Matty is doing well, too. He asks for his mom every night but seems to accept that she’s away. We’ll take him to see her again in a few weeks. It’s part of the agreement. She’ll see him four times a year with supervision and she’s accepted it. At least she seems to, but the alternative, what she’d face with The Tribunal didn’t leave her much choice. I feel sorry for her at times, but then I remember the things she’s done. All the people she’s hurt and worse. I know to some extent she was protecting her son and herself. And I understand that she may have loved Carlton once but by the end, what she did to him, that’s not love. And I don’t excuse Carlton either. Not for any of it. Maybe one day I will but today is not that day.
About twenty minutes later Leontine comes to take the children. Jericho will spend the night here with Christian and I and tomorrow morning, we all go home.
Once we’re alone and Christian is settled in his little basinet, he pulls the chair close to my bed, his expression serious.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Everything is fine. You were right, though. There was someone on our property.”
I told him about the shovel standing against Nellie’s grave and how I’d felt like someone was there, like I was being watched.
“How did you find out?”
“Hildebrand got it out of Julia.”
Councilor Hildebrand is still having her interrogated and sharing information relevant to us with Jericho. She duped the older man and he’s not one to cross.
“She’d hired someone but still claims he was there to help you. To be an ally,” Jericho says.
“And the shovel against Nellie’s grave?”
“She didn’t know anything about it supposedly.”
“I don’t believe that.” She was the one doing the things she accused Jericho of doing. Terrorizing me to divide us. “Who was it?”
“Some kid off the street. Paid him a few hundred dollars to scale the wall between our properties and scare you. That’s it. I don’t actually know if she had other plans for him, but the kid was just that, a kid. I’m not sure he’d have been able to do anything other than hide out honestly.”
“You found him?”
“Zeke did.”
“You didn’t…hurt him?”
“No. She took advantage of him and he seemed pretty scared already.”
“What happens now?”
“Now?” As if on cue, Christian begins to stir and Jericho gets to his feet, instantly scooping him up and carrying him over to sit on the bed beside me. We both smile down at our baby, our sweet little boy who looks so much like my brother that when he opens his eyes and smiles a gummy smile, I tear up.
“It’s probably just gas you know,” Jericho says with a chuckle.
“I know.” I wipe my eyes, no less emotional. “Still.”
Jericho hugs me to him, shaking his head a little but smiling. Christian settles back into sleep against Jericho’s chest.
“As to what happens now, now we go home and we live. We raise our family and we enjoy every moment of it. I love you, Isabelle. I can’t imagine life without you.”
“I love you, too, Jericho. And it’s a good thing you can’t imagine life without me because I need you in mine. Now and forever.”
Epilogue 2
Jericho
One Year Later
* * *
Isabelle’s stomach is rounded with our second child. From inside the house, I watch her sitting at the edge of the pool in a bikini, her breasts fuller, long hair thick down her back. She takes off Christian’s arm bands and wraps him in a towel. She’s a wonderful mother and a radiant woman. More so when her stomach is swollen with my child.
I want a brood of kids. We’ve discussed it but she thinks I’m kidding. I’m not. Six is a good number. Maybe seven.
I strip off my suit jacket, set it over the back of a chair and head outside, rolling up my sleeves.
“Daddy!” Angelique calls out jumping up and down and splashing water everywhere.
“Look what I can do, Uncle Jericho!” Matty yells and disappears beneath the surface of the pool, the snorkel huge on his little face. He comes up a split second later about three inches from where he just was. “I can swim!”
“Wow, you really can,” I say, trying to look amazed.
“But you’re not allowed in the water alone, Matty, okay?” Angelique tells him very seriously.
He nods to her. “I know.”
I get to Isabelle and kiss her before taking Christian whose arms are outstretched, his little face beaming up at me. He’s got four tiny teeth now and looks like Isabelle with his big blue eyes.
“Is Angelique teaching you how to swim too?” I ask Christian.
Angelique comes up beside me, her little body soaking my shirt when I crouch down to hug her. “He’s too young, daddy. I’ll teach him when he’s Matty’s age.”