All I ever managed to become was thehelp! I didn’t want to be like my father, but I ended up being just like him. Dad may have been okay with being nothing more than the King lackey, butIamnot. I’d like to be the one on the forefront for once in my damn life, and that isn’t going to happen as long as you’re in the picture! So, there. That’s why I poisoned you.That’swhy I wanted to get rid of you. And the past three years, while you were wilting away, were the best years of my life!”
A stunned silence spread throughout the room as we all stared at him. The pathetic man’s expression was just as convoluted as I felt. He wore some odd mix of a sadistic grin and a sneer. Tears slid down his cheeks, but his eyes were narrowed and filled with rage. He let out the occasional chuckle, but he growled as he paced around like a caged animal.
This was the look of a man who could be described as… utterly deranged. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Jasper stared at him for an extended period, probably letting all the words sink in. When Eddie finally stopped his pacing and stood in front of him, opening his mouth to say something else, Jasper drew back and punched him in the nose.
I gasped as blood began pouring down Eddie’s face immediately after, and Jasper continued throwing punches, even after toppling over from the first one. Crystal let out a screech, trying to pull Jasper away from him, and then she settled for swinging at Jasper when that didn’t work.
“Don’t touch him!” I ran over quickly, grabbing Crystal by her long hair in order to pull her away from him.
She yelped as I dragged her out of the room, turning around and yanking my wrist to get me to let go after we’d left. I didn’t have any time to react before there was a stinging pain in my cheek, my head snapping to the side as Crystal smacked me as hard as she could.
With a quiet growl, I drew back and punched her, knocking her into the wall. She lunged at me a second later, but Jasper quickly appeared, shoving her away from me so hard that she fell on her ass. She stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth, but he was already too busy guiding me toward the door to notice.
“You’redone, Eddie!” he yelled behind us. “Once the police get hold of that recording, you won’t need the money anymore, anyway. You won’t have to worry about buying anything that doesn’t come from a commissary ever again!”
Epilogue
Three years later.
Sucking in a deep breath, I smiled as I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling of the sun beating down on my skin; the wind blowing through my hair, and droplets of water occasionally splashing up onto my skin. The smell of the ocean, salty yet refreshing, filled my nostrils as I swayed gently, holding onto the yacht’s railing in order to feel steady. I couldn’t remember the last time I feltthispeaceful, even with the sound of Janiyah and Jamal running around the deck with Jasper chasing after them, and Gran fussing at all three of them as she sat in a pool chair with the twins filling my ears.
The seven of us had set out to sail the Caribbean in celebration of me and Jasper’s third anniversary. That’s right, your girl is now Quinn King. A mouthful, for sure. It was supposed to be a two-person trip, but Janiyah pointed out to us, the moment we mentioned why we were going away for a while, that it was also her anniversary for meeting her daddy—Jasper—too. I had already resigned myself to packing her and Jamal’s suitcases the moment she sent Jasper a pair of puppy dog eyes. He was never able to resist them, and I was no better when it came to Jamal’s.
I thought Gran might like to take a trip on the yacht, too. I would have felt bad asking her to stay behind to take care of the twins when they weren’t even a year old yet, and therefore, they were a lot of work. I knew she wouldn’t have minded, but this had already turned into a family trip anyway, so what would be the harm in inviting her?
Gran had been living her best life in the house Jasper gifted us with, along with three other retired women who she’d taken as roommates–Jasper offered for her to come and stay with us in the mansion after the kids and I moved in after our wedding but she’d refused. Gran was more than content to live in the farmhouse, completely kid-free and ready to party. Her words, not mine.
She popped in to visit us frequently, but she certainly seemed happy to have her own place and to be living with other elders. But as much as she loved living with her roommates, she was happy to ditch them for a while in order to come on our cruise.
I grinned after looking over at her, now sunbathing with the twins resting at her sides since she’d succeeded in getting Jasper, Jamal, and Janiyah to quit blocking her sun.
The three of them had stopped their game of tag and settled themselves into their own chairs, Jasper pulling some popsicles out of the cooler for them.
I couldn’t force the smile off my lips if I tried while looking at the kids. Jasper was a good father figure to them. It was only a few weeks after our wedding when we officially adopted them. He’d been so nervous when it was time for us to talk to them about it, and he’d been sure that they wouldn’t want it, but just as I’d told him, they were ecstatic about it. Of course they were! They were always glued to his sides, and they loved him almost as much as he loved them.We’d both agreed that they keep their original last names and added King as a middle name.
All of us were beyond elated when we learned about my first pregnancy. Jamal was happy there was a chance he’d get to have a brother. Janiyah was excited about the fact that she would no longer be the youngest, and Jasper and I were just happy to be extending our family. Jasper was emotional and so thankful for the way that things had turned out. He’d assumed he would never have the chance to have a real family again, and he’d spent so many years feeling alone, longing for a time when he’d get to experience the unconditional love of blood again.
Jasper and I welcomed our healthy baby girl and baby boy — Jade & Jasper Jr — into the world just a little under a year ago. It was a magical time for us, even if it was a little tumultuous.
The delivery wasn’t an easy one by any means. There were several complications and a couple of health scares for me, but we overcame everything in the end. The three of us got to come home about two weeks after the delivery, and we’d all been perfectly healthy ever since.
Jasper and I agreed it would be the first and last time I went through something like that. After seeing how hard the pregnancy was on me, and how muchharderthe delivery was, he was very adamant about us not taking any more risks. Having more children was something that we’d discussed when I first fell pregnant, and we were both more than happy to have more, but his tune completely changed after my death scare.
I felt the same way. I didn’t want to put my health at risk again. It was better not to take too many chances, right?
I let out a quiet sigh as I rested a hand on my stomach, trying to work up the courage to pull Jasper away in order to talk to him. I’d been trying to figure out what to say for the longest now, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.
He wasn’t going to be happy when I told him I was pregnant again. He would be worried, maybe in denial, and then he would refuse to accept that I was going to be having another child when I knew how risky it could be. I was sure he would come around soon enough. I knew he would be happy when it all set in, but I couldn’t imagine he would be thrilled when he first heard about it. Which was why I needed to make sure I handled this delicately.
I found out about my pregnancy a few weeks after I realized I’d been feeling nauseous a lot lately. I ended up taking not one butsixpregnancy tests, and all of them were positive. I could hardly believe it myself, at first. After all, I had just gotten back into my usual schedule a few months ago.
Since hiring a second manager for SharpEats a few years ago, I only stopped by the restaurant three days out of the week. I couldn’t stop working there completely–that restaurant was mybrother’s thirdbaby. I wanted to ensure it continues to thrive because one day when they were old enough; I wanted to hand it over to my niece and nephew.
The restaurant was much bigger now. After we’d all moved out of the apartment upstairs, I extended it to include the second floor. I’d considered extending it into the basement as well, but I thought it would be nice to keep the basement free and turn it into a proper living space. That way, if any of my employees need a place to crash after a long shift, they’d always have somewhere close by.
Quinn’s Catering was doing great as well.Morethan great–better than I ever could havedreamed. I’d gotten a humongous influx of business, and it was so overwhelming that I’d made the decision to only work with a handful of clients. That way, I wouldn’t be overwhelmed, and I’d be able to deliver the best possible service to my loyal clientele.
