Page 103 of Fatal Attraction

All of the weight barracked on my shoulders drifted away when she said, “Of course not. You’d have known that if you hadn’t stormed off the way you did. These babies didn’t ask to be made, so why would I dare punish them by ending their lives, even if they were unintentionally conceived? I’m not a monster, Phoenix.”

“It’s just…” I took in a breath and sat down in the closest chair facing her, grabbing her hand. “I know you aren’t ready to be a mother. As much as I want this for the three of us, I don’t want you to feel like you’re being forced to do this.”

“I want to have kids. I always have. But is it the right time? Honestly, no, it isn’t. But it’s not the babies’ fault, and we can’t pick and choose when the consequences of our actions will catch up to us.” She paused, sighing tiredly through her nose. “I want you to get the DNA tests done. I want to know who fathered which baby so that we can all decide how we can work together to raise the babies even if one of you possibly fathered both of them.”

“It doesn’t matter who fathered them,” Spike said with a gentle smile. “You’re our woman, Charlotte.”

“And as far as the babies are concerned.” I got to my feet and planted a deep, passionate kiss to her lips, earning a soft moan in response. “They’re ours, Charlotte. We will love you and them with all of our hearts and souls. The three of us will be a family, forever and always.”

“Forever and always?” she repeated through a smile. “I think I like the sound of that.”

I shared a look with Spike, who grinned big and offered me a proud nod.

Forever and always.

Yeah, I think I liked the sound of that, too.

Epilogue: Part 1

Karl

6 months later

12 hours before Percious Welch’s trial

“Are we clear?” I asked the overnight guard, who just so happens to be a close friend of mine, and whose fingers were busily typing away, working on hacking through the prison security cameras.

“Just a few more seconds,” he gruffly replied. “Once I’m in, I’ll only be able to trick the cameras for about two minutes—three at most—before the system will detect the hack and trigger the emergency lockdown.”

Shit.

It wasn’t enough time, but I’d have to make it work as best as I could.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I could hear the hesitation in his tone. “You know what will happen if you get caught.”

I thought carefully about the remark, thinking of Delilah Fields, Amber and Daniel Strickland, Blaire Halloway, Felix McMann, Peter Welch, and most importantly, Charlotte Greene and Kate Seigler. Everyone on that list, including myself, had been either hurt or killed by this monstrous fuck’s hands. His trial was bright and early tomorrow morning and as dangerous as it was, I couldn’t let it proceed, not with Charlotte being so close to going into labor. I’d failed her as a husband, but the least I could do for her now was spare her all the stress and heartache by having to take the stand.

And besides, there was only one true person who could inflict the proper judgment against Percious, and that was God himself.

As for me, well…

I was just setting up the appointment.

“I don’t have a choice.”

He frowned at me, thankfully opting not to speak whatever else was on his mind.

“Are you ready?” he asked after a moment.

I took a quick second to set the timer on my digital watch for two minutes, nodding when I was done.

“Yes, I’m ready.”

“Good, because I’m in. Your time startsnow.”

I clicked the button on my watch and took off like a shooting bullet down the isolated wing, trying to keep my footfalls quiet so I wouldn’t wake the other inmates on the floor. Percious Welch’s room was at the end of the hall, on the right. When I made it there, I waited three seconds before the black device by the door chirped and the light above it flashed green, permitting me to enter.

I rushed inside, finding Percious scrambling out of bed in an orange inmate suit, rubbing tiredly at his swollen, battered and bloodshot eyes, half asleep and demanding to know what the fuck was going on. The other inmates favored beating the dogshit out of him at any given chance, which was actually what ended him here in the isolation wing to begin with. I’d called this whole plan off months ago because of it, but after receiving a phone call from my favorite prison guard and receiving word that Percious had been viciously attacked by a prison gang earlier this morning and had just been released from the infirmary, I knew this was the best and only shot I had.

---