He had gone and made something of himself.Something amazing.
And she loved him.
That was the bottom line.
It was so clear.So wonderfully, perfectly clear.
And he was worthy of love.The love of a wife, the love of a brother, the love of a daughter.
The way he took care of Marjorie was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen.
The way he loved that little girl …
Yes.He was the man she wanted to be the father of her children.He was the one she wanted more than anything.
This wasn’t rushing into things.This was fifteen years in the making.
Their love had undergone a trial by fire.It had already stood the test of time.
And it was glorious.
“I love you too.I put up so many barriers, trying to keep youat arm’s length.I felt like it was too complicated.I felt like I couldn’t trust myself.But that was all just fear.Fear of such strong feelings inside me.Fear of wanting something more than I wanted to be there for Melanie.But by giving us Marjorie, my sister gave us something to live for, something bigger than her and Ty’s problems.”
“I believe we can make a bright and beautiful future for our girl.For us.”
“Yes,” she said.She kissed him, her heart swelling with joy.“The next time we go to a courthouse, it will be for our wedding.”
“Oh hell no, girl.We’re not having a courthouse wedding.You’re going to get everything.”
A real wedding?But that meant involving her family, and that made her nervous.
But then suddenly the nerves dissipated.
She and Clark and Marjorie were their own family.
They were a family, and that mattered more than anything else.
She and Clark had love.They had Marjorie.
They had hope.
EPILOGUE
They raised Marjorie to know the whole story about her parents.Ellie and Clark never hid the way she came to be with them.
Because it was nothing to be ashamed of.Her birth parents’ decision to give her up had been selfless.It had been an act of great strength, and it had come at a time when they hadn’t had much strength available to them.Now, at sixteen, she was well-adjusted, and an amazing older sister to her four younger siblings.
Ellie and Clark’s wedding took place when Marjorie was a year old, and it almost ended Ellie’s relationship with her parents.It didn’t, though.She had a complete meltdown with her mother and her father in the weeks leading up to it, but rather than breaking the ties between them, somehow, it had actually effected change.
Over the years, Ellie’s mom had been able to create a good relationship with her grandchildren.She was easier with them than with her own children.
She let them finger paint at the kitchen table.
She let them make messes.
It was around the time of Marjorie’s kindergarten graduation,when Ellie had been pregnant with their second biological child, that her mother finally made peace with Clark.
Seeing him with Marjorie had suddenly broken something inside her.Made her see who he truly was.That he was good.Better than her own husband, who was more interested in his grandchildren than he’d ever been in his children.
