Rival: A Billionaire Romance Novel
Page 14
Our child would grow up in a loving home. The sins of the fathers could be absolved, as it turned out. All we had to do was try.
We both knew the road ahead wouldn’t be the easiest to follow, yet all we needed was to look into each other’s eyes to find the strength and courage we required.
Life set us onto different paths that collided by pure chance. We found love in a place we were told would contain nothing but hatred, and it saved us both from a God knows what.
Alex and I both had out faults, we were far from perfect human beings. No one is, and I shudder to think of what could have become of us hadn’t fate brought us together.
I chuckled as I lost myself in my thoughts. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Alex craning his head towards me. He said nothing and threw his head backwards, leaning onto the chair he sat upon. The silence was blissful, and I fully intended on savoring every bit of it. We were set to run out of it in just a few months.
The life growing inside of me wouldn’t have existed, had my father not used me as a chip in a poker game. Alex later confessed he egged my father to do it just to mess with him. To his credit, he didn’t think the old man would go through with it. All the anger I felt towards my father vanished over time. He unknowingly gave me a shot at what I always thought my dream life would be like, growing up.
Granted, not every wish came to life — there was no pony, and I didn’t live in a pink castle. The most important one did come true, however — I was not alone.
And we would never be.
Epilogue
Alexander
It took Francis Reynolds four months before he realized I was dead set on marrying Lucy.
The wedding would happen once Lucy recovered from giving birth to our child, so as to ensure nothing wrong could happen. Little by little, day by day, I noticed Francis warming up to the idea of the Reynolds and Harris bloodlines to mix. The old man had been a glacier at first, cold and deadly, but I eroded his defenses by doing all I could to help him understand I wasn’t a monster. Not anymore, at least.
In truth, I only cared about Lucy and our baby — whose gender we chose not to be told. We wanted to welcome a new life without preconceived notions, not groom a heir.
Alas, I knew Lucy wanted her father to be in the kid’s life. I did all I could to make sure that old mule of a man would see me as a normal person who just happened to love his daughter, and not a villain ready to take his princess away.
Life had taken a turn I thought would never come. Before Lucy came along, I couldn’t have imagined being locked in a situation like that, yet adjusting to it turned out to be quite easy. A second nature, even.
I felt myself slowly revert back to the man I used to be, before my father died. The painter in me finally came back to life. I never finished painting the New York jungle piece I had in my office, however. I chose to hang it in my study, as a reminder of how dark the night could be right before the break of dawn.
Epilogue
Lucy
I finally stopped drawing parallels between my childhood and the life our future child would have. There was no reason to live in the past other than to learn from it, and I was sure Alex and I had done a great deal of that over the years.
I moved into Alex’s place for the months leading up to the wedding. We were in search of a new house to live in, something built with a family in mind rather than a lonely man.
It stung a little to leave my nest and Brianna behind, but we kept in touch almost daily. As a parting gift, I used some of the money I saved up from my signing bonus to outright buy the apartment we used to live in. The landlord wasn’t too happy about it, though we eventually stuck a deal. Brianna kept insisting on paying rent and I would categorically refuse each and every time — with everything she had done for me, the girl deserved some rest too. Not having to worry about having a roof over one’s head is something people often take for granted. Besides, I really didn’t know how to repay her for all the times in which she helped me.
Lives can change in the blink of an eye, Alex and I both knew that well enough. I could hardly believe fate had been so kind to me. Alas, fate could only do so much — the rest of my life, and our life together as a family, would depend solely on us.
Though the responsibilities may appear heavy to carry, I was certain we could do it.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen (18) years of age or older.
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