For my rape alone, which was a Class B Violent felony, he got fifteen years, for the other rapes, the total years were forty-nine, and the attempted murder was twenty years. He wouldn't be getting out of prison in this lifetime. No parole would be granted.
Caspian didn't leave my side. He moved in with Grandma, Dixon, and me. Over time, I progressed in the kitchen at Casper's, and it had nothing to do with me dating the boss. He stayed out of all my promotions and left everything to Francoise. I practically run the place now, and we've introduced a lot of my dishes onto the menu over the years. Caspian travels a bit, and I go with him as often as I can.
Grandma decided she wanted to stay in New York with us. We moved out of the city and bought a beautiful house with a big garden and Grandma has her own annex. She loves it. She gets the best of both worlds. She loves Caspian too, which helps.
I have a surprise for Caspian after the wedding ceremony, and I can't wait to see his face.
My life has turned around completely. I never did try to find my father, who knows, maybe one day, but the time isn't right now. Dixon loves Caspian and calls him Poppa. The first time he did it, Caspian cried, as did I, and Dixon thought we were soft. Caspian loves playing in the garden with Dixon. They play soccer or football. Caspian even takes him out fishing on his boat, just the two of them. They love their boys’ time. We’ve been talking about adoption. Caspian wants a big family, Dixon also wants brothers and sisters, so that’s going to be on the horizon soon.
I turn to Grandma, and she smiles at me. I’m so glad she’s giving me away. “I love you, Grandma. Thank you for always being there for me. At one time, I thought my life was over, and I thought about ending it. I'm so glad I never did. I'm so glad I was brave enough to carry on, but I couldn't have done it without you.” I lean in and kiss her cheek.
She has tears in her eyes. “Come on, love, let's get you married to that gorgeous man of yours before I whisk him off for myself.”
We both laugh just as the doors open for me to walk towards the love of my life. My Chef.
Caspian
THE MUSIC STARTS, and I hear the doors open. Dixon stands in front of me — we’re dressed in the same suits, and he looks handsome. I turn, and I gasp when I see her standing at the doors. She looks absolutely stunning. I don't have the words to describe how I feel right now. I'm the luckiest man alive, that's for sure. I have my hands resting on Dixon's shoulders, and I'm trying not to shake, but it's not helping. He looks up to me. “She looks beautiful, Poppa. Momma looks so beautiful and happy.”
I nod down at him, smiling from ear to ear. “Yes, she does, son, she's the most beautiful woman ever.”
I look up and meet her eyes. I see the love and adoration mirrored from my own face. She smiles at me, and I mouth, ‘I love you,' to her, and she beams. She starts her walk to us. I can't wait to make her Mrs. Kade. She will officially be mine.
We've come such a long way after she was released from the hospital. It didn't take long for me to move in with them. I stayed with her from the day she was released and never left. I will never forget the first time we made love. I thought it wouldn't happen for such a long time, and when it did, it was beautiful.
It was the night Reid was sentenced. We celebrated, knowing he would never do anything to us again, and we knew Dixon would never have to know about him. We were both very relaxed after a nice night out, and once in bed, we started kissing and touching. I was on top of her, my cock was at her clit, and I was rubbing gently up and down. I was at her entrance. We stopped kissing, and she gave me a look I will never forget. She grabbed my ass, and she pushed me into her while lifting her hips to take him in. We both froze. I thought she was going to bolt, and she closed her eyes as I entered her. When she opened them, I was holding my breath, waiting for her to tell me to get up, but she didn't. Instead, she grabbed both my ass cheeks and started moving up and down on the bed, pulling me into her. I let out my breath and asked if she was okay with this, and she smiled the biggest smile at me and nodded. I started to move, very gently at first. Finally being inside her and feeling her tightly squeezing my cock was exquisite. Feeling the love for her tenfold. I cried as we both climaxed together. She cried, holding on tightly to my shoulders.
I opened the restaurant in LA and having Macen and Dixon by my side made it the most perfect day. Following that were Vegas, London, and Paris. Macen and Dixon were with me at each opening and Macen helped me with all the restaurants: setting them up, running them, and the menu selections. We discussed her opening her own restaurant as it was her dream, but she was more than happy at my side and being part of the management of the Casper’s chain. I have a surprise for her after the wedding ceremony.
I look over to my poppa sitting in the aisle. We’ve got to know each other, and I've forgiven him. Macen made me realize he was not to blame. He lost the love of his life, and he couldn't cope with it. I felt the same when I almost lost Macen. I know if she hadn't made it from her head injury, I would have struggled to cope.
He came to see me in New York, and we talked a lot about our feelings, trying to understand each other. He still calls me Casper. He said I will never be anything else to him.
We started to bond, and now we have a good relationship. When he can, he comes to New York and comes out fishing with Dixon and me. Macen, Dixon, and I have been to Florida a few times to stay with him and his wife, Rosy. She is a nice lady, and we all get on well. Once Dixon started calling me Poppa, he started calling my poppa and Rosy, Grandpa and Grandma. He loved being spoiled with two new grandparents.
