Epilogue
Eight Years Later
“Don’t get too close to the edge, baby,” I call to Asher.
“Okay, Mommy!” He’s playing with his little fishing rod on the edge of the dock, his black hair glinting in the late afternoon sun as I watch him from the picnic blanket in the back yard.
Alec and I moved into the house in Maine the day after the restoration work was complete, we couldn’t wait a moment longer. Structurally, the house was a more complicated job than first thought. A large proportion of the fire damage was to the foundations of the house itself which added months onto the rebuild. The majority of the work made sure that the overall layout was the same, the decor as close to what it was originally in order to make it seem as though there had never been a fire.
Now, it’s a home again and it’s more beautiful every day.
“Sorry about that, babe,” I say into my phone. “How’s Ivy doing?” I ask Reese, hearing her sigh through the other end of the phone.
“Ugh, fourteen going on forty. She’s driving Rafe crazy, which is kind of ironic considering she takes after him so much.”
“A real Daddy’s girl, huh?”
“Through and through. Thank god I have my little man, here’s hoping he’s a mommy’s boy.” Reese and Rafe married a few years after Alec and I did after finding out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, three months in, she miscarried. It crushed her, crushed them both and up until last year they hadn’t spoken a word of trying again, that was until she took a test last summer to find it positive. Now, I have a new nephew, Evan, the cutest baby boy I’ve ever seen, except for Asher, obviously.
“Have you spoken to Gage or Della recently?”
“Nope, but my guess is they’re trying for baby number four because three apparently isn’t enough. I swear they’re trying to fill every single room in that house with a baby.”
“If they’re onto number four they’ve got like what? Six more to go?”
“Yup, I’m surprised his dick hasn’t fallen off with all the se—”
“Ew! Shut up! I’m gonna stop you right there. We are not talking about my brother’s dick, thank you very much!”
She cackles down the phone. “Sorry not sorry, babe. Couldn’t resist.”
“You’re evil.”
“We should all meet up soon, I miss you, and that handsome hunk of a husband of yours.”
“We were actually thinking of heading down the weekend after next.”
“Really? Oh my gosh! We can have a barbecue or something?”
“That sounds lovely. I’ll text you with the details.”
“Okay, babe. Look, I gotta go, Evan needs feeding. I swear, this kid is insatiable.”
I laugh. “Love you, give Evan a kiss from me.”
“Will do. Love ya!”
I place my phone down onto the blanket and scan over the food in front of me.
“Ash, I have all of this delicious chocolate cake and nobody to eat it with! Shall I eat it all myself?”
“Chocslate cake! Chocslate cake!” he chants, dropping the rod onto the grass as he runs back towards me as fast as his little legs with allow.
He slams into me, knocking me back onto the blanket.
“You want chocolate cake?” I ask.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“Do you really? Then what do you say?” I tickle him in the spot he’s most sensitive and he wriggles and squeals above me.
“Please Mommy! Please I want chocslate cake! Please,” he says with a giggle.
I laugh. “Okay, let me up.”
He climbs off me and nestles himself close to me as I pass him a slice of cake before taking my own.
“How was school, buddy?” I ask him.
“It was good,” he replies around a mouthful of cake. “Scott’s mommy is having a baby. He says he wants a baby brother because girls suck.”
I have to laugh. “You won’t be saying that when you grow up, trust me.”
“Mommy?” Asher’s steel-grey eyes are wide as he peers up at me, the flecks of silver sparkling under the sunlight.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Did I grow in your belly when I was a baby?”
The question takes me by surprise. You can’t ever really judge or prepare for what will come out of a toddler’s mouth or which direction their curious mind will take them, but this conversation is one I thought I wouldn’t have to enter into for a few more years at the very least.
“What makes you ask that?”
“Cousin Sammy told me that I grew in his mommy’s belly. Is that true?”
I take a deep breath. “Yeah, baby. It is. You see, Mommy got hurt a while back, and the things that allow a baby to grow inside my belly got a little broken.”
About a year after Alec and I got married, we discussed all the ways in which we could have a baby. As much as I loved being married to Alec, there was still a piece of me that was missing, an empty space inside of me, and ache that never dulled. My partial hysterectomy meant that I couldn’t carry a child inside me, but my eggs remained perfectly intact, all we needed was a surrogate willing to help us. To our surprise, Steph, Daniel’s wife offered to be a surrogate for us.
