Epilogue
SOME TIME LATER…
“So, you’re just going to hold her the whole time like she doesn’t live with you?”
AJ wanted to hold his three-and-a-half-month-old niece. Aoide Melody Basil was the light in everyone’s eyes. Zeus and Dindi considered many names for their daughter. Aoide was what their hearts settled on. Aoide was one of the three original muses in Greek mythology. She was also a daughter of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Aoide personified song and melody. It was the perfect name that bonded the two families together.
Zeus glanced down at his daughter, who sat on his lap trying to take her sock off. She was in a world of her own. His face scrunched when he looked up at his brother-in-law. “If she wants to be with her daddy, then I’m not going to stop her.”
AJ kissed his teeth. “Dee, come with uncle.”
Aoide’s head popped up at the sound of her uncle’s voice. Her foot left her mouth so that her legs could flail and her arms could extend out to him. She loved her aunts, uncles, grammie, and grampies. AJ reached out and took her into his arms with a smirk sitting boldly on his face.
A lot had developed since the initial meeting that Dindi had with her father and brothers. Like she said she would, she invited them to her baby shower. When they came, it was with a truckload of gifts, literally. Aoide wanted for nothing. From the baby shower, it was slow and steady when it came to the building of the relationship between Dindi and Aaron. It was an easier transition with the relationship between her and her brothers because they had never done anything for her to have to forgive.
“I guess she wants to be with Uncle AJ.” He walked off toward the other side of the deck.
The Sunday dinners that the Basils had now included the Cooper clan. Kronos knew how important it was for a child to feel a father’s love. From his love as a father, he went out of his way to make sure Dindi felt comfortable and open when she was around her father. If that meant he had to involve Aaron in their family gatherings, then he would do that. Before he made that decision, he consulted with his wife, then his son, Zeus. Zeus was an intricate component to building the relationship between his wife and her father. As Dindi’s protector, you had to go through him before you got to Dindi.
Dindi’s hand slapped Zeus’s shoulder. When he glanced up at her from his seat, she giggled before lifting her hand to sign. “Stop pouting, big baby. She’s right there.”
Zeus and Dindi were newlyweds of two months. He proposed to her at the baby shower in front of the Mount O Riders and the King of Kings, as well as other close friends. The event was so large that it took over the inside and outside of the venue they selected. Mama Verne wanted to have it on the compound. All the men shot that down immediately. There was no way that they would allow that many people on the compound that were outside of the Mount O Riders.
Aaron was surprised when his daughter asked him to walk her down the aisle, well, halfway down. Pop Kronos walked her down the entire aisle, and Aaron met them in the middle. Her cousin Melody served as her maid of honor. Yes, maid. Poseidon and Melody went on a weekend vacation to Las Vegas and came back married. Mama Verne almost beat both of their asses. They quickly told her that she had 100 percent control over the planning of their reception. That put the beast back in the cage.
Zeus told his wife to be quiet with his hands before he grabbed her waist and pulled her down on his lap. He knew that her cochlear was off, so he said no words. He just kissed the tattoo of his name that adorned her neck. Their love was a whirlwind that was crafted by the gods. Dindi shifted on her husband’s lap to face him. With lustful eyes, she kissed his lips.
Aaron turned his nose up at the sight of his daughter and son-in-law kissing. Yeah, she was grown and married with a child, but he still didn’t want to see that shit. With a tight face, he walked over and tapped her shoulder. When she turned her attention to him, he lifted his hands. “Y’all keep that fresh shit behind closed doors. I don’t want to see that. Zeus, get your hands off her ass.”
Aaron, AJ, and Jason took the time and effort to learn sign language from none other than Gracie. When Dindi told Aaron that she wanted him in her life, he swore to himself and Harmony that he would do everything that was necessary and possible to be the father she needed. He knew that it was late in the game, but he was still in the game. To that end, he asked Zeus where he could learn sign language and was referred to Gracie.
In the beginning, Zeus was more accepting of Dindi’s relationship with her brothers than he was with her father. Regardless of what he told Dindi about supporting her building a relationship with him, he couldn’t understand how a man would abandon his child under any circumstance. His jadedness toward Aaron caused him to speak adversely against him at times which affected the way his wife interacted with her father. Kronos pulled his son to the side to reprimand him for being a hinderance to a decision that he said he would support. He reminded his son that support was all or nothing.
With that advisement, Zeus course corrected to truly support his wife’s decision. That was when Dindi truly felt free to accept and forgive her father. Aaron felt the resistance and understood it. He didn’t push his daughter and let the bike stay on her street.
