Epilogue

*Three weeks later*

I stood with my hands on my hips in the middle of the living room, surrounded by pieces of furniture and open boxes. Gazing around the cluttered room, I let out a tired sigh. Who would have ever guessed that Jonathan and I had that much stuff? His apartment had seemed so small and I only had the things I’d taken with me when I’d moved out of my father’s house and into Jonathan’s apartment.

Wiping an arm over my forehead, I walked into the kitchen to get a cloth to wipe my sweat soaked skin. Then I grabbed a cup from the counter and filled it with water from the sink before sitting down at the breakfast bar to take a break.

As I sat there, I looked around the kitchen, amazed that Jonathan and I had come so far in so little time.

The two of us had managed to find this two story house nearly a week after we’d returned from our honeymoon. Since we’d already met with a realtor long before the wedding, there were already several houses waiting for us to choose from when we’d returned.

This four bedroom, three bath house with a balcony that ran the length of the house, and a kidney shaped pool in the yard had been perfect for the kind of future the two of us were planning.

Granted, our life together had started the moment we had said our vows to one another, but now we were living it. I smiled to myself as I thought over the last few weeks since Jonathan and I had returned.

Three days after we had closed on the house, Jonathan had returned to work with his father. So far, he was loving it. Now that David respected his son and gave him all the space he needed to be his own man, Jonathan had begun to thrive. Still, he was here during the nights and weekends helping to move things into our new home.

And during the times he wasn’t here, someone else usually was. Our new home was rarely ever empty of people as new furniture and other things were brought in. Some days found David, Darryl, and Danny all arguing about where a huge piece of furniture should go. Other days found Alishia and Sarah helping me open boxes and putting things away. Still other days found Elise, my mother, or Samantha giving me advice on what colors looked best in what rooms.

At least that’s the way it was during the days. The evenings were then spent having dinner at someone’s house or out at a restaurant. I had already managed to have dinner in my new home surrounded by the huge family that made up Jonathan’s and my life. Both of us loved being able to share our happiness with our loved ones. However, even our families knew when it was time to leave the two of us alone. Everyone knew the two of us still liked celebrating our new marriage alone together.

I sighed as I closed my eyes. Things had certainly been busy during the three weeks Jonathan and I had returned home. And it had started the moment the two of us had stepped off the plane.

The first thing I had found out was that my father had been giving my mom a hard time with the divorce. Mom had intended to just take everything owed her according to the prenuptial agreement she’d signed, but when Daniel had gotten his lawyers to try to find a loophole, she’d started to get defensive.

It turned ugly when Daniel got his lawyers to claim that she had manipulated her children and used them to stab him in the back. His lawyers were doing their best to make mom look like a conniving bitch and Daniel like a naïve man who had only wanted to do right by his family.

Mom had finally had it with Daniel, so Danny had once again gotten lawyers from his firm to handle the case. It was only days ago that mom’s lawyers had managed to get the house, the cars, the restaurant, and her share of money awarded to her. The icing on the cake had been when mom got full custody of Samantha and promptly surrendered all rights to Kevin. She said it was only fair that Daniel reaped what he sowed.

Daniel had spent every moment he had trying to get Danny, Samantha, and I to talk to him. He’d tried to find ways to get us on his side, but nothing had worked. I had disowned my father and Kevin the moment I’d found out that they had known what Mark intended to do to Jonathan. So, when I returned from my honeymoon to find my father begging me for forgiveness, I turned a deaf ear to him. To me, my father was dead and my younger brother had gone with him.

Danny and Samantha had also cut ties with Daniel and Kevin. Danny had cut his when he’d been going through the mess with getting his bond money. Samantha cut hers when she had to sit and watch Daniel’s lawyers spread lies about our mother. Samantha knew it was Daniel that had put them up to it and that had been the last straw for her.

As soon as she was able, mom had put the house up for sale and she and Samantha were now happy in the town home they lived in. She had sold all of the cars and split the money between Danny, Samantha, and I. As for the restaurant, mom decided to keep it until Darryl graduated from culinary school and took it over.

None of us knew where Daniel and Kevin were and no one cared, so long as they stayed out of all of our lives. Mom, Danny, and David had gotten the lawyers to make sure that the two of them could never cause problems for any of us again.

Of course, the other thing that had been waiting for both Jonathan and I when we’d gotten off the plane had been news about Mark. He had been sitting in jail ever since he’d tried to shoot Jonathan that day outside of the restaurant. However, he hadn’t been quiet about it. He’d tried to get his parents to help him get out and get back to me, but his mother had immediately seen the wrongness of it. It had taken stern warnings from her to keep his father from helping him.

When that had failed, he’d tried to get his lawyer to dig up dirt on Jonathan. He tried to prove that Jonathan had set Mark up so he would end up in jail, out of Jonathan's way as he swooped in to take advantage of me.

