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Tears were running down my eyes, and they were the happiest tears of my life.
Mother was especially giddy. “We get to plan a wedding together.”
Dad was also pretty happy as he started to do a dance with my mother, a sight that I hadn’t imagined I would ever see.
When mom and Emma had left, father had been pretty bitter about the whole situation. Yet there he was, happy that I was now getting married.
Brody was pretty proud of himself for catching my surprise.
I knew it was coming, but I never expected him to do it in such a subtle way. Some people wouldn’t have liked it, but it was fitting since we were both trying to create a new life.
There’s a lot to be said about being criminals, and even though I had never hurt anyone personally, I knew that, for some, my very existence was a curse. This was why I had decided to turn our lives around.
In the end, we were pretty lucky. Brody had slowly cut off ties with illegal sources of money. While there had been some that were harder to get rid of, I was helpful in the systematic removal of bad money.
That didn’t mean that we lost the money.
Morality is a gray area, and, though some funds were ill-gotten, I had taken them and funneled them back into good causes which ended up paying off in the long run. My child was going to enter into a world without crime, and, in the months leading up to the birth of my baby, I had managed to turn our worlds towards the right direction.
Because I was engaged, my mother wanted to play an active role in planning my wedding. I told her that I would only do so under the condition that she apologize to Daddy for leaving him, and to get Emma therapy.
Mom agreed, though I had to get Brody to pay for the therapy, since I found out that she had spent the last of the money she took from Daddy on the plane ticket to get to me.
“You’re going to have to work for a living,” I told my mother. Brody and I had discussed this. Mom wasn’t going to be left out on the streets, but she wasn’t going to take advantage of the fact that we were rich.
I gave my mother a job working for a nonprofit that specialized in helping underprivileged women get ready for job interviews. Mother would help them pick clothes for their jobs, and through this she found purpose in life.
Even though she was mad at first, for “not giving her what she deserved,” she ended up grateful that I had directed her towards a life of purpose. Like Brody always says, “Adriana is the best at helping people achieve their best.”
That included him. Even though I was much younger than him, I saw him gain a new understanding and love for life that I don’t think he ever had. There’s something about family that really brings people to living their best lives.
As Mom worked and helped me plan my wedding, I gave birth to my child. It was Daddy who was with me in the hospital room. Brody talked me through the worst of it, but Dad was the one who held us all together.
Surprisingly, when my baby boy was born, Emma started getting out of her shell. She had been going to therapy for issues that mom had been hiding from us, though she didn’t have to since she had been absent from me and Daddy’s lives for years.
She asked me what Brody and I had named our baby boy, and we both responded with “Emmett”. He and I had talked about this, and the fact that my sister had opened up once he was born, solidified our reasoning for naming him after her.
Of course, there was still a wedding to get to.
We all agreed that I needed time to spend with my baby boy before getting married, and I had wanted to shed some of that baby weight before getting into a dress.
So it was that, a year and a half after the initial conception of my baby boy, Emmett, I got married to Brody Whitlock. Our ceremony was in downtown Chicago in a room with a sprawling view of the city.
Carlo had offered to babysit Emmett, and Brody had agreed that Carlo was the best man for the job. It always surprises me what people can do given the circumstances.
Brody and I danced the night of our wedding away, drinking plentifully, and enjoying the celebration of our nuptials well into the wee hours of the morning.
My father, mother, and sister had enjoyed the wedding as well, though in separate social circles, as father had decided he didn’t want to bring up his past love life with my mother.
As for the Reeds, they never ever bothered us again. The rest of the King mafia had disbanded, and life was better with just family. Family is what you make of it, and everyone deserves a second chance at a better life.
DENOUEMENT
BRODY
Shortly after the honeymoon…
I gazed with pride at my young and beautiful wife. She was the kind of girl who could do anything, and she inspired me to do better every day.
