Page 99 of Rising Star

EPILOGUE

SAM

Three years later

“Daddy, come see. Come see. Austin is making bubbles with his mouth. It’s so funny. He can’t stop laughing.”

It took me all my will to crack my eyes open. What time was it? I looked to my right. Madison wasn’t there. I was supposed to do the morning shift. We talked about it last night.

“Where’s Mama?” I asked my cheerful daughter.

“With Austin,” Mikaella deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

“Come here, you,” I said as she neared me. She dropped a kiss on my cheek. “I love you, sweet pea.”

“I love you too, Daddy.” My heart swelled. Seeing the joy pouring from my little girl was priceless. “Now come and see Austin. You’ll miss his show.”

“All right. Let me get dressed first.”

“Hurry,” my daughter said. I was picking up a shirt when her soft voice sent shivers down my spine with her next words. The good kind. “Are you and Mama going to get married one day? All my friends, you know, their parents are married. Why are you not?”

I turned on my heels and sat on the edge of the mattress to level my eyes with hers, weighing my words.

“Does it matter to you?”

Mikaella nodded. “I don’t want Mama to ever go away. I want her to be in our family forever. I love Austin too, even when he burps all over my shirts or when he stinks.”

“Listen, you know the ring on Mama’s finger?” She nodded again. “It’s my promise to her to always love her. But I think you’re right. We should ask her to marry us. For real this time. The wedding will have to wait until after the baby is born, though. That’s what she wants. All her children here to celebrate with us.”

A wide smile brightened my daughter’s face.

“Can Mama also be our mama forever?”

“She already is, sweet pea.”

“But I want to be her real daughter. Like in that movie. Justine wishes it too. We talked about it.”

“You did?” I blinked to keep my emotions at bay, not ready to let them out. “You two want Maddie to adopt you?”

Mikaella nodded again, seriousness all over her face.

“And be a real family. Austin has a real Mama. We don’t. And Justine and I choose Maddie. Can you choose her too?”

I pulled my now nine-year-old daughter into my arms.

It’d been almost six years since Lisa left. And to this day, she’d never contacted us or tried to make amends with her children. For a short while, I was tempted to hire a PI to keep tabs on her, but Madison discouraged the idea. What would it change? Except bring more pain to the girls if she ever came back or approached them. She said she wouldn’t want her own biological mother to reach out if she was given the choice. And I couldn’t agree more when she explained her point of view.

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Mika. You sure you’re ready, though?”

“Daddy, I’ve been ready for a long time. I was just waiting for you to make a move. But you don’t move fast enough, so I’ve decided to help you out. We’ll bake a cake later and ask Mama, okay? Justine said we should throw a party.”

“Oh, I’d like that.”

“And we’ll invite our friends. And Riley, Devon, and little Briana. And your other friends with their kids. All the people we love. And we’ll call grandma and grandpa and grams and gramps on video.”

Madison’s family had become ours too. And her parents loved my kids as their own grandchildren.

“Mika, right now, you’re making me the happiest daddy on the planet.”