After almost two years and after numerous failed attempts at IVF, it started to look doubtful that it would work and the spark of hope inside me, the excitement of becoming a mother began to dim, but then one day we got the call that it was successful. Nine months later, Asher was born. Our blessing, our miracle baby.
“All I ever wanted was for you to come along, and my heart ached when I thought I’d never get to have you. But then, Auntie Steph offered to carry you for me, to allow you to grow in her belly instead.”
“But that means she’s my real mommy, right?”
“No, baby. She carried you, and gave birth to you, yes, but you came from me and Daddy. It’s mine and your daddy’s blood in your veins. You have my hair and your daddy’s eyes. You’ll understand better when you’re bigger, and it’s hard to explain, but it doesn’t make you any less my son. You are a part of me, just as you are a part of Daddy. You’re my strong, funny, beautiful boy. You are my son. Mommy and Daddy’s miracle baby, and we love you so so much, always remember that.”
He turns and wraps his arms around my middle. “Love you too, Mommy. Forever and ever and ever!”
I lean into his little body, so in love with my little boy, my heart could burst out of my chest.
He gives me a quick kiss to my cheek before jumping to his feet and running off towards the dock, picking up his fishing rod.
I knew what happiness felt like when I married Alec, but nothing could ever compare to seeing my son for the first time, holding him… witnessing his first smile and hearing his first words, those moments are priceless.
I’m so lost in my thoughts, I don’t hear the footsteps approach until they’re upon me.
“Hey, princess,” Alec says, crouching down beside me.
He tips up my chin and guides my mouth to his. After nine years together and eight years of marriage, one kiss of his lips still has my belly erupting in butterflies, just like they did that first time.
I pull back to look up at him. Those gunmetal-grey eyes still hold me captive with his stare. His hair is greying slightly and his six pack isn’t as defined as it once was, but I’m still yet to come across a man as handsome as my husband.
“How was work?”
“Not bad, just glad to be back home with my beautiful girl.” He steals another kiss and I melt.
Alec heads a security company that spans across the entire country and hires over three hundred people nationally. From private investigators, complex alarm system installation, and hired security, Alec provides it all.
SiAir-A Security. Safety, Intelligence, Alarms and Information Resources Agency, though I’m guessing it was just an excuse to have part of me in the name.
Being the boss means he can work from home and leave the heavier, more dangerous stuff to his employees. Gone are the days he would take a bullet in the line of duty, and although he loved it, having a family put things into perspective for him. The thought of leaving Asher without a dad and me without a husband terrified him enough to quit, so instead he decided to form his own company.
“Daddy!” Asher chants, charging across the grass towards us.
Just as he comes within arm’s reach, Alec scoops him up into his arms, spinning him around in the air like a helicopter. Asher squeals and giggles as Alec spins him.
“Hey, buddy. You been looking after Mommy for me?”
“Yeah! We had a picnic and I ates chocslate cake!”
“I can see that, most of it is around your mouth,” he chuckles, placing Asher back down on the ground. “Go on and get yourself cleaned up, bud. Okay?”
“Okay!” Asher disappears inside the house and Alec settles down onto the blanket behind me, pulling me back against his chest, his arm across my chest.
I lean against him, feeling him rest his cheek on the top of my head as he reaches down to my left hand, absentmindedly playing with my wedding ring like he does, twizzling it around my finger.
Despite how we got here, and all the things life threw at us, we still made it to the exact place we were always meant to be.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks.
I reach for his hand, threading our fingers together, admiring how our wedding rings look beside each other. “Thinking about how perfect our life is. I wouldn’t change any of it, you know? Not a single moment. Not getting kidnapped, not almost dying, not any of it… If I could go back, I wouldn’t change it because we wouldn’t be here without it, it wouldn’t have led me to you.”
“I disagree. We would’ve found our way to each other eventually and I would change everything that happened to you in a heartbeat if I could.”
“Maybe we would have ended up here eventually, but maybe at a slower pace. What happened pushed us closer together and put us on this path. What I’m saying is, I realise now that you have to wade through the dark to reach the light.”
“Kind of like, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince?”
I bark out a laugh, craning my neck to meet his eye. “Yeah, sort of. It worked though, didn’t it?”
“It did. And I’m richer than every prince that ever lived because I have the privilege to call you my princess every single day.”
“And don’t ever stop.”
“Princess, I wouldn’t dream of it.”
The End