Tainted Souls

Epilogue (M)

~ Six Years Later ~

I couldn't believe how different things were now. When I thought back to everything that happened in college, I realized how much we had grown. Of course, there were still things that were constant in my life, such as my growing self-dignity, confidence, and inner strength.

Starting off with Maverick and Taj, they decided to have their own shared business company that supported law firms going against hardcore criminals. Maverick realized that his skill for hacking was very useful at creating new weapons that could fight off other members of the mafia and other similar organizations around the world. They planned on exposing other people in the mafia soon with their business connections.

Keisha and I? We became fashion designers with a shared business company as well. We loved fashion too much to the point where we decided to pursue a career in that industry. But after Taj realized that we had many of our own innovative designs, he suggested that we make some investments. That was how we ended up becoming just as wealthy as them on our own. We were self-made billionaires like Taj and Maverick, which definitely proved the people that hated us in the past wrong. It also proved that blood was thicker than water when it came to family businesses shared by the right people.

I decided to re-publish my book a year ago. To my shock, it became a bestseller. That was why I decided to get into writing as a side job slash hobby and make another book about anti-bullying. Even if I wouldn't be using real names, I would make sure that the bullies knew that I was pointing out whose behavior had been abominable.

Of course, I was married to Maverick. I got married to him two years ago, while Taj and Keisha got married four years ago. I was currently twenty-eight years old, while Maverick was twenty-nine. Taj and Keisha were both married as well, also twenty-eight years old like me.

As for Midori and Ginerva? Ginerva was eighty-four years old, yet still seemed to be healthy. Just like my parents, she kept nagging Maverick and I, asking us when we would have grandchildren. I heard news about Midori as well from Maverick, whom she communicated with through a sketchy communication system. She recently got married to her wife a few months ago with the promise that her wife had to also be a part of the mafia. Unfortunately, it was something that Midori had grown to love being a part of since she had grown up with being a part of the mafia. That part made her different from Maverick. It was something that I still had trouble processing.

I wasn't sure what was going on with Hunter and Sasha, nor anyone else in The High Class. We hadn't contacted them for years. Although, some news articles did say that Hunter and Sasha were running their inherited business companies that were doing extremely badly. Henry was still in jail, despite his efforts to get out. Maverick made sure of it with Taj's assistance.

Speaking of something that was extremely bad, that was exactly how I felt. Recently, I began to feel nauseous, which made me worry about my cooking skills. Even if Maverick had taught me how to cook over the years, I sometimes still feared that I could end up giving someone food poisoning.

"Aera, are you okay?" Maverick asked me, sounding concerned.

"I think it's the food poisoning," I told him, my legs feeling like jelly.

I leaned against the wall, feeling awful from throwing up a few minutes ago.

"Actually, your cooking has become much better lately. It helps that you have a cooking pro. I would have gotten sick myself if the food wasn't good."

"That's not nice. Whatever. What are you trying to say?" I mumbled.

"I think that you're pregnant," Maverick smirked. "Tell me that I'm right, Sunshine."