Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 123153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
We’re stronger than ever. I turn and place my glass on the countertop in the kitchen. This sunset is too beautiful not to share with my family. I pad out and drop down behind Ny in the sand, caging her between my legs. She sighs and settles her back against my chest.
Jace shifts beneath my leg and lifts his arm to rest it on my thigh. I place my hand over his on Ny’s belly. My heart swells as the babies move inside her.
A little foot or hand pushes across our joined hands, I don’t even stop to think which baby it is. They’re all my children. They’ll grow up protected, loved, and cared for. The Dollhouse will always keep their mother safe, and if they fail, Jace and I will be there to cover our queen.
“This is what forever feels like?” Nyla breathes softly.
I kiss the top of her head. “Forever is whatever you ask me to make it.”
“I love you both,” she whispers.
“Yeah, we love you too,” Jace replies. “It was always you. The anchor I knew we needed. The door to my family.”
I snort. “He was going to have it all if it killed him.”
“You’re too stubborn to let me die.” He pauses for a moment. “Thanks, Gio.”
I hear what Jace doesn’t say. Our bond started from birth. Our souls are linked with an unbreakable bond. When he walked into my home after losing everything, I had a friend for life. Someone to share everything with. All my toys and love became his.
“I’d do it all again,” I murmur.
Epilogue
A Future Made
Jace
Sixteen years later…
“Mom, Dad, Daddy,” Nyesha calls as she bangs on the bedroom door.
I groan and roll my eyes as I tap Ny’s thigh for her to get up off my face. Gio is already up, tugging his pants back on. These kids have the worse timing.
“And you wanted more,” Gio says pointedly to our wife.
I chuckle as I get up. I’m the first to make it to the door. I hadn’t taken my pants off yet. I tug it open as Nyesha keeps banging.
“Daddy, hurry up. Jason is fighting the neighbors again,” my youngest, our daughter demands, panic in her gray eyes.
Nyesha was born two years after the triplets. She’s my baby—no, literally, my baby from my seed. Gio was the one to suggest Ny and I have another since Davide and Gabriele’s egg split.
God, I had to hear about that shit for months. His sperm broke the egg in two like he breaks Ny’s back. G is an ass, but the way he takes care of our children makes me look past a lot.
I place a hand on Nyesha’s blonde head and scowl as I storm out of the room. Those fucking kids next door work my last nerve. Entitled jerks. I keep telling the kids not to let them on our property. They ride their bikes over here to start shit.
Upper-class trash. Jason has a temper, and they know just how to trigger him. Jason is normally the peacemaker as one of the older kids, so I know they really pushed him this time.
Usually, it’s Davide and Gabriele who I need to drag off someone. I step out of the house and Davide and Gabriele are standing with their arms folded across their chests, looking just like Gio.
Unlike Jason and Nyesha, they’re fairer, their Italian heritage strong. The boys stand between three of the kids from next door and Jason, who’s fucking up the other two.
I grin. That’s my boy. His blond hair is loose, flying everywhere as he holds one in a choke hold under his arm and stomps the other one out. I kind of hate to break it up. These kids really are big bullies.
Our boy is a sweet soul. He reminds me of me, but piss him off, and it’s another story. They did something to deserve this.
“Back the fuck up,” Davide growls when one of the other kids tries to run past to help.
“Nah, go ahead, let him through. Touch my brother so I can fuck you up,” Gabriele says.
We’ll talk to them later about those mouths. What I don’t get is why these kids try them. Our kids are huge for their age. From the blood gushing from the nose of the kid under Jason’s arm, I know he broke that shit. I shake my head.
“Jason,” I bark.
He stops stomping and turns to look at me. That’s when I see Remi, Holly’s oldest daughter, curled up on the ground, holding her knees into her chest.
“Now I get it,” I murmur to myself.
“Get your shit and go home. Don’t come here no more and if your parents have a problem with the ass whipping my son just gave you, tell them to come up that driveway and see me,” Ny snarls.