by J. J. McAvoy
It’s over.
“Oh my god!” I shrieked, as I latched on to him and cried.
It was finally over.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THEA
“We’re late,” I looked at my watch as Levi helped me into the wheelchair. It was the only way my doctor was willing to let me out for the day.
“Stupid press, now everyone wants to get a bloody picture,” Selene mumbled, but I was more shocked at the bright yellow dress she wore, and how styled her hair was. At least one of us didn’t look like a total mess.
Reaching up, I took her hand. “You look pretty. I’m sure he will think so too.”
“I know I do,” her boyfriend said.
Laughing, she smacked his arm and he wrapped himself around her waist. I couldn’t help but stare at them being all lovey dovey while we stood outside a prison. They were in their own little blissful world.
“You’re glaring,” Levi said as he knelt down beside me, making me feel like he was talking to a child or something. “It’s hard watching little sisters rely on other people.”
“I know, and what’s worse is that I like him,” I pouted.
He snickered as he wheeled me to the front of the building.
DeShawn White was about the same height as Levi. He was on both the basketball team, as well as the football team. In the spring, he played baseball simply because he enjoyed being active and he wanted to stay in shape year round. On the top of that, he was an honor roll student, whose top choice was Georgetown.
He treated Selene… well he treated Selene like Levi treated me, like all people should treat the ones they’re with; like they were the most important person in the world.
“I’ll be back,” Levi said, and he softly squeezed my hand before he walked over to the press.
“Ladies and gentlemen, today is a profound day, because not only does a man get his life back, but he gets his family back as well. There are a lot of legal aspects to this case that need to be examined, but now is not the time nor the place for such a discussion. All your questions will be answered at a later date because all that matters right now is Ben Walton and his family. Thank you.”
He backed away from them, and the police that were there kept them at bay. However it didn’t stop them from hurling their questions my way.
“Ms. Cunning, how are you feeling?”
“Do you have any words for Odile Van Allen?”
“Will you be suing the state?”
“I just want to see my father,” I replied to them, and Levi turned me towards the exit.
I sat up when the doors opened. I wanted to clap and cheer, but all I could do was watch as he got closer and closer to us. Until, there he was, chain free, in jeans and basic grey shirt. Even his hair was cut.
“Hi,” he said to us, and Selene ran up to him, pulling him into a big hug.
He shook Levi’s hand, and accepted all the cheers until his eyes fell on me.
“Hey Daddy,” I managed to mumble.
He dropped his things, came over to me and hugged me tightly. “Thank you so much Thea Bear. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
I looked up to the sky trying to keep my tears from overflowing, but I laughed at what I saw.
“Look up Daddy. Look at the rainbow.”
EPILOGUE
LEVI
I had just washed the shampoo out of my hair when she pulled the curtains open.
“Hi,” I said, a little stunned as the shower ran on.
“Why haven’t you asked me to marry you?” she demanded, folding her arms over her chest. “It’s been three years. Is this the whole milk-cow analogy? Because right now, I’m at a loss—”
Taking her by the hand, I pulled her into the shower with me, then closed the shower curtains.
“It was getting cold,” I said simply, as I continued to rinse my hair.
“My hair, my clothes…” She glared at me. Her whole body was drenched, and her clothes clung to her.
I grinned. “You look hot.”
“Fine.” She stripped off her clothes and threw them outside the shower where they fell to the floor with a wet plop.
“Now you’re just playing with fire,” I said, as I pinned her up against the wall and kissed her.
She kissed me back, forgetting herself and her purpose for a brief moment. Then she stepped back and pressed her fingertips against my lips.
“I’m serious Levi, why haven’t you asked me to marry you?”
“You’ve never brought up marriage once before. It took you months and a bullet to get you to finally admit that you loved me.”
“I say it now!” She frowned at me.
I tried to kiss her again, but she wouldn’t let me.
“You are twenty-six years old. You have a good ten years before you should be freaking out about marriage.”
“What about you?”
“I’m a guy.”
“Sexiest!”
“Trustiest.”
That wasn’t even a real word.
She rolled her eyes at me.
“Urgh! I can’t talk to you like this.” She climbed out of the shower. “I have no idea how we are going to have a child, when you’re still one yourself!”
