Epilogue

"So that's actually a bullet scar, not some injury you got from falling down and all that bullshit story you had made up."

"Language, Ryan."

"Sorry, Mom."

"Wait," Raine paused ,"so you actually - I mean biologically, are not our parents." She stated, looking pretty much shocked herself, "Biologically, Grandpa is our father, Dad is our half brother and Mom is our aunt. Doesn't that make Mom your step Aunt, dad?"

"Raine? That's not the point here."

"What I don't understand is, why are you telling this to us now? I mean what difference does this make to the present. We're still your children - you've brought us up. You're still our Momo and Dodo. It wouldn't have made any difference if you never told this to us."

"This shit is so confusing."

"The dollar jar, Ryan."

Ryan sighed.

"This had to come out someday." Alyssa started and I looked at her, wondering if she still felt as nervous as she did when we decided to tell them the truth. She had completely freaked out then, worrying that Raine and Ryan will blame her for not getting any kind of closure from their biological mother. We had managed to silence the media some seventeen years ago, only so that Raine and Ryan wouldn't know the truth from somewhere else. But what if it was too late to tell them the truth?

No, she didn't look nervous anymore.

Because Raine and Ryan were still ours. They were not going anywhere.

"We figured, we'd do it before you two turn eighteen. And also..." She looked at me to continue.

"Also," I continued, "We don't know how long dad's heart condition is going to let him stay with us. We thought that before he left us for good, we should at least let you interact as father and kids once."

I looked at the love of my life, worrying her bottom lip as she looked at the two soon-to-be-adults-and-no-longer-babies who brought us together. She still looked just as beautiful then, even though I could spot her grey hair that she refused to dye. Her brown eyes still brought out the most protective instinct in me, and still looked at me with the same kind of sparks and love like before.

I wondered what kind of great deed I had done in my life that fate decided that I deserved her and my kids. We both were absolutely proud of them, not just because of their talents, but because we knew that we brought them up as good human beings.

Juno jumped on the couch and curled himself between Raine and Ryan. Though old now, he had been a fucking pain in the ass when he was a puppy.

Raine and Ryan had sneaked him in home when he was a puppy and they were mere ten years old. He was an abandoned little German Shepherd, and the twins had fallen in love with him at first sight. For the first few days, they didn't let us know about him, but we soon discovered when the meat in the kitchen was disappearing quickly and we could hear high pitched barks from their room.

"Okay, we'll do that." Raine said, "But just for you to know, all of this really doesn't change things."

"Yeah." Ryan added with a smirk - completely identical to that of mine, "Alyssa Powers is still our Momo, Terrence Powers is still our Dodo, and Vincent Powers will always be our Nono."

Both of them let out an, "Oh, Momo." when Alyssa sighed with relief and finally shed the tears she was holding in. While I took her hand and kissed the back, caressing her knuckles, Raine and Ryan sat up from across us and immediately sat on either side of Alyssa to engulf her in a hug.

My heart melted at the sight, too, and that was a proud moment right there, knowing that I accomplished so much in life and was deserving of such a good family and great love. Alyssa and our kids were by my side every step of the way, and I couldn't be more thankful and contented with my life.

That night I made love to my wife again and again, telling her how much I loved her and how much I was thankful to her for finding our two eldest kids.

***************

"I'm still older to you, loser! Bow down to the queen!" Raine yelled.

Ryan immediately stepped close to her and put a hand on top of her head which came up just to his chest, "Oh, but I'm taller and bigger than you, shortie! I can pick you up now and chuck you into the swimming pool, to ruin your pretty little outfit for your date." He smirked at her.

"Oh no you don't." She backed a step and immediately, Raine and Ryan were chasing each other, and I looked at the scene amused. Alyssa was still asleep, and it was way too early in the morning for them to be fighting right now.

*Three.

*Two.

*One.

"Twins! What are the two of you up to now?!" Alyssa's voice boomed from our room upstairs. That was enough for the twins to stop and start whining and complaining.

It had already been decided that I was going to be the cool and fun dad and she was going to be the disciplinarian. She didn't mind it though, Raine and Ryan were well behaved kids except when they started fighting.

And oh did they fight in a way that had once almost burned down our house.

Raine and Ryan shared the bond that most twins had - the telepathic communication, the understanding, but their negligible age difference and opposite genders caused a lot of difference in opinion that led to fights of epic proportions.

There were many times that Alyssa and I fought, too, and though they were really minor arguments, Raine and Ryan loved getting involved in them. Ryan, always being the little cockblocker and momo's boy, always took his mother's side while Raine always supported me. Soon enough, our fight used to turn into theirs, and Alyssa and I enjoyed their arguments with amusement.

