Epilogue Two
The Monster
Eighteen Years Later
L eaning against the doorframe, I make sure to be as quiet as possible as I watch my beautiful wife sitting at her desk. She’s typing away on her laptop with her legs pulled into her chair, crossed like a pretzel as she leans forward over her keyboard.
As I look at her in this position, so lost in her work, I understand why she’s always asking me for back rubs. After she graduated from school, she decided she wanted to stay home with the kids and pursue her dream of becoming a published author.
It kept her safe, and she’s always here when I get home, so I couldn’t complain. It’s nice seeing her happy, too.
As she straightens her back and pauses her typing to rub out a kink in her neck, I move into the room and walk up behind her. My hands replace hers, rubbing her muscles until I feel them relaxing from my touch.
She moans as my fingers work her muscles, making my cock harden as I remember why I snuck up here.
“You’re home early,” she comments as her head falls back so she can look at me.
“Figured I could come give you some inspiration for your book.”
My hand slips from her neck around to her throat, where I apply just enough pressure to make it hard for her to breathe as I lean down and press my lips to hers. After all these years, I still can’t get enough of Ainsley.
“The kids are home,” Ainsley tells me as she breaks the kiss and tries to pull my hand from her throat.
“They’re old enough to know not to come into our bedroom when the door is closed,” I reassure her, not willing to let them being home ruin my time with her. They ruined it for years, but now they’re both fully grown and I know at least one of them has been active for a few years.
Ainsley raises an eyebrow at me, waiting for what she just said to process in my lust filled mind.
“Why are they home in the middle of a Wednesday? They’re supposed to be in school.”
She sighs as she swivels her chair around to face me, my first sign that she’s about to tell me something I won’t like. I should have just stayed at work and tried this again later.
“They’re suspended,” she tells me, letting her annoyance show in her tone. “Apparently, Aria skipped class to make out with some boy under the bleachers. The boy tried to take it too far, so Aria kicked him in the balls and called John. John walked out in the middle of his class and found them, then beat the shit out of the boy.”
Ainsley watches me, waiting for my reaction, but I keep my face blank. She’s clearly upset with them, as am I, but also proud of them for being able to handle themselves.
“They get the defiance and violence from you, so you get to talk to them this time,” she informs me.
“Can I spend some time with my wife first, and then I’ll deal with them?” I ask hopefully, knowing exactly what her answer is going to be.
She pulls me down for a quick peck on the lips, and after she pulls away, she smiles and says, “No.”
I sigh as she turns in her chair, getting back to the book she’s been working on for a few weeks now. Fine, I’ll talk to both of them and then I’ll come back and distract her.
John’s talk will be first, mostly because his will be the easiest one and I’m not dreading it nearly as much as Aria’s. He opens the door to his quiet room after I knock, not making me wait very long. He looks like he just woke up, which wouldn’t surprise me. He got out of school early and has nothing to do; a nap was probably the highlight of his day.
“Dad -” he starts, but I hold up my hand to cut him off. He doesn’t need to excuse himself around me, though I won’t tell his mother that. I motion for him to let me in, and shut the door behind myself to give us some privacy.
“You’re going to tell your mother that we talked about how wrong it is to hurt other people, and came to an agreement that you’re going to use the gym more to get your aggression out. Tell her we decided you will work out daily and use the punching bag at least three times a week, okay?”
John nods, agreeing in order to keep himself from actually getting in trouble. If Ainsley had been sent in here for this chat, he would have been banned from all of his electronics for a month, and trapped in the house with no access to the outside world outside of school for just as long.
Fortunately for him, I remember what it was like to be his age. The only difference is that I didn’t have a twin sister to protect, I just had an entire cartel that I was learning to run.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m proud of you. I taught you to fight so you could defend yourself and your sister, and that’s exactly what you did. That boy deserves everything he got for thinking he could take advantage of her.”
After a pat on his shoulder, I walk out of his bedroom and walk next door to knock on the door. Aria opens it quickly, her eyes widening as she realizes it’s me standing at her doorway.
“Daddy -” she starts, but I hold up my hand to her, too, and motion for her to let me in before we start our conversation.
“When did boys stop having cooties?” I ask her to get the conversation started. I’m not really mad about her skipping class or beating up a boy, but when did my baby girl start kissing boys?
“Daddy, I’m seventeen,” she reminds me, raising an eyebrow to remind me what I was like at her age. I certainly wasn’t making out under bleachers, I was fucking girls anywhere I could get my hands on them. From janitor’s closets to the back of my car, I wasn’t shy about where I got my dick wet, but I’m not going to tell her that.
“Boys are trouble, Aria, in case today’s events didn’t make that clear enough for you. And why are you skipping classes? You know better. You’re smart, baby girl, you shouldn’t be messing up your future for boys.”
“I already know everything that’s being taught, they just won’t let me graduate early,” she reminds me. Aria got her brains from her mother, though she wants to go in a different direction. She switches between wanting to be an engineer and a lawyer, depending on the day, but either way I know she’s going to be successful.
I pinch the bridge of my nose as I squeeze my eyes shut and sigh.
“I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself,” I tell her after I gather my thoughts. “But you don’t need to call John to fight for you. You have a mean right hook, I taught you that. He’ll always be there to protect you, as will I, but if you’re not confident in your fighting skills, we can keep practicing.”
“It’s not that, I just got scared,” she admits. “I didn’t expect what happened to happen, and I panicked. So, yeah, maybe we should practice more, just to make sure I don’t forget what to do next time.”
I smile and pull my little girl into my arms, pretending she’s still the cute child that used to invite me to tea parties instead of the sassy teenager drawing the attention of boys.
“Don’t tell your mother, okay? If she asks, tell her I yelled at you for skipping classes and you learned your lesson. Just don’t tell her I’m teaching you to fight or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Ainsley has always believed she could keep the kids innocent, despite who I am. I let her live in her fantasy while making sure they knew what it meant to be next in line for the cartel. I didn’t push this life on either of them. Aria decided to get out, but John has always shown interest and violent tendencies. Ainsley just refuses to acknowledge it, which is why he and I have a lot of secrets that we keep from her.
Aria nods her head against me, agreeing to everything I just told her. With both conversations out of the way and both kids willing to tell Ainsley they were thoroughly reprimanded, I make my way back to my wife.
This time, I lock the door after I close it behind me. I take a second to look around the room, remembering what it looked like eighteen years ago. The bedroom furniture has been replaced by a desk and bookcases, and the bars have been removed from the window, but this room will always hold some of my favorite memories.
One day, you’ll see what I see when I look at our reflection.
“Come here, little one,” I command her. She shuts her laptop and turns in her chair to look at me, her arms crossed over her chest. “I came home to fuck my wife, so come here and get on your knees like a good girl.”
Ainsley licks her lips and smirks at me as she looks me up and down, not able to hide how much she likes what she sees as she drops her feet to the ground and squeezes her thighs together.
“Make me.”