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And it didn’t matter how much money I had.
Besides, all of that was now reverted back to Leia. It was just another of the many prices I would have to pay going forward.
The game was over.
Checkmate.
I lost.
Epilogue
Leia
Six Months Later
“Well, kids—we are here,” I said as I opened the door to our beautiful hotel room.
The twins bounded into the room excitedly trying to release all the pent up energy from a long plane ride and a decent drive to the Kona Hotel and resort. But all in all, I thought they handled it all pretty well.
“Wow, this is even better than I expected,” Taylor said walking into the room behind me.
He started helping the bell boy with unloading the heavier bags. After they were done with the last of them, Taylor gave the young man a hefty tip. The boy smiled and thanked Taylor profusely as he headed out of the room.
“Great job,” I said. “You probably made that kid’s week.”
“Yeah, I used to do work like that when I was in high school, but not for nearly as nice of a place. I know what it’s like to do grunt work and to not have much appreciation thrown your way.”
“That’s sweet,” I said. “You know, we’ve been married two months and I’m still finding out all sorts of interesting things about you.”
“You never knew I did that?” Taylor asked.
“No, I just don’t think it ever came up.”
“Well, that is the fun part about being newlyweds,” Taylor said as he picked up a few of the lighter bags to carry them towards our bedroom. I followed him, listening to the twins jumping up and down on their beds. I knew I should have told them to stop, but I just didn’t feel like telling them to quit being four years old at that moment.
Our bedroom was large with a nice, comfortable looking king sized bed in the center of it.
“Is it safe to say the word newlyweds?” Taylor asked me. “I feel like once you hit thirty, then that word should never be applied to you.”
“Well, then it only applies to one of us,” I joked.
Taylor put the suitcases in the corner and as he walked towards the door to grab the others he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a big, sweet kiss. Then he continued to the front room to get the heavy stuff.
I followed him to lend assistance even though he didn’t ask for it.
As I watched Taylor work I found myself feeling a bit strange about how everything had happened. Just a few short years before it felt like my entire world had collapsed. I’d almost been killed and my body was horribly disfigured. But Taylor found me. He saved me. And he was able to look past all of the issues I had and find the real me. He had fallen in love with me when I was a shell of who I was now.
And thanks to him I had my life back. I had my boys back. I had my family back.
For the first time since I was a kid, I felt whole again. I’d never really noticed how empty I was since my parents’ death until this. There was a hole deep inside of me that I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to fill. But since I’d let Taylor inside, that hole had started to close. I still missed my parents, but it no longer ruled my life. It no longer made me wish that my life was different. Everything had happened for a reason and I was living that reason right now.
I knew my parents would be very proud of me if they were here.
After we got settled in we decided that we would go grab a bite to eat at a restaurant down the street. It was getting too late to do much else since we’d been travelling all day. Taylor had first suggested the idea as a great way to get away from everything, especially after all the madness with Ted that had happened. Plus, Taylor had just finished his book, and he was looking to do a bit of relaxing, which he never suggested.
Ted… I’d hardly thought of him recently.
The plan had worked out beautifully, but I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants the entire time. There was so much room for error and so many times things could have gone wrong, but I knew the man. I found it strange how I seemed to know him so much better after we were no longer together then I had when I’d been married to him.
I had to smile now, when I thought about it. Ted was in prison. He most likely would never see the outside of prison walls. And that was where he belonged. And I owed so much of it to Taylor. We’d put our heads together and crafted the plan, tweaking and adjusting things about it until it all seemed to flow together like a perfectly constructed puzzle.