Now, here I am, about to marry the love of my life. As we both say our vows, we cry. I’m not ashamed to cry in public because this tells the world I am officially off the market. Thank fuck for that.
I've closed Casper's for the day because we’re hosting our reception here. Of course we are, only the finest food for us. We don't have a lot of guests, as neither of us has many relatives and not that many close friends, so we kept it intimate. My team have dressed Casper's up with white flowers, and there are flower arches over our table and at the entrance, with a red carpet to greet us. It looks amazing. “Baby, can we just go into the back office, I have something for you?” I say as I raise my eyebrow at the look of lust on her face. “Mrs. Kade, where is your mind wandering too, right now?” I laugh and lean in to kiss her, which immediately gets heated until we get lots of whistles, catcalls and shouts to wait for the honeymoon.
I lead her out the back, holding her hand, and in my office, I go to my drawer and pull out some papers. “I just need a signature on these from you, my beautiful wife.”
She looks at me, quizzically. “What is it? Why do I need to sign?”
I hand her the documents and let her read them.
She looks up at me. “You’re making me your partner in business? Caspian, I can't do that. The restaurants are yours. You've worked hard to get where you are. They are your babies!” She puts the papers down on the desk and shoves them towards me.
I move around and take her in my arms. “Baby, the new restaurants are as much yours as mine. You had as much to do getting them up and running as I did. In fact, without your input, I don't think they would have succeeded. You are my partner now, baby, every decision about work or life is ours to make, not just mine and not just yours. Please sign them. Please don't fight me on this. I love you my, beautiful chef wife, and what a force we are together. The two best chefs there are.”
She signs the papers. Now I take out the other envelope and hand it to her. She takes it from me gingerly and gasps. “Oh my god, Caspian, when did this happen? I'm now a Michelin Star chef. I'm a one star. I can't believe it.” She jumps into my arms, kissing me. I can't tell what she's more excited about, the partnership and her now owning half of all my restaurants or the Michelin Star. I don't give a shit — she's happy. That is all that matters to me.
“Wait there,” she says, leaving me in the office. She returns two minutes later, and she hands m
e an envelope. “My turn. Happy wedding day, baby!” I open it and pull out the papers. “It's official. You’re Dixon's Poppa. It arrived yesterday — the adoption has been finalized. Congratulations, Poppa.”
I beam from ear to ear. “We’re officially a family. I have a family? I can’t wait to tell Dixon I’m officially his Poppa.”
She nods at me. “Turn it over.” It's just one piece of paper — there's nothing attached. I turn it, trying to comprehend what I'm looking at. It's a black box like a photograph that is all grainy. I don't know what it's supposed to be. I must look really confused. She moves towards me and takes the paper from me.
“Well, as this was your official notification of being a poppa to Dixon, I thought it best you had both of your babies on the one form.”
I have no fucking clue what she is talking about.
She rolls her eyes at me. “This is a peanut. Our peanut. Mine and yours. One we made together. Do you see?”
Holy fucking shit. I see it. I see the peanut. I notice the name and date. “It's a scan, Caspian. It's our baby.”
I grab her, lifting her into my arms and twirling her around. “We're having a baby? Me and you? How? How, Macen, When?”
“Well, Caspian, when a man and a woman make lo…”
I kiss her hard. “Smart ass. I know how they are made. I just mean… I thought you couldn't get pregnant?”
She laughs at me and at how startled I must look. “Well, they said the chances were very slim, almost impossible, but as we know, the impossible happens with us, my husband.”
I slide her down my body, and we kiss until we are breathless. “I love you so much, Mrs. Michelin Star Kade. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life worshipping you and making you happy. My beautiful wife.” We stand, hugging and crying together for a little while. This is the best day of my life.
We join the rest of the wedding party and break the news to everyone. This is my life, and I will take it over any Michelin Star any day.
The End
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Lynda Throsby Xx
Catfish
The Best Day Of My Life
Read on for a free sample of my
debut novel Catfish.
Catfish is a dark, gripping, romantic thriller.
and
The prologue and first couple of chapters
of The Best Day of My Life.
This is a sweet but sad single dad story
Catfish
Online Dating Meanings
Stashing – When you start seeing someone, but they keep you a secret and stash you away—usually because they are married or seeing other people. You are their secret.
Ghosting – When you start seeing someone, and they just disappear and vanish without a trace. They don’t return your messages and even block you from social media and dating sites. This is so they don’t have to tell you they are breaking up with you verbally.
Zombieing – If you have been ghosted the culprit may resurface back on the sites. This is usually a fair bit of time after they ghosted you. They try to make contact, only to probably ghost you again.
Benching – This is before you discuss exclusivity, and they bench you like in a football game while they look for someone better. You are their backup option. They may come back to you if no one better comes along.
Catch and release – Where someone persistently pursues you as they love the chase, but as soon as you agree to a date they release you, as you’re not a conquest any more.
