Destiny

Chapter 67: A reconstituted family

The next morning, Lini wakes up because of the sun illuminating her face, she is surrounded by the arms of Mark who is sleeping next to her, their hands are still attached to each other from last night. She could feel Mark tightening his arms around her, even though their skin was sticky from the wine, the bed was disgusting from the alcohol, he wanted to lie with her, cuddle. The room is a total mess, the clothes are scattered around the room, the bottles on the floor. She undoes the noose of their wrist to turn towards Mark who has his eyes open but tired. "Slept well?" she asked, stroking his face. "Like a baby but waking up is hard." He said touching his forehead, having a headache. She gave him a kiss then went to the bathroom to shower, Mark looked at the messy room, smiled thinking back to his wonderful evening spent with Lini last night, everything had gone as he had planned.

~!~

After getting things ready to return to the US, they go looking for the girls who spent the night with Paul. The kids had a great evening with Paul, eating at the Buffalo Grill restaurant after returning to the hotel and playing video games.

On the plane, the girls fell asleep while Mark and Lini cuddled, Lini regularly rested her head on Mark's shoulder, Mark kissed her hair while holding hands.

Finally arriving in Texas in the morning, they all get in the car to go home. First, they were doing some shopping for Lona's birthday which is coming up soon and Mark would like to throw a big party for her.

Arriving at home, they take the suitcases and the shopping, the children run towards the door, very happy to come home. The children enter the house and quickly go upstairs to play in their room. "We have to tell them honey" Mark said as he closed the front door, Lini put the groceries in the kitchen then put them away. "Yes... but I... I'm stressed..." she said with her voice trembling a little, Mark went around the counter to take Lini's hands feeling his stress rising within him. "I know, me too but we have to do this if we want to be a family, don't worry, everything will be fine." He reassured her before taking her face in his hands and kissing her. Lona comes down the stairs, wanted to ask her father something but she stopped walking when she saw her father kissing Lini. Her heart aches to see this, her own dad kissing someone other than her mom but why? why does daddy kiss her? she thought her dad still loved her mom. Mark opens his eyes while kissing Lini and is very surprised to see Lona, with tears in her eyes, looking at them and then runs away. Hearing someone running behind her, Lini turns her head while Mark's hands are still on her cheeks then looks at Mark who is still very surprised. "We have no choice...Lona saw us.." he says looking at Lini who is shocked but she knows it. She knows it's the best they can do.

~!~

Lini and Agnes drove away while Mark and Lona stayed home. Lini decided to take Agnes out for ice cream to talk about her new relationship. She knows that Agnes loves Mark like an idol but she doesn't know if she would accept that her idol will be a stepfather to her. It's not the same to love someone as a fan and to love someone as the man who will become his mom's lover. She parks her car in the parking lot before going with her daughter inside an ice cream shop, she orders a vanilla caramel milkshake for her and a two scoops strawberry ice cream for Agnes and sits down to eat. "How was the weekend in Europe my love? did you like it?" She asked her daughter who was eating her ice cream.

"Yes mum I liked it but Undy yelled at you, I didn't like it." She said honestly to her mom eating her ice cream, Lini nodded drinking her milkshake understanding her daughter. "Yeah but we've become cool again with each other, talking about Undy.." She said, taking a deep breath to broach the subject with her daughter. "What do you think of Undy since we've been living in his house?" She asked her daughter as she sipped her milkshake, watching her daughter devour her ice cream. "Undy...He's different than on TV, he's kinda nice, he takes care of us, I like Undy." She said to her mother honestly, Lini sits up, she suspects that she was going to answer him that.

"You know darling...you always wanted me to find the smile I had with dad..." she said looking at her hands, trying not to look stressed, Agnes looks at her mother as she eats her ice cream with her mouth full of strawberry ice cream around it. "I got my smile back...the same smile I had before...Undy...well...Mark is the reason for that smile, I want to move on with him...have moments with him as well as with Lona, you get along so well with her too. Doing Christmas dinners, thanksgivings, birthdays and many other things that we can do like a real family." She said, tears in her eyes, silent tears running down her cheeks. She wipes her tears with her fingers.

"Here's what I wanted to tell you, Mark won't be your father, Josh will be your father forever. Do you have any questions for me?" she asked seeing her daughter thinking about everything she heard, she gently put her spoon on the table before answering her mom. "Do you still love daddy?" she asked, playing with her spoon as Lini smiled sadly at her, nodding her head. "Your dad will always be in my heart" she said trying to reassure her daughter as best she could. Agnes finds it funny that her mom is in love with her idol, it's true that Undy isn't as bad as you can see on TV. He is nice, gave us a house, took good care of us and in addition she met Lona with whom she gets along very well as her mother said.

~!~

Mark and Lona were on a motorcycle ride, she loved having her hair blowing in the wind, laughed when her father rode a steering wheel, she loved it when her father went fast on the straights. He stops near a horse enclosure then goes to look at the people riding horses, Lona is sitting on the railing below while Mark leans on it. "We need to talk honey.." He said after a long minute of silence looking at the horses, he readjusted his cowboy hat.

"Something you saw earlier.." he added, throwing his toothpick into the grass, Lona looks down knowing very well what her dad is doing. "I know it probably shocked you to see me with someone other than your mother in my arms." He said that in trying to put in the right words for a child, he hasn't gotten into the habit of speaking openly or talking about his emotions for a long time.

"Know that Lini will never replace your mother but she will be the person who brings sunshine to our hearts." He says, clasping his hands while looking at his daughter who is listening but thinking with her head down. "Why did you tell me you still love mom when you love Lini?" She finally asked after a moment of reflection, Mark placed himself behind Lini who was still sitting on the wooden railing, wrapped his arms around her. "Because I am. I will always love your mother but I think it's time for us to start a new chapter in our lives and move on."

~!~

Lini and Agnes come home with the surprise that Mark and Lona are not there but a noise is heard in front of the house. Lini looks out the window and it's only Mark and Lona returning from a motorcycle ride it seems. Lini rubbed her arms in stress wanting to know how it went for them, she was even more stressed when she saw that Mark had no emotion showing on his face. Mark and Lona entered and saw Lini and Agnes in the living room, Agnes goes without hesitation towards Lona who looks at her then embraces her which makes Lini's heart capsize. Lini gets down on her knees when Lona breaks the hug with Agnes then goes over to her and gives her a big hug and Agnes does the same to Mark. They have accepted that the four of them form a family, it will be funny for a while but they will adapt, as long as their parents are happy, they will be. Mark walks over to Lini with Agnes in his arms, crouching down to join the hug with her and Lona as Agnes wraps her free arm around her mom for a hug.

~!~

They talked for a long time with the children about their love, they asked since when, why they didn't show it to everyone. Taker answered Agnes' questions while Lini answered Lona's but in the end, they are happy that their parents are smiling again. It was late and the kids went to bed while Lini and Mark decided to put on their bathing suits and go for a swim. They are reassured that the children did not take this revelation badly, finally they can live from their love without hiding at home. They are in the pool cuddling, kissing, enjoying this midnight swim together. "Are you reassured?" He asked looking at her with a happy smile that they could stop pretending. "Yes, I never thought that the children would accept quickly." She admits. They were going to kiss but they heard a noise coming from a window at the top of the house, they both looked at where the noise was coming from and saw the curtain move. "Discretion is zero." she says laughing, Mark laughs and looks at Lini smiling. "It must be your daughter, because in terms of discretion, my daughter is unbeatable." He says laughing and gets splashed by Lini for his comment.