Imported Love

Epilogue

Epilogue

He didn’t have to say anything, I knew how excited he was and I knew we would be getting married as quickly as possible.

It was early spring when Alena Carter Hastings was born. No one except our small circle of friends knew of her pre-wedding conception. The cruel words and snickers had all but stopped down at the docks. Ethan was happy once again, not only because of the new friends he was making but because of the small nest egg he was accumulating. He swore that he would give Alena the life of her dreams. I already thought we had the perfect life, but I let him dream bigger.

****

The front door banged closed as Ethan came inside from tending the animals and getting Abbervail connected to the buggy. As he came into the kitchen he ducked his head and smiled at me innocently.

“I ripped my pants.” He said, pointing to the knee of his suit.

“Ethan,” I groaned, standing up. Alena grumbled in annoyance as I interrupted her feeding. I shifted her to my left arm and readjusted her bottle.

Ethan held his hands in the air. “Don’t blame me, it was Abbervail’s fault.”

“Go and change, and hurry, we’re going to be late.” I begged.

Ethan rolled his eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about this, Erica. Why are we even going?”

It was a question I’d asked myself a thousand times. Why were we going to Abel’s funeral? It had nothing to do with actually missing the monster, but I felt that we had to. Something was drawing me back to that house. I thought that, maybe, if I was to see Abel dead I could finally sleep soundly at night. If I attended this funeral my guilt would subside and my nightmares would end.

“Stephanie asked us to.” I lied. It wasn’t a complete lie, Stephanie did ask us, but it wasn’t the reason we were going.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Ethan muttered as he left the kitchen.

Alena tore her head away from the bottle as she finished. I smiled down at her. It still hadn’t sunk in that the beautiful baby in my arms belonged to me. It was unreal to me that something so perfect could be mine. Her birth had not been perfect, but it had shown me that mothers are the strongest people alive. As strange as it seemed, Alena’s birth had given me confidence in myself that I could do anything.

“There, do I look acceptable now?” Ethan inquired, breaking me from my thoughts.

“You always look acceptable, I just don’t want to give your siblings something more to hate me for. I could just imagine what they would say if you showed up in torn pants.”

“Who cares what they think?” Ethan snorted.

“I do,” I whispered, looking back down at Alena. She looked back at me with those blue green eyes.

Ethan wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek. “Don’t worry about them, Erica. They’re a little snobby, but they’re not totally bad.” Ethan gently caressed Alena’s little head and its sparse covering of coal black hair. “Besides, I want to show off my wife and daughter.”

Ethan slipped his fingers between mine. “I promise I won’t let them say anything about you.”

“Do we have to stay for the will reading? It’s not like he’s left you anything.”

Ethan nodded in agreement. “We’ll go for the funeral and then we’ll leave.”

****

We arrived at the Hastings’ Estate a little after noon. Abel had wanted to be buried on the land that he had worked so hard to build up. It was a nice sentiment for such an evil man. Ethan hadn’t liked the idea that Abel was being buried by his mother. Stephanie was bewildered as to why Abel had decided to be buried next to his previous wife, but she hadn’t argued.