𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒 - 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚: 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗨𝗔𝗚𝗘

𝙴𝙳𝙳𝙸𝙴 𝙼𝚄𝙽𝚂𝙾𝙽

I turned the engine off to my car and turned around to the kids arguing in the back seats, watching as they fought over a toy that wasn't even theirs.

"Stop it, the pair of you." I scolded them. "If you want to stay in the car that's fine by me, but if you come with me, I don't want to hear a single peep out of you. Do you understand?." I asked them, watching as they shook their heads.

"Yes, dad." They both spoke at the same time, smiling back at me as I nodded.

"Are you sure you want to come?." I asked Chrissy from besides me, seeing the hurt laced behind her eyes. She nodded and took a deep breath in, knowing that I would never not come to visit Kim as long as I was alive.

It may have hurt her to see me love somebody who wasn't here anymore, but there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about her and it didn't mean I didn't love Chrissy; It meant I didn't love her the way I loved Kim.

"Hold mommy's hand please, Jen." I told my daughter as we got out of the car, grabbing ahold of her older brothers as we prepared to cross the road.

"James isn't looking, dad." Jennifer snitched on her twin brother, making him try to leave my grip on his hand to attack her.

"I've got ahold of him, he'll be okay." I assured her, pulling him by my side again as we crossed the road to the cemetery.

"Please, stop trying to fight each other." Chrissy said to the children, watching the pair as they tried to get ahold of each other.

We got to the other side of the road and I let go of James hand, letting him run to his sister and mom whilst I walked ahead of them towards Kim's grave.

I held the flowers in my hand tightly as I heard Chrissy telling the children to behave from the same distance away she always stood.

I did feel bad for her, because her and Kim were friends in school, but Chrissy had helped me alot after I lost Kim and I'm sure she would be happy that I finally found happiness.

"Hey, princess." I crouched down and smiled at the tomb stone. "I bet you're getting sick and tired of me now, aren't you?." I chuckled to myself, looking down at the flowers in my hand. "I brought the twins with me this time. They've got a play date with Michael and Andrew in a few hours so I thought I might as well let them come with me..Chrissy is here as well." I let her know who I was with, even though she knew me and Chrissy had been married for over three years now. "I'm still getting by at the moment, the boys have postponed the tour for a few weeks for Jen and James ' birthday, but the longer I'm at home, the longer the thoughts stay in my head." I sighed deeply, placing the flowers down on the grave. "But, I guess that's the point in living. Running away from your problems until you come to a dead end." I chuckled dryly at the thought. "Jon's having a baby, by the way. He and Andrea are doing really well, which you would know as I tell you every year. David and Abigail want another baby but Gabbie is adamant she isn't having any more siblings. She says that Peter is enough to deal with." A small laugh escaped my lips at the thought of her niece being as stubborn as her. "Oh! I didn't even mention Steve.." I exclaimed to her. "He's met another new girl, but this time he's really happy, like, the happiest I've seen him since Nancy. Speaking of Nance, her and Jonathan got married a few weeks ago, beautiful ceremony, really beautiful. They even gave you a small toast, saying how they wish you were there to witness it and they'll always be thinking of you." I thought back to the wedding and remembered how happy everybody was at the sound of Kimberly's name, knowing it had taken us all a good few years to get to this place.

"Ed! Are you almost done?." Chrissy asked from the side of the pavement, trying to keep the kids in order. I sighed and nodded at her, knowing I couldn't be here for as long as I had wanted.

"I've gotta go, princess. I'll be back in a few weeks for Christmas with your present, I miss you..a lot." I let out a small chuckle. "I still love you, you know. It's awful, especially as I'm married to somebody else with two four year olds, but I wish she was you, Kim. I wish they were our kids. I'm sorry things happened the way they did, but I hope one day you'll forgive me." I stood up and kissed my fingers, leaning over to the top of her head stone and placing my fingers onto the marble. "I'll see you soon, princess." I looked up to far north of the cemetery as I began to walk away but noticed a woman watching me. She had long blonde hair and a black leather jacket on with blue jeans and a pair of black heels, just watching me.

I felt as if I recognised her face, but from where I had no idea. It was hard to make out her features, almost as if she was blurred, but her face prodded and poked at my brain, taking me back to the girl I was now stood above.

She looked exactly like Kim.

As if she could read my mind, she turned and began to walk away from the grave yard, her strides long and ferocious as she practically hurried away and disappeared out of sight.

I raised an eyebrow and shoved my hands into my pockets as I began to walk over to my family and pick Jen up, giving her a kiss on the head.

"You okay?." I felt Chrissy's hand on my back.

"Yeah. I'm good." I smiled at her, looking over to where the girl was stood to see if I was just imagining things. "Come on, let's go annoy Michael and Andrew." I ruffled the dark curls on James' head and left multiple kisses on my daughters face, earning a loud giggle from her mouth.

I may not have been able to start my family with Kim, but at least I knew my children had loving parents.

I couldn't wait to tell them about her one day, because maybe they'd love her as much as I did.

Maybe they'd find a love like mine and Kimberly's.

A love so unhinged you'd think we were two crazy teenagers in love with the idea of love.

~~~
A/N
And there we go guys!. That is the end of this book and I hope that you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

Thankyou so much again for all the love and support you guys have shown me in this book. I've loved writing every minute of it because of you all and I hope you guys appreciate my awful imagination.

I love you all!. <3 stay slaying & serving🫶🏼.

[EDITED]
Opposites || The Returning Shadows (The Sequel) is out now. If you liked this book (somehow) go and read book 2 :)