Chapter 247 EPILOGUE SIX AURORA’S POINT OF VIEW 8 YEARS LATER
EPILOGUE SIX
AURORA’S POINT OF VIEW
8 YEARS LATER
The sun was setting over the Mercer estate, but it didn't look like the fortress of shadows I had first entered as a broken girl. Now, it was a place of light… our eternal light.
I stood in the nursery, my hand resting on the smooth, polished wood of the crib Kai had commissioned from a master craftsman in Italy. The walls were painted a light shade of green, almost teal looking, with so many toys lying around, you would think we were about to start a toy company.
Kai was excited for the arrival of our daughter; so excited, he would not stop talking about our baby. Everyone else had their baby; we had a later start.
For some reason, no matter what we tried, I wasn’t able to conceive. A series of tests, tears, and pain later, I decided to check, and boom….two pink lines. The second I informed Kai, he started setting up everything.
Barely letting me lift a finger to even have my bath sometimes, Kai took over the chores, over my work with mom at his side. "You're doing it again," a low, gravelly voice murmured from the doorway.
I didn't need to turn to know it was Kai. His presence was like a physical pull, a magnetic force that had only grown stronger over the years. I felt his arms slide around my waist, his large palms lying over the swell of my stomach. Our daughter was due any day now, and Kai had become a hovering, protective sentinel man.
"Doing what?" I asked, leaning back into his warmth with a contented sigh, a smile on my lips.
"Thinking about the 'what ifs,'" he whispered, burying his face in the crook of my neck. "I can feel your brain working from across the hall, Green."
I smiled, covering his hands with mine. "I was just thinking about that day in the lecture room….after Tony, of course. About that first day when I was so terrified of you, you claimed me to be your girlfriend even though we never even spoke more than one word to each other.”
Kai turned me in his arms, his beautiful eyes searching mine. He wasn't the volatile, cold boy from Westridge anymore. He was a man who had built an empire on the ruins of a war, but he still looked at me like I was the only thing that kept him grounded to the earth.
"I was a monster," he admitted, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw. "And I was beyond saving, too. But you found me, and breathed life into my lungs again with one glance.
When I thought you were gone, nothing in the world made sense. Not even breathing. I hated every second of it, and only chose to survive through each day because I knew dad would collapse if anything happened to me.”
I reached up, pulling his head down so our foreheads rested together. The silence between us was heavy with the weight of everything we had endured, the toxins from his mother, the shed in Spain, the courtroom, the fear, the therapy I made sure he went for after I found out about how his mother died. We had our fair share of chaos and madness, but underneath it all was a peace so profound it felt like a dream.
"We did it, Kai," I breathed. "We’re actually here."
"We’re just getting started," he countered, his lips brushing mine.
Just as I was about to kiss him back, a sharp, sudden tightening in my abdomen made me gasp. My grip on his forearms tightened, and I felt the world shift.
Kai went rigid, his sharp, protective instincts snapping into place instantly. "Aurora? Was that...?"
I looked at him, a shaky but triumphant laugh escaping my lips even as the pain rippled through me. "I think your daughter is tired of waiting for her debut, Kai. It’s time."