Epilogue
Harding – (One Year Later)~
T he snow was falling again, but it was hard to enjoy the beauty when the past still lingered like melted gum on the bottom of your shoe. While my divorce had been finalized months ago, and while neither Trista nor I had heard from Paige or any of her fake social media accounts or unknown numbers, the shocking news of how Kirk Nabers had died in a tragic fire wasn’t sitting well with me.
One year later, Trista and I were living together, and by all accounts, our life was a good one. The kids were doing well, Frank and I got along well enough, and even Leslie and Trista had a decent enough relationship. Our blended families were in a good place, and I had no complaints in that regard.
There was also the fact that everyone else had gotten on with their lives fairly easily. Once Paige and Kirk had become a couple, Paige had disappeared from my life completely, leaving everyone that I knew alone, and I’d never been so grateful for the peace that her silence had brought me. Everything had worked out, even if some people might still believe that I should have suffered some more.
“You can’t let it keep you up at night, Harding.”
I looked up from the hockey game that I hadn’t been watching just as Trista took a seat on my right leg. “Hey.”
I felt her hand begin soothing my back, her face full of concern. “We don’t know that it wasn’t an accident, Harding.”
“Yeah, but we also don’t know that it wasn’t,” I countered.
“Being crazy and being a murderer are two very different things,” she went on. “It’s insane to think that Paige would actually kill someone, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know what to think,” I replied honestly. “I just…it just seems like too much of a coincidence. Plus, I can’t see Paige being too keen on being divorced a third time.”
“They weren’t even married, Harding,” she pointed out. “At least, not that we knew of.”
While I had blocked Paige from my life after our divorce had been finalized, lots of people that I knew had remained friends with her on social media just to ‘keep an eye on her’, so it would have gotten back to us if she’d gotten married again. I could also only imagine how much attention she was going to court from Kirk’s tragic passing. I could see her milking the horrible situation for all that it was worth.
“Plus, it was a fire,” she kept right on. “All fires are investigated at the request of the insurance companies anyway. If there’s any foul play, it’ll come out.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist as I looked into her beautiful green orbs. “I suppose you’re right,” I sighed. “It’s just…it’s just crazy.”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” she advised quietly. “Paige is out of our lives, and we’re happy, Harding. Let’s just be happy.”
“I know, I know,” I muttered before I dropped my head against her waist. “I just…I just hope that it’s an accident.”
“And if it’s not, then they’ll investigate,” she replied evenly. “And if Paige is involved, then she’ll end up where she deserves.”
I looked back up at her. “She belongs where she can get help.”
Trista stroked the back of my head. “Let’s just agree to disagree on that.”
I let out a soft chuckle. “How about we go out for dinner tonight?”
“That sounds lovely,” she replied, agreeing to end the argument before it began. “The kids will be excited to go out on a school night.”
When she went to get up off my leg, I stopped her. “I love you.”
Her smile lit up her face, and I really was a lucky sonofabitch. “I love you, too.”
“No, I mean it,” I said, holding her tighter. “I love you so much, and I can’t thank you enough for sticking by me this past year.”
“We stuck by each other,” she corrected. “Like all people in love are supposed to do.”
I stared at her, silently vowing to do everything that I could to make sure that this relationship didn’t fail like my previous two. I stared at her, silently vowing to make honesty a priority between us, no matter how uncomfortable or painful.
“I’m not going to fuck this up, Trista,” I promised her.
Her smile was a beautiful one. “Neither am I.”
The End.