Poppy and I have spoken a lot since everything went down. She filled me in on the blank parts and offered me a position within Anonymous. The boys don’t know that she’s in Anon. I think they suspect something, but they can’t prove it. Mom leads that group of women like a fierce queen. They’re now working closely with Isaac too while using Storm and Slim when they need anything tracked, coded, or wiped.
“Well, this is your life now, princess. Take it,” Dad announces, a grin on his mouth. I smile at him, and up at everyone that’s here.
He’s right.
I will take it.
“Baby!” Royce yells from behind me.
I spin around, eyes wide. “What?”
He tosses a basketball at me and I catch it with a thud as he takes long strides toward me. My fingers twitch over a lump that’s taped to the ball. I still, my stomach dropping to the ground when I see the white gold diamond ring that’s glistening against the burned orange sun.
“Ro—”
“Shhh.” His finger is at my mouth, a smirk on his. “Stop fucking talking for a second.”
“Okay,” I whisper, my throat throbbing from emotion.
He falls to one knee, a cocky smirk on his mouth as his eyes peer up at me from below. “Jade Olivia Kane, I can’t wait to fuck you, love you, and eat you for the rest of our life. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I say through choked tears, my hands coming to his cheeks.
“Oh, come on. Really?” Dad says. “Little fuck.”
We all start laughing as Royce scoops me up from the backs of my legs and throws me over his shoulder.
If I had to walk through hell all over again just to have my man finally beneath me, I’d do it one hundred times over. One hundred. Royce was my family before anyone else was. He and Mom invited me into their hearts and made me feel like the missing piece to their family. Sometimes it’s not about blood.
It’s about who is still standing beside you after seeing you at your worst.
I will love this man for the rest of my life, and when we both finally die, our souls will continue to find each other wherever we end up.
Because you can’t fuck with fate.