lay it on his shoulder.
“I don’t care where your mail is delivered,” I laugh, “but it would be nice to have it here.”
“Fine,” I sigh, “I’ll move in with you.”
An hour later, I’m on the phone with my father. “I’m calling to give you news,” I tell him as I pluck a chip from the bag Zane is eating.
“If you are calling me to tell me you are pregnant,” he hisses, “I’m going to be pissed.” I can’t help but laugh.
“No,” I say, sighing deeply, “but I’m moving in with Zane.”
He barks out in laughter. “Good. I’m going to need his address to send your things to.”
I gasp, “Wow, tell me I’m not your favorite without telling me I’m not your favorite. You are just tossing me out of my own home.”
“You live in California,” he reminds me, “this house is in Dallas. It’s safe to say you moved out.”
“Well, it’s good to know I can never come back.”
I see Zane roll his eyes. “Dramatic much?”
“Well, I just changed my mind. I’m not moving in with Zane after all.” I look at Zane, who picks up his can of beer and takes a pull. “I have to go now.”
I hang up on him and toss my phone to the side. “You are lucky I love you, Zane, and I know how good the sex is, or else you would not be worth it.”
“You better hurry up and choose a date before I choose one for us,” is all he says.
“So needy.” I try to hide my smile by biting down on my lip.
“Damn fucking straight,” he retorts and that night when I slip into bed, he takes me in his arms, and I fall asleep with his heartbeat under my ear.
The next morning, I kiss him goodbye as he drops me off at the office before going to the rink.
The tray of coffee is in one hand and the box of cinnamon rolls is in the other.
I juggle them both when I push open the door and see Lexi and Kylie there sitting down.
They look like something drastic just happened. “Who died?” I ask jokingly.
“Kennedy shot her husband last night,” Kylie says, and the coffee slips out of my hands. “He didn’t make it.”
Want more Zane & Victoria? Click here for a bonus epilogue!
Kennedy
They say the devil has three faces. To me, he only has one.
Until that night.
It was me or him. I chose me.
But only because of them.
Now I’m a single mom picking up the pieces.
I don’t have time for anything else.
But fate had other plans for me.
Phoenix
I was living under the shadow of my family name.
My father owned the Dallas Oilers.
It was a given I would only play for Dallas.
Except I didn’t want to play with the cloud that I was only on the team because of my father.
Until I asked to be traded.
I needed to make it on my own.
Now I was in a new town.
We met by accident.
We became friends.
Then I wanted her to be more.
I wanted them to be mine.
Pre-Order Only For Them Here releasing March 23, 2027!