51. Extended Epilogue
fifty-one
Extended Epilogue
Talon- Milo's Wedding; Oregon
I t was hard to focus on the wedding when Misely was right there, looking radiant in her silky pale yellow bridesmaid dress. As happy as I was for Milo and the woman he just made my sister, I only had eyes for the leggy blonde that stood only a few feet away. Still, I heard the officiant as he spoke of forever, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer. To cherish. To love without reason. And it all applied. She was it; she was everything. That first week we’d spent together hadn’t been enough, and neither had the last six months.
Fuck Kyle and Bri and anyone else who thought they had a say in what I did with my future. Unless they were Misely Fisher, I simply didn’t care. Because all I could think about was the day that this would be us. I already knew how I was going to ask and when. It’d be soon, now that the dust was beginning to settle and we were falling into the comfort of trust. Real, genuine trust and loyalty to a family we’d created ourselves.
I already knew what she’d want too, despite her flair for the extravagant. A quiet little wedding, even if it were just the two of us—though I suspected she’d need Birdie there, and maybe even Suzie and Patti. And I’d vow my life to her to do with as she wished, and hope and prayed she’d vow the same to me. I’d give her my last name and we’d spend every day for the rest of our lives making MacArthur into something good after all these years spent wearing it like a shackle.
And what could anyone do about it now? Kyle was in prison, and likely to stay there a very long time after the combined testimony from myself and Milo. Kenna had been furious about her life being uprooted, but she’d complied when witness protection agents explained in detail everything that had led up to this moment. She trusted that this was in their best interest, whether they liked it or not, and knew now more than she ever had before that I’d only ever wanted to do right by the boy we’d made together. It had been determined to be in the best interest of all parties that I didn’t know where they were placed, but I knew they were safe, far out of the line of sight of Kyle and anyone he was or ever had been involved with. An agent acted as a third party liaison on my behalf, delivering the monthly payments I still insisted on making to Kenna for Leo’s care.
Leaving us all free to live . And love.
I’d spent all my life hiding from it, too afraid to let myself have it if it was just going to be taken away. Too afraid to give up the careful control I’d curated over my own pathetic existence. And in the least suspected place I’d found someone to hand it over to anyway. For the first time since I got the news that our parents were gone, I was no longer resigned to living each day like a series of things I didn’t really want to do being checked off. Real happiness was in my grasp, right in front of me. My future, my everything , was standing right there in that sinfully tight dress, and I wouldn’t be letting her go for anything.