Insecure {AUGUST ALSINA}

Epilouge

The last and final chapter. ++ go check out my new book

CATALINA —- TEN YEARS LATER

It's currently 9:23 am, my kids have been in school for two hours and Ashton has been sleep since approximately 7:40 this morning. I already confirmed the shipments for my website and I don't have anything else to do but wait for my husband to wake up.

I tilt my head up on Ashton's chest to watch him sleep— he looks so cute. He seems so at peace when he sleeps, and I find it endearing to watch him with not an ounce of worry on his face.

"Good morning." I say in my bubbly voice when I see Ashton open his eyes just a little.

"Jesus, woman" He flinches, and then smiles and leans his neck back to see me. "Good morning."

"Don't call me woman." I chuckle as I sit up. "I made us breakfast and look." I turn the notepad around to show him all the things I have planned for us today.

We don't get that many days off together, but ever since I got my own business up and running, I get to work from home. I make, buy, and accept donations of things that can be donated to children at foster homes and orphanages. I'm going to open up my first store in the next two months, and the plan is to have as many as can in as many places as I can.

I knew I wanted to help people I just didn't know how until about two years ago. I started off by asking Ashton to ask people at his job— preferably his fellow fancy surgeons with all the money— if they had anything they'd like to donate, and then I asked everyone I knew to do the same. Me and my five year old daughter Christina who likes to help me with everything hang up signs all over town. Now, I have a thriving non-profit organization/business.

The only thing I love more than that is my family.

Ashton and I have five kids: Mahalia, Eric, Alex, Kali and Christina. I really only wanted two kids, 1 boy and 1 girl, but I should've known that my genetic history would've gotten the best of me anyway. I ended up with two twin boys, and although having to take care of two babies at once was the hardest thing I've done as a parent, I wouldn't take it back for anything. Christina, the five year old, kind of just happened.

Kali is our oldest, she's 13 and pretends not to like it when I kiss her on the forehead or pack her lunch like I do for the little ones. We adopted her three years after the twins were born; the plan was always to adopt but then I got pregnant with the twins and it kind of put everything on pause.

Mahlia is ten and the twins are 8, it was hard raising infants and a toddler, and I think i might have cried actual tears of joy when Mahlia finally learned how to tie her own shoes— simply because I no longer had to tie six shoes in one go.

I never imagined I'd even be the mother of one, and now I have five. I can't complain though, because I've only been pregnant three times, which means I got the good end of the deal. I love being a mother with everything in me, I truly believe it's turned me soft. The only thing I'd change if given the choice is the amount of alone time Ashton and I get.

"We should go to the new yogurt place. I've been craving frozen yogurt—"

Before I finish my rant about how badly I want something sweet, his phone rings and interrupts me. I roll my eyes and look at him like it's his fault that it rang in the middle of me talking. Before he answers it, I see that it's Mahlia's school calling and I somewhat prepare to panic.

Mahlia is the second oldest, but I do tend to worry about her more than the others. She was my first baby and she came earlier than she was supposed to. Thankfully, her birth date didn't cause her any health issues as she got older, but it's like the worry I had when my water broke four weeks early has carried along all this time. I don't know, I'm just afraid that one day she'll get sick or something and my biggest fear is it happening while she's at school and not with me or Ashton.