Epilogue
Ella
August 2020
“W ill you slow down!” I know exactly where he’s taking me, so I don’t know why he needs to rush.
“Keep up then!” He laughs, stopping to let me take the two steps to catch up with him. He presses a quick kiss onto my lips before we start slowly walking between the trees.
The bluebells are in full bloom, and there are even more than I remember. The last time we were here was just before the lockdown for Covid. Now restrictions are lifted, it feels weird being outside again. We came here once or twice during our one-hour legal exercise and planted a couple of bluebell bulbs. There seems to be more than I remember, though.
“Have you been planting more bluebells?”
He gives me that wide grin to tell me he’s fully guilty.
“Bluebells for my Ells Bells.” He points to a blanket that’s suspiciously already on the grass. “I thought it would be nice, seeing as we’re child-free for the day. I might have planted a few more with Olivia the other day when you were at the office.”
Matt lies on his back on a patch of green grass. I place my head on his chest.
“It’s just been a shit week, and I thought you deserved some time alone, just the two of us.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Ells.” He sighs. “You don’t have to talk about it, but I know you feel guilty now they’ve been sentenced. But if you want to talk about it, go for it. I can’t imagine how you and, as much as I hate to admit it, Dean, must feel—”
“You still hate him, huh?”
“It’s fading. But I must admit, my lip suddenly starts hurting when I think about him,” he jokes.
“I’m sure his does too when he thinks about you!” I chuckle again before turning serious. “In twenty years, Anthony will be in his eighties. If he lives that long. My dad will be in his sixties, and Amelia’s fifteen-year sentence will bring her to her late seventies. As much as they deserve to be punished for what they did, I can’t help but feel guilty. I can’t imagine facing that long, knowing that your later years are going to be in a cell. Maybe even dying in a cell.”
Matty sighs and grabs my hand, threading our fingers together. “I know. But, Ells, they ruined twenty-one years of your life. They ruined five years of Dean’s life, to a lesser extent. They nearly forced you to terminate Olivia, for crying out loud. Well, they had the intent to do that. They punished you, Dean, and to a lesser extent, me because we fell in love. What kind of sick game is that? Remember that when you feel guilty. We had to sneak around and panic in case Anthony or your father found out about me and came to kill me, the father of your child. When you think about them, remember that, okay? I get that it’s shit because he’s your father.”
We both know he’s right. We’ve gone over it so many times and in so many ways that it’s pointless. When we got told, Dean cheered over the phone at the news.
I sit up and cross my legs. He follows suit and stretches out, enjoying the sun.
“Feels like a lifetime ago we came out here for the first time. We promised no matter what, we would always find each other here.” I stand up and pick a bluebell from the grass. When I’m back beside him, he takes the bluebell from me, knowing exactly what I’m doing.
“I ripped it last time,” he points out. “And look how things turned out.”
“Well, okay, things were messy, but you had me won over the first time I laid eyes on you. Try it again, for old times’ sake.”
He takes the bluebell and in a careful movement, turns it inside out.
“Before we see, I seem to remember you preferred the ripped bluebell because it was unique,” he jokes.
“Hm, but I also distinctly remember saying that it didn’t matter if it ripped, because even if it’s inside out, it was unique because you did it for me. So, it doesn’t matter.”
“You win this round, Ells Bells.”
“I won the moment I met you.”
“Smooth Ells Bells, smooth.” He presses a kiss onto my lips.
When we part, he reaches his hand out and unfurls it to reveal the bluebell. We glance at it and together examine it, noting the clear difference from the last time:
It’s still intact.
The End