Epilogue

Rafe

I think my wife might be about to kill me based on the sounds coming from our bathroom. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since I married her, but our six kids definitely prove the years have passed.

Maggie is eighteen now, just graduated from high school, and will be starting college this fall. Thankfully she's going to school here in town, so she'll still be living at home. I don't know who'd take it worse if she moved out, her, the younger kids, or Amelia. She's definitely Amelia's daughter—her birth mother doesn't count in anything. We haven't even seen Donna since she left us, but Maggie and Amelia are probably closer than my wife ever was with her own mother.

Samuel is nine, a little leader of the younger kids especially over our three that like Maggie are also deaf. He's fierce if he thinks someone's trying to bully them because of they can't hear or because their speech sounds different. While Maggie never really liked speech therapy, preferred to sign everything, the twins talk more with their older brother than try to sign with him currently.

Kaden and Keira are seven and a half, doing amazing in school although they don't like that they don't go to the same one that Samuel does. We'd have enrolled them at the same school except for the fact that none of the teachers there know sign language and none of us want the kids to think that's acceptable—that they shouldn't be able to learn and communicate in their first language.

We were originally going to stop after the twins were born, but then I took my girl on a vacation and we forgot her birth control pills at home, which gave us our third son, Thad. Like Maggie, Kaden, and Keira, he was also born deaf. He turned four in April so he won't start kindergarten until next year but we have all of the kids in classes for sign language so they can easily communicate with us and each other.

Even our youngest, little Poppy, takes classes. She'll be two in July. Our little firecracker I teased Amelia when she was born. Amelia went into labor after the fireworks started and I barely got us to the hospital in time for them to deliver her since we were at the estate in Connecticut that I bought for us to use during the summers and holidays, or when we simply wanted to get away from the congestion of the city. Amelia loves it but she still loves living here just as much as she did when she first moved to town—minus the worries with her job and having somewhere to live at least.

I've essentially retired. I still own the company, make the bigger decisions but the daily stuff is on someone else, and if they mess up, I honestly don't care. We have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of our lives, and that's all Amelia's ever wanted. Hell, she'd be fine with less than a tenth of what I have in the bank, so I definitely lucked out when it came to choosing the right woman this time.

She's incredible in every way, strong as well. Sheriff Walters kept his word and kept her out of any reports or statements he gave when the full depravity of Harrison's demented actions came out. Harrison's parents on the other hand went public and blamed everything on Amelia. Claimed she poisoned both their sons which resulted in them both losing their lives in the same spot. It got to the point that I had to hire security to go with Amelia to keep the reporters at bay, especially when we filed an injunction and defamation suit against the Carrols to get them to stop. It settled down a bit when we won, but others claimed we only did because of my money.

It was worldwide news for well over a year, and even now, Amelia's name still gets dragged out whenever the stupid ‘inspired by the real life story' movies play. Not that they're even close to being right about what happened the night Harrison died. One of the movies skewed it to fit the Carrols' narrative that Amelia pushed Harrison over the edge and that's how he died. Not that he tried to drag her over it with him, and instead of letting the police arrest him, he jumped off himself.

That movie had the sheriff's office releasing a statement that the events portrayed in the film were inaccurate and that law enforcement was present at the time that he jumped which confirmed the inaccuracy, but there are still some people that try to blame my girl. Say that if it wasn't for her, four other women would still be alive. That their only fault was for looking anything like Amelia, which had Harrison focusing his desires on them and killing them when they didn't behave as he wanted.

I was worried I'd lose her when all of that shit came out, but thank god, my wife finally saw the situation for what it truly was that night on the bridge.

None of it was her fault. Not what happened to Chad. Not what happened to Warren. And most certainly not what happened to four women she'd never even known. It was all on Harrison. Hell, he had photographs of what he'd done to the women in his room—his freaking childhood bedroom because he still lived with his parents who hadn't noticed anything amiss with him.

She weathers it all beautifully, although at times, it can make her forget things, such as taking her birth control and how we ended up pregnant with Poppy to start. This time…if it's true, I honestly don't know how it happened, but I won't argue it at all.

Her parents love our kids so it's not like we can't ship them off to see Grandma and Grandpa when we need a break. It'd surprised Amelia the first time they begged to keep all four of the kids for a week since it was just her growing up. When her mom admitted they had to make that decision in order to provide a decent life for her and having more babies simply would have been too much of a strain on the budget, they grew closer. Amelia finally saw that while coming from a different place than her, her mom loved her just as much as Amelia loved Maggie, and that they'd done what was best for her.

I slip into the bathroom, finding my girl resting her head against the edge of the tub, and I grab the cup from the vanity, giving it to her to rinse her mouth. Her little glare my way puts a smile on my lips, and it grows when she hands over the pregnancy test in her hand. I feel like beating my chest, shouting to the whole city that I did it, I knocked up my wife again, but I'm pretty sure I won't be happy if she uses her black belt on me.

She may have had five babies, but she's still fierce, and honestly, it's getting worse since Samuel loves karate and can practice with her. Something I'll have to warn him to take easy now.

"When you've been puking up your guts for two hours straight, then you can strut around like a peacock. Until then, you're in the doghouse," Amelia says, giving me a glare and I slip onto the floor with her, lifting her onto my lap with a soft smile at her.

"I'm sorry you feel cruddy, but just think what we get from it. Another little baby suckling on your breasts in a few months. All those sweet cuddles and baby kisses…" I muse, rubbing her back as I hold her close. "You know you won't be upset when he or she is here. And hey, we'll have a tie breaker finally."

"I love you, but I swear, you're getting the snip, Rafe," she tells me and I just nod, not really planning on doing it, but at our twelve week ultrasound, the not one, but two heartbeats once again has me agreeing to it rather than chance my wife doing it herself. Not that I think she'd risk the rest of me not working anymore, because she definitely enjoys riding my big dick as often as she can.

A week later, I was walking gingerly after seeing the doctor while she smiled gleefully.

The last months of her pregnancy I relish, especially loving her with her belly nice and round, since this time, it's definitely the last.

We welcome two new babies on New Year's Day. Another little boy, Caleb and our last little girl Chloe both who were both hearing this time. Both who were also adored by all of their siblings the moment they came home.

Amelia was incredible and I loved seeing her nurse our babies. It made me want her more than ever, which might account for the twins not actually being the last as they were supposed to be. Just shy of twelve months later, our little boy Gabriel, broke our tie on Christmas Eve, coming on the perfect day that kept his mama from killing me. Our amazing little Christmas present that landed us with five boys—three hearing, two non, and our four girls—who were two and two for hearing and non.

It didn't keep me from going back for the second attempt at a vasectomy when the doctor confirmed the first one somehow failed, but I didn't push too much to try and weasel my way out of it. Amelia's needs come before mine and what she needed was to be able to love and adore the kids we had, and I was okay with that.

All I can say is it's a good thing we had a big house because nine kids meant having to sneak away to get my wife to myself. Our babies love her immensely, as does pretty much everyone that meets her. I'm just thankful that she chose me, and it's why I'll forever ensure she'll always call me her Mr. Right, because she's my world and I want hers to always be right.