Speaking of bikes, Dindi was in the middle of her lessons to learn how to ride. Gracie took the helm in training her because she wanted to teach her the signals she needed. The entire club now took classes to better communicate for the sake of Dindi when she rode with them. There were signals that the club used while riding that she learned. However, when they were at stops, Gracie wanted the others to be able to talk to her. A lot of the riders had Bluetooth communicators in their helmets. That would only help if she kept her cochlear on, which everyone knew that she wouldn’t.
“Daddy, please go play with your granddaughter or something,” Dindi signed with a giggle.
Aaron looked around the deck until he spotted AJ holding Aoide. At three months old, she probably shouldn’t have been eating table food. Mama Verne was true to her country roots. She had cereal in her grandbaby’s bottle mixed with Dindi’s breastmilk when Aoide was three weeks old.
Aaron smiled at his granddaughter chewing on her foot. He thanked God every day that He gave Dindi a forgiving heart. He would never have been able to make amends with her or be in his granddaughter’s life. He most certainly would never have had the opportunity to walk her down the aisle and give her away. He hoped that Harmony was looking down on him, with her beautiful smile brightening up the heavens.
The choice was made to never tell Dindi that Jennifer was responsible for Harmony’s death. There was no need to put something out there that wouldn’t help at this point. Also, the person responsible was dead. After Aaron left Jennifer, she sold the house before she decided to move on with her life with the father of her child. The only problem with that was that his wife, Connie, didn’t agree with that plan. At one time in life, Connie and Jennifer were best friends and founding sisters of the Kings’ Kitties.
Jordan and Jennifer did very well with hiding their relationship for all those years. It took superb swindlers to pull off a twelve-year affair without any red flags going up. Connie found out when she came home to a letter on her counter telling her that he was leaving her to be with Jennifer and their child. The first thing that she did was to confirm with Aaron that Jennifer and he were no longer together. Aaron gave her confirmation of the divorce and pregnancy. Connie had had her fair amount of dealings with married men before she was married as a Kitty, but their wives were never a part of the Kitties.
The betrayal was too much for Connie. It didn’t take her long to find her husband and Jennifer because of social media. Jennifer posted her entire life on social media. All Connie had to do was sit back and wait. The day came that Jordan and Jennifer decided to show face at another bike club’s function as if they were on the right side of right. It was there that Connie took her betrayal, wrapped it around three bullets, and sent deadly shots to her husband, supposed best friend, and her own head. Jordan and Connie never had children because he claimed he never wanted them.
When it happened, Aaron wasn’t surprised about the affair with Jordan because he learned a long time ago to not put anything past anyone. Connie killing them then herself did surprise him. AJ and Jason were once again devastated. Losing a brother who they found out was a serial rapist and their mother in less than a year was a lot to deal with. Dindi hated Jennifer, but she loved her brothers, so she put aside her feelings to support them in their grief.
Aaron kissed his teeth. “I’m about to start a pool to see how soon y’all are going to tell us that she’s pregnant again.” He made sure his mouth faced Dindi so she could read his lips.
Zeus and Dindi both laughed. Zeus waved him off. “We gonna have to find you a woman, man. Go somewhere.”
Aaron laughed with his son-in-law before he walked off to get Aoide. In her true traitor fashion, the second she saw him, her uncle AJ was the old thing. Zeus looked around the deck to see everyone just enjoying their time with each other. His sisters cooed over Melody’s now showing belly. The Basil brothers, with the exception of Hades right now, moved fast when it came to love. Zeus knew that Hades would find love eventually, but right now, he was for the streets.
Dindi shifted on Zeus’s lap to wrap her arms around his neck. He enclosed her into his arms and took in the smell of her curly hair that was all over her head. In pictures that he’d seen of her mother and aunt, as well as Melody’s hair, let him know that the curly hair was a family trait. Her family’s hair trait mixed with Zeus’s Greek roots combined for a very interesting hair texture for their daughter.
He tapped his wife’s hip to get her attention. She turned her head to face him. “I love you, Dindi Aria Basil.” She kissed his lips before she returned his affection. His brow slowly marched up his forehead. “Tell me, how does it feel to be married to a god?”
The first time he asked her that question was on their wedding night. At the time, she had no idea if there was a right or wrong answer. She answered with her heart. Dindi reached behind her ear, turned on her cochlear, then cuffed Zeus’s face. “Being married to a god is being married to light. Hot but soothing, intense but calming, forceful but loving. It’s everything.”
That was her response every time, and he loved it. Zeus was a lot of things: a husband, father, brother, son, rider. He took pride in all those things. There was another thing that he undoubtedly was: a Mount Olympus god. Dindi Aria Basil was and would always be his goddess. “O ólympos psilá (Olympus high)!”
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