Again, that plan had failed, especially since Jonathan, me, and other witnesses to Mark’s behavior testified against him. In the end, he had been convicted of attempted murder and confined to prison for up to 50 years.

That was pretty much the downside of returning home from the honeymoon. The upside was all of the good news and new opportunities that sprung up. One of the good things was that Sarah had announced that she was going to college too. She was going to study fashion design with the intention of designing costumes for the movie industry.

Then, last week, she and Darryl had announced more good news. The two of them had become engaged. As happy as all of us were for them, they said they were going to wait until Darryl had finished culinary school before getting married. That way, he could take over the restaurant from my mother and make it his own.

It had made me laugh the way Sarah had explained it. She had said she wanted to wait, but not that long. In other words, she could wait for Darryl to graduate, but she couldn’t wait until she graduated from design school.

The other thing that had turned out well was Samantha’s new school. She had been enrolled into an exemplary school and had started two weeks ago. Jonathan, Alishia, Danny, and I had all been at the townhouse waiting for her to get home from her first day of school so that she could tell us all about it over cake and ice cream. The smile on her face as she’d looked between all of us and mom, who had picked her up from school, had been priceless.

Turned out she liked the school because everyone was smart like her and she found herself having to keep up with everyone. It was a challenge and Samantha discovered she liked challenges. Plus, she had also found out that one of her friends from her old school was going there too. Still, Samantha had talked on and on about all the things she thought were cool about her new school.

Two weeks later, she was already spending time in extracurricular activities like the Young Scholars club, which was for kids who loved words just like she did. Of course, Jonathan and I had both grinned when she’d told us she was a member of the Science club and the Mathematics club. And Sarah had beamed proudly when Samantha assured her that not all of her activities were so nerdy since she also signed up for art and choir.

I already knew that I would be seeing less of my sister than she had originally planned, but I wasn’t complaining. I was extremely happy for her and proud that she was making an effort to stand on her own.

Besides, I was going to be pretty busy too. My first day of college was going to be this coming Monday. I had already signed up for my classes and paid for them. Jonathan and I were planning on going to the campus the day after tomorrow to look it over and finish buying the rest of my books.

Other than school and studying, I was going to continue to make this place into our home. I decided that I wasn’t going to work during my first year of college and Jonathan had agreed with me.

However, I had already let David know that I was willing to work in his firm when I started my second year of college. He was already working with the school in setting everything up for me next year. So, for now I was concentrating on being a new wife and a new college student. Next year, I’d add to my dreams.

The sound of the front door closing startled me out of my musings.

“Beautiful?”

I grinned as the sound of my husband’s voice came floating from the hallway. “I’m in the kitchen!”

I made my way into the living room to see Jonathan tossing his suit jacket on top of some boxes while he loosened his tie. He gave me his usual smirk as he said, “God, I missed you!”

I giggled and made my way into his arms, allowing him to pull me in for a kiss. As it ended, he only pulled away enough to lean his forehead against mine. His lips continued to brush over mine as he spoke.

“I’ve got some good news.”

“Really?” I whispered.

“Um hm,” he whispered back before kissing me again.

When he pulled back again I asked, “What is it?”

His smile grew wider as he said, “You’re going to be an aunt.”

My eyes went wide at that. “Oh my God! Alishia is pregnant!”

At Jonathan’s nod, I laughed and hugged him tight. He returned the hug since we both knew Danny and Alishia had decided to go ahead and try for a family instead of waiting.  Daniel’s treachery had affected my brother hard. Danny had decided that he was going to do whatever made him and Alishia happy. He knew she wanted children and now that they could afford it, there was no point in waiting. Lucky for them, there was no need to wait so long before Alishia had conceived.

“So, are we all getting together to celebrate tonight?”

Jonathan sighed and slid his arms tighter around me. “No. They want to wait until this weekend.” He nuzzled my neck, “I’m glad. I wasn’t really looking forward to going out tonight.”

I pulled back to look into his eyes. “Oh, if you’re tired, I can call mom and tell her not to come over and help me…”

He placed a finger over my lips, “I already called her.”

I lifted an eyebrow, “You called my mom and told her not to come over?”

He smiled, “I asked her if I could have a romantic evening alone with my wife.” He chuckled before saying, “And she told me exactly what to do to make it as romantic as possible.”

I stared at him for a moment before I laughed softly. “She’ll never learn will she? She still doesn’t understand that you don’t need any advice on how to be the most perfect, passionate, romantic husband a girl like me could ever dream of.”

Jonathan swung me up into his arms as he made his way towards the hallway, leading to the master bedroom.

Looking down into my eyes he said, “You’re wrong. I’m a perfect, passionate, romantic husband for a woman like you. Only you. And beautiful, you are my dream.”

I smiled as it hit me. I wasn’t doing something that was out of the ordinary. It was something that was more exciting. Something perfectly natural. Something that wasn’t a dream or anything.

I had found home.


THE END