Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 527(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 527(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
That letter changed everything, especially when coupled with the fact that when Nathan’s father arrived home, he caught Patricia just as the file finished uploading and he whaled on her. He beat her so badly the Police thought she was dead on arrival. She had still been on the phone speaking to her contacts in the Police force to let them know what a sick and twisted bastard her husband was when he arrived, so they heard the entire thing. He’ll be going away for a very long time. The charges against him are too many.
Patricia had been a victim for so long. We know it doesn’t excuse her, but now she has her courage back and mind back, we’re both willing to work with her in making her whole again. Though trust is one thing she’ll need to spend a long time working for. For now we’ll let her rest and take comfort in the fact that the choice to prosecute Nathan’s father was taken from us.
It’s going to be a long and bumpy road ahead but we’ll get through it together.
We can get through anything together.
Epilogue
Three days after Nathan and I got married, I in the most beautiful rose gold, ballgown style wedding dress, totally fit for a queen, Nathan’s father was sentenced to forty years in prison for the offences of child endangerment, neglect, trafficking, assault and battery, stalking, abuse, and the list goes on. He had three different trials for three different crimes and the years just kept adding up. He’ll likely be dead before he ever sees daylight again and Patricia and Nathan get his assets and other belongings. Patricia got it all in the divorce, but all of the stores and businesses she handed straight to Nathan almost immediately. He now owns the leading jewellery supplier in the whole of the UK.
We were in Italy when his final sentencing was called, on the holiday we never got the chance to go on due to helping to care for Nathan’s mother as she recovered. We didn’t complain and we had a better time without the kids, I’m ashamed to admit. We wouldn’t have gotten that freedom last time.
Upon returning we revisited the charred remains of the first home we lived in together and instead of leaving the land tainted or selling it on, we had it all cleared and together we designed the most perfect home to raise our children.
Mum and her new husband moved closer to us too, finding solace by the seaside in Essex. Mum is now manager of Nathan’s Essex stores. He has two and she loves every second. She’s good at it too.
Though we have spent years celebrating and building a beautiful home life for our babies, today is an unfortunate day of mourning.
Dillan, so tall, strong and handsome, stands side by side with his father on the sands of Skegness beach. It’s not the most glamorous place but it’s where I grew up, it’s where Caleb and I met and it’s the town where Dillan was conceived.
Emily, now nineteen, is at home looking after her thirteen-year-old sister Ashlyn, my mini-me. They both could have come but they both, being the angels they are, wanted to give us space to say a final goodbye.
A final goodbye to Caleb, Dillan’s biological father, my first love and Nathan’s brother.
Dillan has known about his father since the day he was old enough to understand. He turned to his spirit in times of need as he grew up. I often heard him speaking to himself in bed as though praying and even though it was sad and sometimes a little disturbing, it made me proud and joyful to know that even in death Caleb still gets to know his son and his son still gets to know him.
Now, though, it’s time to set him free. Dillan, now at the age Caleb was when we first met, feels as though it’s time to let go and let Caleb be free. I’m so proud of him and the man he is becoming. He’s so head strong, loving and kind. He’s a replica of his father, not just in looks but in his spirits too. Caleb’s ashes which we’ve kept in hiding for years are out and ready to be scattered into the sea and sand.
Dillan takes the first handful and releases it, whispering something under his breath that I can’t quite make out. I watch the shimmering grey vanish into the water.
Next goes Nathan, silently taking the next handful, his arm around the shoulders of his son. He releases it too and I smile warmly at my favourite men. One has greying hair, yet is no less handsome than he was when we first met. I kiss his cheek. The other is a replica of Caleb; they are almost identical when compared in photographs. I kiss his cheek too. Then I snatch the urn and dump it upside down. The ashes hit the sand with a poof that fans around my ankles. Creepy.