Debt

Epilogue: Life Into Me

5 years later

After Khadija left, Shawn only heard from her once when she sent him an announcement of her marriage. He was happy for her. She deserved to have that.

He and Abrielle had one more baby after Vincent, a little girl named Mariette Lachelle. Mariette was Erma's middle name and Lachelle was Shayla's. After that, Shawn didn't really care to have another child. If anyone thought he was soft with his wife, they should have seen him with his daughter! He was absolute putty in her hands. If Shawn had envied Vincent, then Abrielle definitely envied their little girl. Mariette would feed Sapphire scraps under the table and Shawn would pretend not to see. Abrielle was always too busy gaping to say much of anything.

Abrielle had finally got her degree in pyrotechnics, but her husband said she was more of a pyromaniac than anything. She just used her degree as an excuse to set shit on fire. But she told him to shut up, she knew what she was doing.

She was surprised to learn that Shawn had graduated college a long time ago and had a degree in finance. It would explain a lot though. He was better with money than anyone else she knew.

Evan and Larielle had a set of fraternal twins, both boys after Kiera was two. And she did not like that for the first few months. But once they stopped waking her up, they became interesting. Especially once they were able to start playing with her. They gave the boy's Bellamy's first and middle names.

Shayla enjoyed her role as a grandmother and was happy to be just that and nothing more. She still didn't speak to Hector, but she had decided hating him was for the birds and moved on with her life. She got herself a diploma but decided on being a stay at home grandma, which was convenient for Larielle because she still liked to party.

Pedro had confessed to Larielle about his crush and she didn't know what to say for a full ten minutes, but she finally managed to tell him, "I'm happy with my husband," and leave it alone.

Larielle went to the cemetery often to sit and talk to her daddy and baby girl. And a lot of times, it was almost like she could feel them there beside her. She had told her daddy about her darkest hour and how she wasn't proud of it. In fact, she started to go back to mass after that and read the Bible faithfully. She hadn't spilled any innocent blood, but she didn't want to be a murderer. She wanted to at least attempt to put herself back on Heaven's doorstep.

Larielle started her boutique with Evan's design after everything had cooled down, and she was proud of her creation. Business was good, and her husband was always supportive of her goals to create new things. He was always supportive of her goals and went out of his way to help her achieve them. And when he graduated and became a licensed architect, she went out of her way to do anything she could for him.

Although Larielle still enjoyed going out and having her fun on occasion, Abrielle became more of a homebody and rarely left the house without her family. She was the wife that stayed home and cooked and cleaned and did everything. But she and Larielle had never been so close in their friendship.

Life had become quiet, peaceful, and blood free. Just what Shawn had wanted the moment his son pulled in his first breath. But that didn't mean he let his guard down. He had put a tracker on his son when he began to go to school. He had made so many enemies over the years, who knew where they were hibernating?

~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

"Get our tube, Daddy!" Mariette demanded with her hand on her hip. Shawn lifted her by her arms above his head and she giggled.

"Are you in charge?"

"Duh."

He shook his head. She was spending too much time with Kiera. That little girl had a smart mouth, and Evan let her have it, too. Larielle thought it was funny now. They wouldn't think it was alright in ten years. Erma tried to tell Lari that she was just asking to be a repeat of herself and Abrielle by not putting that mouth in check now.

The family had moved from the hustle and bustle of the fast paced East Coast to the more chill West Coast in Southern California. Evan and Shawn had purchased a plot of land large enough to start a small town. They had built a waterpark that was open to the public every day except Sunday. Sunday was family day.

The family had started attending church although Shawn was hesitant to at first, feeling it wasn't the place for him. Larielle had encouraged him to go, though, telling him that people murdered all the time in the Bible, and he'd never killed anyone innocent. All he had to do was ask for forgiveness and be baptized. So Shawn, Shayla, and Evan were all baptized, and Larielle and Abrielle felt they could do with being Saved again and living right this time.

There was a cluster of houses, and everyone had their own, but they were connected through tunnels. There was a main house where everyone spent Sundays and holidays together. The kitchen was huge and CoCo was in heaven when she got to cook.

Every Sunday after church, CoCo wanted to cook. She didn't care who cooked any other days, but Sunday was her day. And they let her have it. As much as she cooked, it was finally not too much food for everyone to finish.

Shayla and Erma stayed in a house together. Neither of them had an interest in finding someone to be with. So while everyone else was cuddling, they were playing board games.

Today, the family was spending their afternoon in the waterpark. And Mariette was sure demanding.

"You gon let her talk to you like that?" Bri asked, looking at Shawn like he was smoking rocks. Vincent just held her around the waist, his head on her breasts, waiting for them to finally just get on the slide.

"You talk to me like that all the time."

"I'm grown."

"Just come on."

They started up the stairs for the slide, and Abrielle rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Larielle and Evan were in the wave pool. Kiera didn't want her parents holding her when the waves came in and in fact swam towards them. So they just held onto Bellamy and Theodore. They were cheering when the waves came and pushed them along.

After leaving the park for the evening, they went to the main house, and CoCo made dinner. When they sat at the table, they joined hands, blessed the food, and dug in.

Larielle cleared her throat. "I have an announcement to make," she told them.

"What is it?" Francis asked. She grinned and rubbed Evan's stomach.

"My husband is pregnant with our next baby!"

Everyone laughed at that before giving the couple congrats.

"Larielle, you better stop having all these babies before I start looking bad and Shawn starts begging to try again," Bri told her friend. Shawn just smirked. He was waiting for Bri to find out she was expecting. Because she was pregnant too.

"You're pregnant," Shayla told her.

"You who?"

"Yodelay lee you," Shayla told her, rolling her eyes.

"Oh no, I don't get pregnant anymore. I'm allergic to babies."

Shawn just cracked up laughing, and when he choked on his biscuit, Larielle began laughing. "Karma is sweet," she told him as Abrielle patted his back. Shawn managed to swallow the food, but not to stop laughing.

"You pregnant, Bri."

"Got dammit, Shawn," she complained. "I ain't tell you to be putting no one's life into me," she told him.

"Weird way to say it," CoCo told her.

"Do you know how much work it is to look after children?"

"I was there the first two times," he reminded her.

"Child, you better appreciate pregnancy," CoCo told her. Abrielle smiled and kicked Shawn under the table. They would talk about this. He just smiled and kissed her.

"You'll be happy when the baby is here. It was only a matter of time before you started begging for another one," he told her. She shook her head. He was right about that.

"You are so lucky I love you, man," she told him and he kissed her again before finishing his meal.