Chapter 17: Five Years Later
687 Words
Five years changes everything.
The Hale mansion wasn’t quiet anymore. It was chaos. Beautiful, loud, messy chaos.
“Lucas! Put that down! That’s not a toy!” I yelled from the kitchen, dodging a flying crayon.
“Mom, it’s a lightsaber,” Lucas, 5, said very seriously. He was holding a wooden spoon. His dad’s eyes and my stubbornness.
“Lightsabers don’t go in the dishwasher,” Aiden said, walking in with Lily on his hip. She was asleep. Thank god. Our little girl was 5 going on 50. CEO energy, just like her dad.
“She said it was a sword,” Lucas pouted.
“She’s 5,” Aiden said, kissing my cheek. “She’s allowed to lie.”
I melted. Every single time. Five years of marriage, two kids, and he still kissed me like I was the only person in the room.
The contract was long gone. The “fake marriage” we started in Club Vex that night? Now it was real. Deeds, taxes, mortgage, diapers real.
“Did you send the email to the board?” I asked, stirring pasta.
Aiden set Lily in the high chair. “Yeah. Told them I’m taking paternity leave again.”
“We don’t have a baby, babe.”
“We have two. And they’re starting kindergarten next week. That counts.”
I laughed. My heart was so full it hurt.
Five years ago I was a broke bartender who made one stupid mistake in a club.
Five years ago he was a billionaire who offered me a contract.
Now? We had this.
The doorbell rang. My mom.
“Grandma’s here!” she shouted before I could even open the door. She had bags. Always bags.
“I brought snacks for the first day of school and also these,” she said, holding up two tiny backpacks. One had dinosaurs. One had unicorns.
“Mom, they’re 5.”
“And they need to be prepared,” she said, already heading to the twins.
Lucas and Lily came running.
“Grandma!” “Nana!”
I watched them from the kitchen. Aiden came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Look at us,” he murmured.
“Look at us,” I repeated.
It wasn’t perfect. We fought about bedtimes and board meetings and whose turn it was to do bath time.
But we chose each other. Every day.
That night after the kids were asleep, Aiden found me on the balcony. Same balcony from five years ago. Different life.
He handed me wine. “To us.”
“To us,” I said.
He was quiet for a long time. Then: “Do you ever think about that night? Club Vex?”
“All the time,” I admitted. “I thought I ruined my life.”
“You didn’t,” he said. “You saved mine.”
I looked at him. “How?”
“Because before you, I had companies. I had money. I didn’t have home.” He took my hand. “You gave me home, Zuri.”
I was crying. Of course I was crying.
“Come to bed,” he said.
In our room, the baby monitor showed two sleeping kids. Lucas was in a starfish position. Lily had one arm thrown over her dinosaur.
Aiden pulled me close.
“No contract this time,” he whispered.
“No,” I whispered back. “Just us.”
And that night, for the first time in five years, I didn’t worry about tomorrow.
Because tomorrow we had kindergarten drop off, board meetings, and probably more crayons in the dishwasher.
But we had each other.
The End... of the beginning.
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Author Note:
Thank you for making it to Chapter 17 with me 🥹 We’re officially in the “family era” now. If you’ve been reading this far, please hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the kids’ first day of school in Chapter 18!
I’m posting to reach 30K words for Pay-to-Read so I can keep telling Aiden & Zuri’s story for you. I love you guys 💜
- Writer
