Page 70 of Billionaire Hunt

Epilogue

“Delilah,” I called once, waiting for a reply. “Lilah!” I tried again. No answer.

Erik walked in at that moment covered in rain with Jonas on his back. Lilah and Jonas were our foster children, and eventually if everything went right in court in a few weeks they would become ours forever. They had become my world and frankly, I couldn’t imagine life now without them.

Delilah finally made an appearance in the kitchen. She had a pair of scissors in her hand and was carrying a doll.

“Scissors, Lilah,” I said sternly and placed my hand out and waited for her to turn them over to me. “You know you’re not allowed to have scissors,” I said for good measure.

She pouted but did as she was told. She was two, going on three, and she was quite a handful. We’d been her foster parents since she was one and it was shocking to me how much she had grown and how much a part of me she was.

Jonas had joined our family a year ago. He was seven, going on eight and had a few developmental issues that mostly affected his speech patterns. His speech was improving greatly, I thought. His speech pathologist was worth her weight in gold.

Shortly after Erik and I had married, we had decided to become foster parents. And we couldn’t have been happier with our decision. Erik seemed to glow in their presence. Being a father suited him. But I wasn’t surprised, I always knew it would.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, kissing me as he sat Jonas down. Jonas immediately went running after the dog we’d inherited. We had found the dog after a particularly devastating tropical storm running across the street, dodging cars covered in dirt and shaking. We had added him to our family and the kids, for whatever reason, named him Robot.

I heard a loud bang and then a crash. And then laughter.

“They’re tearing our house apart,” I said and then yelled, “Are you guys okay in there?”

Jonas called back, “Robot knocked over your vase.”

“I told you to get rid of that vase,” Erik said, shaking his head and rummaging through the refrigerator.

“But it goes so well with the room.”

“If Robot knocks it over again, it’s going to go so well in the garbage.”

“Ouch...that hurt...you’re killing me here.”

“Sacrifices must be made for the sake of the family.”

“And what have you sacrificed?” I said, putting my hand on my hip and trying not to smile.

“My hair. It’s going gray around my beard.”

I leaned forward and looked really hard. There was exactly one gray hair. I told him that and he looked relieved.

“You’re so vain.”

“I am. That is true. But that’s what you love about me. I stay looking good for you.”

“Yes…that’s one of the things I love about you, for sure. You’re still hot.”

“Of course, there are like 100 more things you love about me, but we don’t have time to hear them all so you can start with your top 20.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hon, on a good day, I can probably come up with a solid two, maybe three reasons that I love you.”

“Harsh.”

“The truth always is,” I teased.

The doorbell rang then and I opened it up to see Oliver standing there.

Jonas and Lilah came running to the door and plowed into him. Each one hugged one of his bony legs and I didn’t know how he didn’t topple over.

“Grandpa O!” they shouted in happiness. That’s what he told them to call him. He thought it sounded cool.