Guilty

Epilogue?

I stand in the kitchen overlooking the sunset, I'm supposed to be doing the dishes but as usual, I got distracted.

The front door clicks open and I smile as I wipe my hands, soft footsteps echo down the hallway and I see Zane and Maddison hanging their coats up.

My heart aches as I look at both of them, my family.

"Maddie why don't you tell your mother what you just told me," Zane says smirking as he walks over to me and kisses me softly.

"If you've taught her another swear word you'll be sleeping outside," I hiss against Zane's mouth.

He laughs again, "Baby, I don't teach her anything, she listens to you cuss." He replies smoothly as Maddie walks over and I pick her up.

She smiles at me, she has my dark brown hair but she has her father's eyes. She giggles as she looks at Zane and I narrow my eyes, "What is it?"

"There's a boy in my class who's been getting the same answers as me in all of our spelling tests. Mommy he even got the same score as me in our arithmetic test," She says, she sounds annoyed about this statement and I hear Zane snort behind me as he leans against the kitchen island.

I put Maddie down and blinked at her, "Oh?"

"I don't like him, mommy, he's so annoying," Maddie says rolling her eyes, but in typical five-year-old fashion, she gets distracted and runs into the living room to play with her Barbies.

I whirl around and look at Zane, "You must be joking," He laughs again.

"Sounds like us doesn't it? Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," He grins again, wrapping his arms around me as he kisses me again.

"I cannot believe this," I mutter.

We both turn to look at Maddie as she plays with her toys...well play is a generous word. She's slamming her Barbie into the rug as hard as possible but...you know at least she's occupied.

"I hope the boy is as nice as me," Zane mutters, kissing my cheek.

"God I hope not, if he's anything like you then we're moving her to a different school," I reply, turning to pull the pizza I cooked out of the oven.

"Oh really? Yeah, you seem really unlucky to have met me while wearing that rock on your finger and while our child plays...well destroys her toys."

I giggle despite myself, ten years together and Zane still made me smile like I'm in college all over again desperately trying to hate him.

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we weren't partnered on those assignments, you think we'd be here?" I ask him as he hands me plates for me to put the pizza on.

He grins again and my stomach still flutters, though that might be our son kicking.

"I was obsessed with you from the first day I saw you. I was always going to marry you."

I snort rolling my eyes, "You were confident."

"Realistic." He affirms.

I chuckle at him again, "Oh did you get Mcbryne to settle or are we taking them to court?" I ask Zane as he grabs some glasses from the cabinets.

Although I and Zane originally started off working at different law firms, three years after I moved to London with him my firm merged with his. We didn't usually work on cases together but occasionally we'd get partnered together for harder-to-win cases.

We'd actually built a reputation for ourselves and almost every lawyer who worked in England knew to shit their pants if me and Zane both walked into the courtroom.

"They heard we were working on it together and pulled the lawsuit," He says sniggering, still an arrogant little asshole.

"Maddie dinner," I called out as I set her plate on the table.

She threw her toys down and stepped up on the little stool to wash her hands while Zane sat next to me, "She has a parent-teacher conference tomorrow, are we both going?"

"You aren't going because if Miss Sunshine flirts with you while I'm sat there I will attack her," I say quickly.

I knew Zane was attractive, I barely kept my hands to myself half the time but I didn't need our daughter's teacher making eyes at him while telling us about Maddie's excellent progress.

Me and Zane would have loved her if she was dumb as a box of rocks but I'd be lying if I said we didn't go out and celebrate with wine and sex when her teachers told us they wanted to move her up a grade early because of how intelligent she was.

"Jealous? Come on trouble you know you're the only woman for me," Zane drawled as Maddie climbed into her seat.

"Piss off," I muttered and Maddie squealed as my hand flew to my mouth.

"MOMMY YOU SWORE!" She giggled hysterically and Zane laughed too while I glowered at him.

"Yeah..sorry sweetheart, I'm working on it," I say sincerely to my five-year-old as I start eating.

"It's okay, daddy called someone a mother fucker when we were driving home," Maddie tells me solemnly.

My eyes widen as Zane groans loudly, "Maddison Grace Ivory do not use words like that," I say instantly. 

Maddie looks at me and bats her eyelashes, "But Mommy I was just telling you about what daddy was saying." 

I turn my gaze to Zane and narrow my eyes, "You see that? Our daughter is saying mother fucker at five years old because of you." 

"You're supposed to be on my side," Zane says accusingly as Maddie shrugs and bites into her pizza. I start laughing and so does Zane, we seriously needed to work on our swearing.

If I got one more phone call about Maddie calling someone a bitch at school I was going to lose it.

I smiled content as I watched Maddie giggle as she ate her pizza while Zane pretended to glare at her from across the table and my hand dropped to my stomach, I was six months along and we had found out we were having a boy only last week.

We had no clue what we were going to name him, Maddison's name came easily to us. I wanted to honour my best friend.

After all, she was the reason I wanted to become a lawyer and if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have met my husband. And on evenings like this, that feels like it would have been a real shame.

Though I'm sure I won't feel the same when I walk upstairs and find the toilet seat open.