Unforgotten Memories

Epilogue

Jackson

"Where do you think we would be 10 years from now?" Rosie gently strokes my hair as I gaze at the night sky with my head on her lap.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean, don't you think about our future? Don't you wonder where we would wind up?"

"Our future is gonna be pretty smooth, babe. I've got it all sorted out. Graduate from school, go to college, get a job, get married and have many many many children." I grin at her.

"Oh really? What makes you think that it's gonna be this easy?"

"I just know it. As long as you're with me, nothing can go wrong. We'll be one happy family."

"Don't you think that's a little too pink, princess?" I mumble to my precious 4 years old baby girl.

"But pink is pretty, daddy!" She pouts as she paints my nails.

"But this bracelet that you made me wear is pink too. I guess it would be better if you switch to a different colour once in a while, sweetheart." I manoeuvre her in my lap.

"No! Pink is my favourite. I put pink on mommy too!" She smiles adorably.

"Alright, you're the boss after all." I kiss the crown of her head and gently stroke her back.

"Aaaand done!" She beams at her work which involves her shabbily painting my nails. It's all over my cuticles but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like it one bit. My little bundle of joy has put her heart and soul into it and I'm gonna wear this fucking proudly. Suddenly, the front door opens and Jayden enters inside with his head bowed down. He promptly makes his way towards his room with the backpack precariously hanging by his shoulder.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" I stop him as I gently place little Lily on the chair before making my way towards my teenage son. Once after Rosie and I adopted him, we didn't have the heart to tell him that I was his half brother. Telling him that would change the way he'd look at me because he'd see me as his brother. But I wanted to become a father figure to him. It's something that I didn't have, it's something neither of us did and I wanted to change that. Our biological father and Jayden's nefarious mother were sentenced to 7 years of jail for child abuse. It's always there in the back of my head that if I had taken action against my father the minute he abused me, Jayden wouldn't have had to go through the same. But then, he wouldn't even be standing before me if that was the case. I stand before him and put a finger under his chin to lift his head.

"What the fuck, Jayden?" I gasp at his beaten up face.

"I swear I didn't start it this time! Those boys did it, I was just minding my own business when they started bullying Daisy-"

"Daisy?" I question with a raised eyebrow. I see his eyes widen and cheeks flush.

"Who is Daisy?" I smirk.

"S-She is my friend." He stutters.

"Just a friend?"

"Yeah of course." He runs his fingers through his hair.

"Then how did I not know about her yet?"

"Ugh, can we just drop this here? She's just a friend. End of discussion." I laugh as I smack the back of his head playfully.

"Please tell me you at least won the fight. Getting beaten to pulp and losing your dignity is pathetic."

"Of course I won! Those idiots don't stand a chance against me." He scoffs.