Alyssa stormed out of our room, with her usual just-fucked hair, and they actually were just-fucked hair. I had woken her up in the middle of the night and again in the morning, when she decided to fall back asleep after the wonderful orgasm I gave her.

"It is too early in the morning to fight. And you, young lady, don't want to give Xavier a nice excuse to opt out of marrying into a crazy family, do you?"

"Hey!" I interrupted, "No one is getting married, yet!"

"Okay, okay!" She said, "But he'll be coming soon to pick your daughter up so let's be at our best behaviour, alright?"

Ryan's eyes glinted with mischief when he said, "Alright."

Raine flashed at him a warning glare, "Do something and I'll tell Johannah that Mercy kissed you yesterday."

Ryan paled. Raine smirked.

"That's bad, Ryan." I said, knowing very well that the poor boy was probably forced into that kiss. He was very much smitten with Aria and Jonah's daughter, but couldn't help that his good looks earned him a lot of unwanted attention.

"I didn't even know she was going to kiss me, dad!" He turned to Raine, "You know that, don't you, Rainie? I swear I didn't know, I'd never do that to Jo!"

"Oh God!" Alyssa growled, "Stop it! You two shouldn't blackmail each other when it comes to relationships."

"Sorry, mom." Both of them muttered.

I was still leaning against the kitchen counter when she came towards me and I handed her the coffee I had fixed for her.

"Morning love, how do you feel?" I asked her and pecked her on her lips.

"Sore." She uttered.

"Ewww." Raine and Ryan gagged, and Ryan continued, "Please keep your PDA and stuff away!"

"Not that kind of sore, Ryan!" She glared at him and huffed, "Teenagers - just can't get their minds out of the gutter."

"Mom," Ryan smirked, "Dad is not a teenager yet he always has his mind in the gutter when he looks at you. You do too, but dad is always obvious about it." He scrunched up his face.

"Ryan, stop it." His mother said, blushing a beautiful red and she buried her face in my chest.

No matter how much our kids showed that they were grossed out by our 'PDA and stuff', they secretly adored the relationship Alyssa and I had shared for the past eighteen years. They were the 'Fuck Romeo and Juliet, I want a love as great as Mom and Dad's' kind of kids.

"By the way," she started, looking up from her coffee cup and looking around, "Where are the triplets?"

I swear my chest still puffed out a little with pride whenever she addressed our three younger children as triplets. During her first sonogram - when we had first learned that I got her pregnant with three children at once, I could've sworn that I felt like climbing up the Mt. Everest and pounding my chest like a caveman.

Alyssa had fainted, though.

I still remember how I'd come to know she was pregnant though.

And all of it was my fault.

We had married within a month after my proposal on Raine and Ryan's birthday. Within a year, Allie and Aaron had married, too. Things had gotten along well for them, and Aaron had been itching to put a ring on her finger - so much that it had become obvious to all of us except Allie herself.

How he proposed to her is still a mystery, probably because his manner of proposal was not for polite society.

So back to the story, it was around the time when Allie was pregnant - with twins - I felt like it was time that Alyssa and I discussed our third child. At that time, she seemed like she was ready to wait for Ryan and Raine to grow up some more so that we wouldn't miss out on them.

It was finally until after Allie had delivered Ethan and Elsa, did I itch and decided to twist the situation my way. Stupid and thoughtless - but I know that now.

What I did was: Since Alyssa was usually never attentive if I was using protection or not, and I had had her stop using birth control after we married, I stopped using condoms. Somehow, that same month, her sex drive had increased, too and I used it to my perfect advantage.

I now know it was wrong of me to do that. She trusted me with her body and I was being a typical caveman who wanted to see his woman's belly swollen with his child.

A month passed by and one evening I came back from work to find our bedroom decorated with candles, dim lights and sensual perfume. The nursery door closed and I turned to see Alyssa standing in front of me with her sexiest lingerie on. After she undressed me, she pushed me back on the bed and I was in a horny daze the entire. My focus was back when I saw her frown down at me,

"Where are the condoms, Terrence?"

I had gulped then, and I knew she knew and would know if I lied to her so I kept silent while she kept teasing me by rubbing her body against mine inch by inch.

She had fucking tied my hands to the bed post and I was naked and at her mercy.

"Where are the fucking condoms, Terrence?" She waited, but when I didn't say a thing, she continued, "Is it that you don't have any need of condoms anymore, or is it that you haven't used them in quite a while?"

