Betrayal

Epilogue- 'I'm finally free'

Harry POV

No one is doing well.

I wish that I could tell you differently, but I can’t. No one is doing well. Not a single one of us.

But, we’re all doing better. And, that’s all we can ask for.

There’s a week till Christmas, which means there are 5 days till it’s the 4th anniversary of Reagan’s death. We managed to make it through 4 years. 4 long, hard years. But, we all made it through.

“Hey, Jerk-off. Where are Sophia’s shoes that Avery bought for her?”

Trinity was running around the house trying to get all of us ready to go. But, with 2 children, one now a teenager, that’s harder than it sounds.

Nice to know that she’s still got the sweet nicknames for me.

“I think Jules said he last saw them in the laundry room”, I told her after running a hand through my hair, “Check there.”

“Okay. Make sure you’re ready to go. I’m basically dressed.”

“Basically is not dressed, babe.”

“Just be ready!”

Rolling my eyes at my very annoying but beautiful wife, I walked into our closet to put my shoes on.

Trinity was definitely one of the most improved. After we lost Reagan, she almost lost who she was. She blamed herself for absolutely everything and wouldn’t allow us to tell her any differently.

“Reagan died months in advance to save my life. Don’t try to tell me that this isn’t my fault.”

That was the only thing she said for months. The only person who she didn’t snap at or shout at or cry in front of was Sophia. And, that was only because Sophia didn’t understand what was going on. We wasted so much money on psychologists to make sure Trinity didn’t jump off a bridge or something. It sounds like an exaggeration, but it was necessary.

I’ve never seen my wife so…absent.  It was even worse than when she and I were going through a tough time. One year later and we were visiting Reagan’s stone. Julian hated the fact that his aunt was gone, but he always tried to remain strong for his mum. I stayed in the car with Sophia at first to give them some time. 20 minutes later, I wondered what was taking them so long. I will never get the image of Trinity sobbing on Reagan’s headstone with Julian screaming at the sky to “bring my aunt back” out of my head. It’s still burned into my retinas as we speak.

But, something changed in them that day. I managed to coax them back into the car about 15 minutes later with comments about how Reagan wouldn’t want this. It was true, but I had said the words so much in the past year, they were losing their meaning. After we finally made it home and they cried themselves to sleep, I allowed myself to grieve. And by grieve, I mean cry on the phone with Louis all night.

Trinity just happened to come in at that exact moment and witness me break down. I don’t know what was going through her mind, but she just held me for the rest of the night. And, just like that…that was it. She cried less and less as the days went on. She stopped screaming Reagan’s name in her sleep. She even stopped flinching around Louis as if she thought he was going to attack her.

She got better. Sure, she isn’t completely fine. She still cries at the occasional photo of her and Reagan that she happens to come across and stiffens at any mention of her, but that’s it. Every anniversary of her death, we still go to the cemetery. However, we all go. And, instead of crying, we sit there and tell Reagan all of the funny things that’s happened to us in the past year. Like when Sophia accidentally cut Trinity’s hair while playing “hair-stylist.” How I got caught watching Jules have his first kiss and I’d never seen him so embarrassed. And how both of the kids are getting really inquisitive about the stripper pole in our bedroom (we plan on keeping that secret to ourselves).