The Bride

Chapter 24 - Epilogue

Looking back on the last crazy weeks, I laugh and laugh at how simple it all turned out to be.

I finally got through my voice mails and was surprised to find that Angela had called to apologize, saying that the money was found in the safe and must never have been in my register to begin with. She offered me my job back and a pay raise but I refused because I discovered that I didn't need funds. I was suddenly, ridiculously rich.

One conversation with Catherine, which started out hostile on my part but ended in an uneasy truce, gave me a ton of information about my Mother and an inheritance that had been split equally between Matt and me. The caretaker of the money ended up being Catherine's Mom, my Aunt. Aunt Elly was overjoyed to finally get to know me.

She showed me all the records she had kept over the years as she watched over and grew my inheritance into the sizable fund it was. Aunt Elly, upon inspecting my Emancipation Report willingly turned over a good portion of my funds. With my permission she kept access to the majority of it setting some aside for college and investing more. I had no worries about the funds in her care, she'd practically doubled the size of my inheritance with her shrewd investing.

In going over the financial records with Aunt Elly I discovered some delightful things that allowed me to nail Daddy Dearest's balls to the wall. He had been turning in receipts for things that he needed reimbursed for years. Things like expense clothes, I never saw, and expensive toys I never got. He put the down payment of the house he was currently living in through my account, as well as the mortgage payments. Even his vehicle was bought, as a sweet 16 present to me.

That lead us to where we are today, Annie, Aunt Elly, Mike, Jeff and I have just finished a lovely meeting with Daddy Dearest. Aunt Elly's lawyer, a wonderful lady called Lisa has joined usas we proceed to destroy Daddy's carefully constructed world. Watching as we put piece by piece of Daddy Dearest fraud on display and then presenting my list of demands was viscerally satisfying.

In the end to avoid the jail time and abuse charges I was more than happy to press against Daddy Dearest, he folded. He agreed to every one of my demands. He would return every penny of the funds he claimed for me back to my Aunt. He would leave Matt's inheritance alone, and not try to get a single additional penny from it. I protected Matt's funds out of loyalty to that young boy who pulled my lunch out of the trash. It would be up to him to continue to protect it though.

Furthermore when the twins were older and had finished high school he would sell the car and the house and the proceeds of those sales would go directly to the twin's college fund.

My final request was probably the easiest one for him to comply with. He would forget I existed, he would not try to contact me, he would not apologize and if he saw me come to visit the twins or Matt he would go to his room and wait until I had left. Failure to comply with any of these demands would result in the evidence going to the nearest police officer and he would go to jail for a very, very long time.

Leaving the lawyer's office, watching my Father slink away with his tail firmly between his legs was one of the most freeing experiences of my life. I looked up into the clouds and said a quiet thank you to Mr. Loud and Ms. Manners. In the deepest part of my heart, I was thankful for what they had done. I'd never admit it though, I was much too stubborn.

I turn to Jeff, who has been with me every step of the way through this path of self-discovery. I'm surprised to find him kneeling on the ground in front of me. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small wood box. It's is a more rectangular than square. I've seen glimpses of this box for years and have been insanely curious about what is inside it. Whenever I caught a glimpse of its polished wood though, Jeff would whisk it away and place it up high telling me he'd show me one day. I guess today was the day.

I slowly open the lid and am so distracted by the dozens of carved hearts that I fail to notice what is sitting in the very center of them. Dozens of hearts, carved during the summers of our youth from our meadow and our tree.

With a small smile, Jeff gently takes the box from me and plucks the beautiful ring from the center of the box. Holding it out to me he slips the ring onto my ring finger. I smile when I realize it is the wrong hand but he stops me before I can move it.

"Rebecca this isn't an engagement ring, we are too young to be engaged." He says this with a quick grin at Annie and Mike clearly telling me he is repeating words that had been spoken to him and not his thoughts on the matter. "Instead think of this as a promise to become engaged at a later date. Becs, I promise you that on that date I am going to move this ring to the right finger and ask you to be my bride."

He stands up and kisses me gently, whispering against my lips that he has never broken a promise to me and he never will.

As I kiss him back I swear feel ghostly fingers gently caress my hair and a voice gently whisper in my ear. "You are welcome you stubborn child, now go live."

Go live, I think as I hug Jeff tight. Now that's an order I can obey.

The End