*How did she know that? I had thought and suddenly my eyes widened in realisation.

"Don't look so fucking happy you scheming bastard!" She hissed at me, "I should've known since you've been fucking dropping bombs at me about having more kids since Allie's been pregnant!"

"Look, Alyssa. I'm sorry, I went about it the wrong way, but -"

"But what?! Fucking what?! I'm pregnant and I'm scared!"

And those had been her only words for what had been an entire week. She had been really pissed at me and it didn't take me a lot of time to figure that I'd been an asshole. I begged, I cried and I tried so many ways to get her to talk to me that week, that I almost felt like I was going to lose her because of my stupid actions. She finally talked to me the day we had the first sonogram and I had kissed her and hugged her that day for finally forgiving me.

She was ready for a child, but she didn't like the way I tricked her into getting pregnant.

Now keyword: a child.

During the sonography, the doctor was surprised because Alyssa was showing signs of pregnancy quite earlier than normal. Either I had knocked her up way earlier than I thought or maybe...

The screen had shown three little peanuts and I did a little happy dance inside. What I didn't know was that Alyssa had fainted right beside me and it took quite some time for her to wake her up.

Her pregnancy wasn't a walk in the park. Her constant moods had me walking on eggshells around her, but I tried to be as supporting, helping and loving I could. And the sex, oh god the sex was so worth it. Every time I came home after work, I always found her coming towards me with a huge smile on her face and I wasted no time in picking her up, taking her to our bedroom and pounding her into oblivion.

Raine and Ryan were the most fascinated ones and were always awed at how one of the triplet's kicked back when they touched her tummy.

"Momo! Tummy baby!"

Then there were times when my wife used to be in one of her catty, sexy moods and fought over every topic she could find. She kept complaining about how large she was getting and that I wouldn't love her anymore. I always told her that she looked beautiful and sexy as fuck, but she never understood it.

I think all the men who love their woman will agree with me when I say that it's a completely different feeling - some kind of primal, intense and possessive emotion we feel when we see the woman we love walking around with that beautiful pregnancy glow on her face with her belly swollen with the child that we had put inside. Not that Alyssa herself never made me protective and possessive over her; fuck! Those beautiful brown eyes and her charming smile always had me wanting to keep her protected in the circle of my arms and never let her go.

But seeing her pregnant was so fucking different.

Fast forward to seven months and Alyssa gave birth to premature triplets - Logan, Laura and Lorraine, somehow on tenth of April. It wasn't easy: while Logan, the eldest and Laura were stable, Lorraine, the youngest, was struggling to stay alive.

It was a hard night for the entire family, but Lorraine managed to come out of it strong and I was so proud of my daughter since the day she was born.

The entire family of three adults, five kids and one canine had always been boisterous, but Lorraine out of all of us was the most quiet and calmest girl I had seen. Just like her name, I concluded, she took after my mother when it came to her personality.

"We're up mom, have been for quite long." Laura skipped in the room followed by Logan, Lorraine and Xavier. "We just met Xavier midway through our run and decided to slow down for him."

"Oh God." Alyssa groaned and I rolled my eyes, "I'm so ashamed of you. Have none of you taken after me? All of you, every single one of you is a morning person like your father but no one sleeps in late like me."

"Always the dramatic, old Wisa." Xavier chuckled and then he went on to scoop Raine in his arms.

"Hey, I'm not old!" My wife protested, but Xavier was lost talking to my daughter.

Initially, I had gotten very protective over her, but then I had known Xavier since he was a baby and I don't think I could trust anyone else to take care of my daughter. They went through their rough patches in their relationship, but came out stronger than ever. Now, they were trying to spend as much time together as they could before Xavier had to travel overseas to help expand Victor's business.

"What are you thinking about?"

I was brought back from my thoughts by my wife's lilting voice, something that was capable of melting my heart even today. Her twinkling eyes, the way she felt in my arms, and the way she played with my hair subconsciously still made me fall more and more in love with her.

"It's been eighteen years." I told her and pulled her close to me, realising that we were the only ones in the kitchen.

"Yeah." She said and stepped even closer, leaning down to lay her head on my chest.

God, she time and again made me feel what home felt like.

"I don't think there's anything more I can ask for. It's so amazing to see everyone so happy and so strong." She said.

"Raine and Ryan are turning eighteen tomorrow. They are no longer going to be babies." I chuckled and kissed the top of her hair.

"No matter how much older they get, they'll always remain babies for both of us. God, it's really going to be eighteen years to the day my entire life changed." She said, and I pulled her in for a long kiss as she grinned up at me:

"To the day I Found the Babies."