His Choice (The Selection)

Epilogue 1

Wrote by firerose11

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"Mommy!" A voice screamed before a whirl of pigtails and blue dress flew into my arms. "Grandma Kari said we were going to watch a movie tonight with homemade ice cream!"

I smiled at little Alina, her face lit up at the prospect of a a movie and a treat. "That's wonderful, darling. Now, how about you go check on the boys and tell them the good news while I finish with my last patient."

She kissed my cheek before scurrying down the hallway. I watched her go, thinking about what could have been, but I quickly discarded those thoughts.

I had to leave the past where it belonged. I had made my choice just as he had made his choice.

That settled in my mind, I straightened my coat and went to go see my last patient of the day, a little boy with bronchitis.

"Em," Lily called from the front door, soon after the family had left, "am I still invited tonight?"

I looked around the corner after washing my hands. "You know Aunt Lily is always welcomed by the kids. They can't get enough of you."

She finished fastening the lock on the door of the clinic, letters proudly proclaiming Atlin's Children's Clinic. "I was just making sure their mommy still wanted her best friend crashing on the couch for the night."

I smirked. "As long as said best friend doesn't try to scare the kids again, everything should be fine."

Lily waggled her fingers at me before vanishing to go change out of her fancy dress. After all, she had made the choice to stay in the life that her parents had chosen for her, the only rebellious things occurring being her marrying Nathaniel, her poor street musician boyfriend, and sneaking away to visit me.

Staring into the mirror, I still was startled to see the changes. Gone was my long dark hair. I had taken to chopping it to chin-length along with adding reddish highlights and popping in contacts to make my eyes appear a hazel color.

Tanner had never had the chance to marry me. Two days after he died in an accident, I had ran away from my former life, barely scraping together enough to buy my clinic with attached house.

That's where Karigan had helped me greatly. Using her own stockpiled savings, she helped me create what I now stood in: a fully-modernized children's clinic.

"Mommy!" Hattie called from the house. "Harrison pulled my hair again!"

Taking off my doctor persona, I switched to Mom mode. I walked into the kitchen to find all six of my children seated at the table.

Hattie was staring at her twin with a look of disdain across her freckled face and in her bronze eyes. Harris stared back defiantly, his silver eyes hard.

"I would hate to take away your movie privileges tonight," I told both of them, taking my seat between blonde-haired, blue-eyed Alina and moody Jackson, whose shaggy black hair was falling in his face again.

"But it was his fault!" She protested, jabbing a finger in his direction. "He was the one who pulled my hair!"

Twila was hiding a smile behind her curtain of blue-black hair, brown eyes sparkling in amusement. Mark was entirely indifferent, shoveling food into his mouth like he hadn't seen it in weeks.

"Harrison, apologize to your sister. Hattie, tell your brother that you accept his apology and make sure what you did to make him mad doesn't happen again," I said firmly.

They exchanged the proper formalities, and I bent over my own dinner, watching my family.

Alina was the youngest at four with the twins at six, Mark at nine, Twila at thirteen, and Jackson at fifteen. Each one had been in unfortunate circumstances before Karigan and I had taken them under our wing.