Page 42 of Real Shadows

“What do you say?” I asked, addressing Xander. “You willing to help give me that real life?”

He mouthed ‘I love you’ and it was perfect. I was scared, most likely traumatized, but it was perfect.

After Karla and Trevor finally took their leave, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the police showed up. It was late, but I didn’t think that would deter them. When the doctor had checked in on me again, I did ask him to convey that I’d be happy to speak with the police first thing in the morning, and he assured me he’d do what he could to deter them. It wasn’t that I wanted to put it off, so much as I was just so damn tired.

The clock was pointing to well past 10pm when Xander asked, “Why don’t we take your savings and my savings and put them together. We could get a nice house with what we have.”

I looked over at him surprised. He’d been lounging in the chair next to my hospital bed for a while now, as we watched T.V. silently, comfortably. “What?”

He looked at me, those golden eyes looking right through me. “I’d never ask you to go back to my house, Fallon. And I refuse to be without you, so that leaves a fresh start.” He let out a deep breath. “Truthfully, I’m not sure I could ever live there again, anyway, with what happened to you.”

It was too soon. Not to mention, we were both in a very delicately emotional state. But at one point in time, I had been willing to hand over everything I had to this man when he was a stranger to me, so handing everything over now was a no-brainer.

“So, you’re finally agreeing with Karla’s plan?”

His face was all love. “It’s a damn good plan, baby.”

Epilogue

Fallon – Ten Years Later~

As I tripped, and almost lost an eye again, I wondered why the hell I ever thought being a stay-at-home-mom was a grand idea.

Oh, that’s right. I hadn’t imagined my children would be little demons destined to drive me insane.

I kept the F-word firmly planted inside my head and didn’t share it with the identical six-year-olds playing in the living room, completely oblivious to my near death. But, to be fair, it was hard to feel anything but love for the two little heathens. They looked exactly like their father and that just sort of tripled my love for them.

It had taken a couple of years to put everything that had happened with Thomas behind me and move forward. It wasn’t until I sought professional help that I realized I needed healing from a lot of things beyond that fateful day in Xander’s living room. There was the classic abandonment that most foster care children feel, but also the six years that Thomas had stalked me. Those years had changed me, and I hadn’t even realized it until I embraced my therapy and strived to help myself overcome everything I needed to in order to lead a somewhat healthy life. Xander had even attended several sessions with me because he had struggled with not saving me that day, no matter how many times I told him I didn’t fault him in any way.

We lived together for two years and, during that time, he had given me space to grow into the woman I was today. We got married after those two years, and while Xander still had his construction company, I had gone to school to get a degree in sociology. But two years into that, I had fallen pregnant with the twins and it was all family for me after that. I toyed with the idea of going back to school once the kids got older, but right now, this was the right choice for me.

“Momma?”

I looked over at Cillian. “What, baby?”

“Why are you holding all our toys if we’re going to need them?”

“She always does that,” whispered his image, Cormac.

I could feel my left eye twitching, but before I could give in and just have a nice, well-deserved meltdown, Xander was walking through the front door.

He glanced at the boys and then looked at me. “Hey, baby,” he said, all big smiles.

The breath of relief was real. “Hey,” I replied, all the love I had for him in that one word.

He looked at the boys. “What are you guys doing to Momma?” My heart melted just a little more at knowing that Xander could read me so well, he picked up my tentative nervous breakdown by the sound of that one word.

Cillian’s shoulders lifted and dropped. “Nothing. She’s picking up our toys, and we don’t know why, Daddy.”

Xander glanced over at me and his brows shot up in a silent question. I sighed. “You were almost made a widow when I tripped over Max the Maniac Truck,” I explained.

Xander walked over towards me, and wrapping his arms around me, murmured in my ear, “Max the Maniac Truck is history. No way am I ever losing you.”

It took only two seconds before I started laughing and reveled in how Xander always made everything better. I was outnumbered three to one, but Xander was always on my side.

I wrapped my arms around him and let him hold me. Sometimes, even all this time later, Xander needed the reassurance just as much as I did.

I leaned back and looked up at him. “How was your day?”

He smiled and those golden eyes threatened the strength in my knees. “Same thing, different day, baby.” He placed a quick kiss on my lips. “How was your day?”

We both turned when we heard a very loud and dramatic sigh. “Don’t you care how our day was, Daddy?” Cillian asked, while Cormac added, “Momma’s day was filled doing mom-things, Daddy. Like it is every day.”

I really started laughing then. My life was probably going to be filled with calls from teacher and principals for the next twelve years, and there might be some bail money involved later down the road, but I really was blessed. I had a wonderful family and great friends and I’ll never forget how, everything I had, I had by the grace of God.

Xander looked back down at me and smiled. “Well, okay, Momma,” he chuckled.

And everything really was okay.

The End.