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Janice lets out a piercing wail as if she’s just watched Summer get murdered right in front of her.

“Nooo!” She shrieks. “You’re not taking my baby away from me!”

She stands up and runs towards Olivia, her hands arched in claws and a feral look on her face.

I stand and instantly get in front of Olivia, ready to defend her, but the bailiff of the courtroom gets to Janice before I can. He has her pinned and handcuffed impressively quickly as if this is the most amount of action he’s seen in a courtroom in a while.

Probably is, considering the scene Janice is making.

“Get that woman out of my courtroom and have her booked for contempt of court,” The judge says, her mouth twisted in disgust.

Janice is dragged out of the courtroom, kicking and screaming.

I turn to Olivia and wrap my arms around her tightly.

“We did it!” I say, lifting her feet off the floor.

“Put me down!” Olivia laughs.

When I set her down, she reaches up and tugs on the collar of my button-up, taking a peek at the pink bond scars she left on me. She does that often, almost like she’s making sure it’s actually real.

“We did it,” She whispers softly, looking up at me.

“Now let’s go get Summer from school,” I say, smiling down at her. “And then we can go home as a family.”

“As a family.”

EPILOGUE

OLIVIA

THREE YEARS LATER

“Oh my god, oh my god, I got in!” Summer cries, jumping up and down on her bed.

“Oh my god!” I cry, throwing my arms around her.

Jax joins us a second later, probably after making sure Summer’s laptop wouldn’t be stomped on.

“This is fucking amazing news,” Jax says, wrapping his arms around the both of us.

Summer’s really thrived throughout high school these past few years. With Jax’s help, she’s been able to do a lot of things that would’ve been a lot harder on just my tiny salary from the bar I used to work at.

And now here we are: with Summer being accepted into the best writing program on the entire west coast.

“I knew you could do it,” I say, squeezing her extra tight.

“I was so worried I wouldn’t get in,” She laughs.

“Oh you were totally going to make it,” Jax scoffs.

“Uh huh, totally,” She says. “I was worried I would have to move super far away, though.”

“Yeah, now you can come back on weekends when you don’t wanna deal with college drama,” Jax says.

I just hold her tightly to my chest, not really wanting to let her go in this moment. This is such a big development for her.

And kind of for me too, she’s going to move out in the fall.