“Whatever—” I said, turning back to the shower.
Then I paused, as her last statement echoed through my mind.
“Wait, what?”
Grabbing a towel, I jumped out of the shower and dashed into our room where she was angrily yanking drawers open and slamming them shut.
“What did you say?”
“I called you a child, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for our dinner.”
She tried to go into the closet, but I followed her in. Grabbing one of my sneakers, I pulled out the small teal box and placed it in her hand.
“I bought you this a month after we got your father out of jail… with his blessings, as well as blessings from your sister, and your Grams.
“I told them that I was going to wait until you graduated because I didn’t want you to feel pressured, and I didn’t want you to try planning our wedding while you were still in school. But most of all, I wanted to make sure that when we got married, it was something you truly wanted. So I told myself to wait, you were with me, you were alive, and I could wait.”
She opened the box and a wide grin spread across her face as she stared at the teardrop shaped diamond.
“Now, would you like me to tell you how I had planned to propose, or are you going to tell me what it was that you just said?”
“This a good ring,” she said, changing the subject.
“It’s your dream ring. I spoke to Selene about it before I bought it. Now, out with it.”
“Don’t look at me like that! I’ve been dropping hints all week!”
“No you haven’t.”
She looked at me like I was insane.
“Levi there are baby books in your study!”
What, those? Those were her hints?
“I thought you were researching an infancy related case.”
“Who thinks that?” She shook her head and threw her arms up into the air.
“I don’t know, lawyers?”
“And the baby themed food I made last night?”
That was weird.
“Or the fact that I spelled out the word twice each time we played Scrabble? The bun I put in the actual oven! You missed it all? Some master thinker you are!” She snorted.
She wasn’t even angry, she was just laughing at my oblivion, and at this point, so was I.
“Our course load at work has tripled in the last three years. This month has been crazy, honestly, I didn’t notice.”
Again, she crossed her arms at me, turning around. Hugging her from behind, I kissed the back of her head. “I’m sorry. But with stuff like that, just say it… like now, say the words.”
“Levi, I’m pregnant,” she huffed, melodramatically.
“And I’m happy,” I whispered, tu
gging off her towel and kissing her soft smooth skin. She leaned against me as my hands traveled down the side of her…
“Levi, we need to get ready, everyone will be here in a few—”
The doorbell rang and I sighed.
“Later,” she promised as she kissed my lips. “Or maybe not, because you’ve ruined my hair.”
She put a towel to it when the doorbell rang again.
“I’ll go, take your time,” I told her. I was already fully dressed and she was still wrapped in her towel, working on her hair. Some things never changed with her, and I liked it.
“Thank you!” she called out from the closet, as I made my way to the front.
The second I opened the door, my legs were attacked.
“Uncle Lee!” Bellamy giggled, looking up at me.
“Princess Bellamy!” I picked her up. “How is the little princess?”
“Mad Mommy and Daddy took my princess wand.” She pointed to them in the doorway, waiting for me get them.
“The horror!” I gasped at them. “Taking a princess’ wand, how could you?”
“Yeah! How could you!” she yelled with me.
I was trying hard not laugh at the bored look on their faces as I let them in.
“When Princess Bellamy decides to hit everyone else in daycare with her Princess wand, Queen Mommy gets to take it away,” Bethan said, taking of her jacket.
“Hey, you didn’t give me the whole story there, kiddo.” I looked to Bellamy as she hid her face in my neck.
“Not princess?” she pouted.
“Princesses don’t hit people.”
No longer her friend, she wiggled out of my arms and stomped over to the couch, where she took her seat on the throne.
“We are all against her,” Tristan said, rolling his eyes.
I laughed, offering them something to drink. It didn’t take much longer for my parents to show up. After the Savannah Van Allen case was over, they invited Thea and I out for dinner where they both apologized. It didn’t need to be such a big deal, but it made them more comfortable to do so.
After them came Atticus and his boyfriend, along with Vivian who proclaimed last year at our dinner gathering that she never wanted to be asked about her relationship status.
Apparently it was something personal. I had no idea what that meant, but Thea seemed to get it. Over the years Atticus, Vivian and Thea had become close. As their former professor, and hopefully their future boss, I had a feeling they would be making waves soon.