Breadcrumbing – This is where someone seems to be pursuing you, but really, they have no intention of being in a relationship with you. It could just be the chase they like, or it’s a game as they are already in a relationship. They message and chase, leaving you breadcrumbs with no outcome.
Cushioning – When you’re dating, but they know it’s not going anywhere or will not end well so instead of cutting you loose they prepare you for the break up by chatting and flirting with others online to cushion the blow to you.
Kittenfishing – Someone who has out-dated images of themselves and lies about their age, height, job, hair etc. If you were to meet you would know they were lying.
Catfishing – The pinnacle of online dating deception. Where someone pretends to be someone else. They use fake images to lure you in and use false information to make them seem more interesting. This can be dangerous if you decide to meet up, although you would never know until you decided to go that far and by that time it could be too late for you.
George
IT HAS TAKEN me a long time to reel this one in and get her to finally agree to meet me for a date. It’s been too long now since my last catch, just over a year ago now. This one is going to suffer because i’ve waited for wait so long, I’ve missed out on others while I’ve been chasing her, and my need is growing more and more. It’s getting harder each day—both figuratively and literally. The things I’m going to do to this bitch now… I can’t wait, and boy will she regret making me. I am a very impatient man.
The minute I laid eyes on her profile picture while scanning the hordes of whores for my next catch, I knew I had to have her. It was the long mousey brown hair and the hazel eyes, although the others had looked similar, this whore was the spitting image of my fucking bitch of a mother.
My brow is wet from sweat, and I’m shaking, knowing I will finally have her tomorrow. I’m so fucking hard right now just looking at her picture. God help me when I get my hands on her. She will regret ever responding to my messages and playing with me, stringing me along. Why the fuck I get hard for these whores that look like my mother is a mystery to me. They should repulse me, but I can’t help myself, and it makes me hate myself even more. I feel sick to the stomach. Now I need to take care of my fucking cock. That bitch, Katherine has done this to me yet again.
Katherine
WHAT HAVE I done? I said I wouldn’t date for a long time, so why have I just agreed to meet this Lewis guy. Why am I doing this? Why do I put myself through this? It’s not like I need someone. I have my own business, right here in the city, which takes up most of my time. But still… it’s lonely, and his pictures are hot. I mean, those abs and biceps and the tattoos… Oh, god, they make me drool. But it’s the bright, mesmerising, light brown eyes with long eyelashes and black curly short hair that made me succumb. He is just so pretty in a masculine way. I still think this is too good to be true. Why would someone that looks like him be on a dating site? Surely, he can get any woman he wants.
I’ve had such bad experiences with men in my life, going back to my family. I had no father to speak of. He left mum, my brother Brad, and me when I was two, so I never knew him. Brad is three years older than me, and although he did look out for me in school and was very protective as most big brothers are, he’s an arsehole.
He has a wife now, Cindy, and he is mean to her like he used to be mean to me. Not the hitting, but he does have some serious anger issues, and I’m sure it stems from him being so young when our dad left.
Brad used to get angry a lot and hit me, and if I ventured into his room, all hell broke loose. He even broke my arm one time when I was eleven. He had a girl in his room; mum was at work as usual. He was on top of her, grunting away, and all I saw was his arse, but he jumped off that bed so quickly, grabbed me and threw me hard on the floor of the landing that my arm snapped. He was sorry, of course, and persuaded me to tell mum I’d fallen. That was just one of the times in my childhood that I ended up at the hospital, being told how clumsy I was.
Mum worked two jobs. She was the only one bringing money in for the three of us. She was a room cleaner in a hotel in London during the day, starting at 6.30
a.m., she finished that job at 3 p.m. just in time for me to get home from school and see her for half an hour before she had to work the evening shift from 5 p.m. to midnight down at the local petrol station.
She trusted Brad to look after me, being my big older brother, but it was best I stayed away from him as much as possible, or I ended up with bruises. I never told mum he did that to me. She had enough to worry about.
So yeah, men! Dad left—arsehole, and Brad hit me—another arsehole.
THERE WAS MY first boyfriend at fourteen. Luke Jones. At first, he was really nice and made me feel special, but it became clear that was only because of what he wanted from me.
We were going steady for about three months and we’d only ever kissed, that was a trauma in itself the first time. I had no experience, and when he stuck his tongue in my mouth and tried to push it down my throat, I almost puked in his mouth, much to his dismay. Having never had a boyfriend before; I didn’t want to go any further than kissing, although he did try to put his hand under my skirt or up my top a few times.
He even tried to put my hand on his erection over his trousers, but I was scared and naive, so in the end, he got fed up and called me a cock-tease because I wouldn’t have sex with him or let him feel my boobs.
He told all the boys in school not to waste their time with me because they would get nowhere, and he told everyone who would listen that I was a frigid bitch. The girls in school picked on me anyway. I thought it was because I was quiet and kept to myself, but both Brad and Luke told me they were all jealous of me because I was pretty, and I had a good figure for my age, that the other girls felt threatened by me. When Luke dumped me, it just got worse with the mean girls. They had more ammunition to throw at me just because I wasn’t a slut like them.
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