Epilogue

Third Person

F ifteen years later.

Suzie and Noah are married, and have the house with the picket fence, just like they dreamed of having. They also have three children, the eldest being son Callum, ten. Daughter Ash, seven, is the daredevil just like her father, who has to be monitored because Noah is teaching her Ninja skills. Last, there is Baron, five, and a mommy's boy.

Suzie's parents divorced eight years ago and her father shocked everyone when he met someone, remarried and moved to Ohio, where they started a bakery, and a highly successful one at that.

No one has seen or heard from Suzie's mother, and no one cares they haven't either. She continued pushing to speak to Suzie until a restraining order was slapped on her. One of the largest cracks that appeared in her marriage, and eventually broke them apart.

Brent met a fabulous woman, Diana, who was widowed with a young son. Diana keeps Brent under orders, much to Suzie's delight. Diana and Suzie are good friends after Diana reached out after Brent had a nasty accident on the job. Brent had a letter in his personal effects to Suzie, again apologizing for his past actions. He has his own small construction company, and works hard for charity causes, as he calls it, to ‘redeem himself' . Suzie is happy that Brent found peace and has not only Diana's son, who he adopted, but a son of his own with her.

Philomena, on the other hand, met and moved in with a man who, it turned out, was a drug distributor. Last that was heard of her wasn't good news. She was on drugs herself and had put herself into rehab. She was alone in the world at that point, and had lost all her friends, because nobody wanted to be associated with anyone that was tied up with drugs.

Holly and Benjamin married and have four children ranging from eleven to two years of age. It appears that Benjamin's idea of a large family is justified, as he's aiming for six. Holly is pregnant with number five at the moment, and neither care what it will be as they have two sons, and two daughters at this point.

Holly is a stay-at-home mother and loves every minute. She does, however, pop into work to see Benjamin now and again, and it's usually when she's in-between babies!

Holly's parents are living in Canada and are trying to reestablish themselves, but Benjamin monitors them and each time they think they are getting ‘into' the circle of people they want to be seen with, he drops a bomb to have them black-balled once more.

Car-Lot was thrown out by her parents, told to get a job and finance herself after they had to sell everything and move. They had lost an enormous investment, leaving them where they could no longer pretend to be something other than what they are, penniless.

Car-Lot is working at the local McDonalds and living in a trailer park that should have been closed down years ago, but it is karma, after all, and she doesn't care whose ass she bites.

Clyde took up with a married woman. They were having a long-standing affair. How they kept it quiet for as long as they did nobody knows. Clyde and the woman died in an airplane crash, shocking his work colleagues and the woman's family.

Stanley, of course, still works for Sinclair. He also took up with Rosemary after chasing her for quite some time. Rosemary, however, is no longer Sinclair's secretary. They live in the cottage and organize everything for the property. Holly still calls him Pops, and he is Gramps to the children who he loves dearly. Rosemary wasn't sure about being Gramma but she warmed to it, and now rocks it, and tells everyone she's rocking it.

Slade continued being a bachelor for quite a few years after everyone else settled down. Eventually, he met Blossom, who had him chasing her for two years before she gave in and ‘allowed' him to date her. She calls him a horn dog, and it's not said nicely when she's angry with him for some reason or other. Slade has had to earn her trust and respect after he had one woman after another keep speaking to him about hooking up when he was on a date with Blossom.

Blossom's name says she is a sweet woman. It's what you'd expect, isn't it? Let me tell you, Blossom has a spine of steel, a tongue that can lash the skin off your back and enough knowledge to have you arrested for any crime she can imagine. But Blossom also loves deeply and fiercely, which is shown to everyone all the time.

Slade and Blossom have a daughter who follows her Da-Da everywhere he goes, and that means everywhere. She asked Noah once if he had a spout just like her Da-Da, and when Noah asked her what a spout was, she pointed to the front of his pants. That is typical of Lily. She is straight down the line and at six she is forward and a delight to be around.

Liv and Sin are married. They live in the mansion which Liv adores. They have two children, twin boys who are now thirteen, and Sin's pride and joy. The boys are learning the business and go into work with Liv every Saturday to become aware of the business, how it is run, and how to treat people.

Wallace and Wagner, the twins, spent time with Stanley and have called him Gramps for a few years now too. They took a while longer to call Rosemary Gamma, but when she took them to the shooting range, scuba diving, and bought them tickets for their favorite baseball team, she was, of course, the best Gamma a boy could have.

Looking at the couples now, you wouldn't imagine the three women, and Sinclair had risen above being cheated on by partners that didn't deserve them. They all just had to realize that and move forward, not backward.

Each one of these incredible people landed in the same chapter in their book of life, and that chapter remained with them until the end.

The End