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Lillian

Five Years Later

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M organ has been up for a few hours, I can hear him cussing to himself through the damn walls. So much for letting me sleep in.

Not that I am anyway, I’m down in my office trying to get all of this nonsense sent in for work.

It’s been five years since we got married the same day he suggested it, also known as just telling me to marry him so that I would stay with him and not work.

We went and rented dresses, a tux, and bought our rings before heading to the courthouse. That blissful, confusing ass day was one of the best of my life.

The second best? Was when Brittany came back to Minnesota from rehab and changed her life. She’s now a major part in her daughters’ lives and lives only a few streets away from us.

We don’t spend a lot of time together, but the girls are with her on most weekends and sometimes a weeknight if she’s able to have them when she’s home from work.

She actually got a job, too.

Mackenzie opened up her own bar and restaurant near the arena and ended up hiring Brittany about three years ago, and now the latter is a manager there. How far she’s come is just… beautiful. I’m so proud of her.

She’s tried to apologize for how she acted and for hitting me, but I just tell her to focus on her girls and forget about me. That’s all in the past and all that matters now is the future.

Avery is now fifteen, taller than me, and as boy crazy as Mackenzie was in high school. She drives me nuts, but will always be my special girl. Her long brown hair, bright hazel eyes, and tanned skin, we’re going to be beating the boys that flock to her with bats here soon enough.

Nessa just turned nine and is loving school, just as I knew she always would. We ended up putting her back in the daycare/preschool program about six months before she started kindergarten and thrived… and is still thriving.

Tilly… Oh, demonic, silly, wonderful Tilly.

She’s seven and is just insane on her best days.

Her unruly, curly blonde hair is always a mess and her blue eyes are so mischievous yet innocent.

She gets sent home at least once a week from fighting with the boys in her class. Not even the girls, just the boys.

Who knows why.

Morgan sneakily ended up getting me a job at the private school the girls all attend, but it didn’t work out for long.

Within six months we ended up finding a surrogate and she got pregnant after one round of IVF with my egg and Morgan’s sperm.

We were told it could take several rounds so we were all shocked.

Harriet Mackenzie was born three and a half years ago and is the light of our worlds, even if Morgan cried about having yet another girl. I smirk down at my phone as I pull up the text from Kimberly and chuckle to myself at the ultrasound she just sent me.

He agreed to one more baby about six months ago and we paid more for gender testing to be done… and now he’s ‘finally’ getting his boy.

I lean back in my office chair and spin around slowly before I stand and stretch.

Gone are the days that I hung out with the kids, made food, and cleaned.

Now I run several non-profits that Morgan and I have set up over the years and it takes almost all of my time and energy on most weekends and weeknights. I was adamant about having the days off so that I can be with Harriet and the older girls if they ever got sick or needed me.

I step over to my window that overlooks the backyard and smile when I find Morgan swimming with all of the girls as we wait for his old teammates to come over to our monthly barbeque.

So many of them retired not long after Morgan did, and thankfully they all stayed close.

James and Marie live on our street and now so does Nolan, Landon, and about five others from the Mavericks.

I made a joke to them a few years ago that we should just buy the damn street and change the name to Maverick Lane.

Nolan took me up on it and actually did it.

I shake my head as I smile to myself and head outside to join my family.

I pull off my wrap that I had on and slowly step into the warm water and swim over to my husband. He turns around and whoops before pulling me against him and kissing my forehead.

“How’s work?”

I blow a raspberry at him and kiss his shoulder. His right shoulder is now littered with scars and tattoos for all of his girls. I still can’t believe that it’s been almost five years since he went through the first of three surgeries.

Unfortunately he wasn’t able to finish out his last season. But that never stopped him.

He now coaches, trains, and still plays during the winter and summer seasons at the new ice rink he opened a few miles away. All ages come from far and wide to skate with him, and he loves his new life.

I scream as he tosses me up into the air and I crash back down into the water and blow bubbles on my way back up to the surface. “Thanks!” I call out to him and shake my head as I shove my hair up into a bun.

Harriet squeals at me and flails around in her floaties trying to get closer to me. I smile as I swing her up into my arms and kiss her head.

My goodness, this girl is just everything. She has curly black hair, green-gray eyes, and has Morgan’s gorgeous sun-kissed skin. I can’t believe that I have a daughter.

Well, I have four daughters and a son on the way.

I spin around in a slow circle and hum under my breath as I stare at my perfect little family. No more drama from Morgan’s parents. Or even anyone back home…

Betty’s children all did a few months in jail and had to pay several hundred thousand dollars in fines, each, to me and to attorneys.

All of the money that Betty and Francis placed into stocks, bonds, and investments were all eventually transferred to me. The money from the sale of their house, the cars, jewelry, and everything else her kids did is now all mine.

I have no idea what’s even going on with them and I don't care to know. Same for my first adoptive parents. I never cared to call them and ask about the truth about my birth, my childhood, my biological parents.

Why did they do the things they did? Why does it matter?

My biological parents are dead. Those psychos are in prison for the rest of their lives. Betty and Francis are gone.

It was time to just relax, bask in the serenity of the present and future and just let it all go. And Morgan did the same in regard to his parents.

They still come around once a year, but they stay in a hotel and take the girls out on their own. They will never like me, and you know what? I don’t give a flying fuck.

I hear laughter coming from the front of the house and I glance over my shoulder to Morgan and he winks at me.

“Party time!”