“Sorry we’re late!” Selene rushed in with DeShawn. Three years later and they were both at Georgetown and going strong. Thea said Selene has smiled more in the last three years than she had ever seen her smile in her entire life. The funny thing was that Selene had said the same thing about Thea. Their father wheeled in her grandmother, and it pained me to think that she might not make it to next year’s get together.
The Ben Walton of now looked nothing like the Ben Walton that had left prison three years ago. He didn’t look much different, other than new clothes, a decent haircut and a smile, but he was simply a different person. He was no longer in denial. Saying it was hard for him to come back into society was a stretch.
When we brought him back with us, he refused to stay inside during the day. He said in jail they were given one hour in a room with a window, so they could see the sun. But for seventeen years, he had never seen the outside.
Odile’s confession had sparked wide range of backlash from every direction. Tristan had been able to keep her out of jail, but she moved to France with her son seeing as how my former business partner left her. He wasn’t too pleased with all the bad press. But then again, I didn’t think he ever loved her. I doubted that Odile would ever be back, but I wished her happiness. Her father had died of a heart attack, and her brother was in prison: the Van Allen family had been shattered by Cole’s actions, and on top of that, they had been ordered to pay a million dollars to Ben Walton for every year that he had been locked up.
“You okay?” Tristan asked, as he came up to where I was with a glass of whiskey.
“Just thinking.”
“That’s dangerous,” he joked.
Other than Thea and her family, the person who had been most affected by the case had been Tristan. The only way he would become my business partner was if we didn't only help the rich anymore. We had received so many letters and calls from people who wanted us to look into their loved ones cases, but they just couldn’t afford to get a decent lawyer. Being the numbers man that he was, he found a way to work out the cost so there was nothing left for me to do but agree. Black-Knox and Associates was thriving better than ever.
“You’re really out of it,” Tristan said as he waved his hand in front of my face.
“Are the hormones as bad as everyone says they are?” I asked him to change the subject.
He looked at up to me his brown eyes widened as he understood what I meant. Finally he grinned.
“That explains it.”
“So, is that yes?”
“That is… good luck.”
He kept snickering as he made his way over to his family.
“Professor Black?” Thea whispered, coming up behind me.
She was as beautiful as ever in her bright red dress. She took my arm and handed me my tie that I hadn’t gotten the chance to put on yet.
“You haven’t called me that in a long time,” I told her.
It sounded even sexier now.
“I know, I’ve just been thinking about stuff.”
“A penny for your thoughts?” I asked her.
“Only a penny, Mr. Black? What type of girl do you think I am?”
I grinned at her as I took her into my arms and kissed her soft lips.
“I don’t care who or what you are, as long as you’re mine.” I spun her around and held her hands for a moment as I stared at her.
“What?”
Taking a deep breath I got on to one knee and she starting to shake her head at me even though a huge smile spread across her face.
“Oh my God,” I heard my mother gasp from behind me, but I tried my best to ignore them as I took the teal box out of my pocket.
“Thea Cunning. Will you—”
“Yes! Shit… I mean shoot, yes… finish, sorry.”
She was making me smile so much that my face ached.
“Thea Cunning,” I waited to see if she would interrupt me again, “will you allow me to spend the rest of my life with you? Will you be my wife?”
“Yes!” She grinned.
Placing the ring on her finger, I stood as she pulled me into a kiss; all of our family gathered around us, clapping and whistling.
Who says dreams don't come true? Everyone deserves to have a ‘Happily Ever After’, and she was mine.
T H E E N D
ALSO BY J.J. MCAVOY
Ruthless People Series
RUTHLESS PEOPLE
THE UNTOUCHABLES
AMERICAN SAVAGES
DECLAN + CORALINE (a novella)
Single Title New Adult Romance
BLACK RAINBOW
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.J. McAvoy was born in Montreal, Canada and is currently studying Humanities at Carleton University. She is the oldest of three and has loved writing for years. She is inspired by everything from Shakespearean tragedies to Pop Culture. Her first novel, Ruthless People, was a runaway bestseller. And though she writes about dark people doing evil things, she’s a happy and positive person in real life.
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