Page 76 of Bottoms
“He was trying to steal some painting to pay for college tuition. His dad wasn’t going to pay for any of it, and Fynn was worried you would kick him out of the Arsenal if he didn’t go to college,” I explained.
I wasn’t sure if they had known the problems he was having with college.
“He called his dad after he killed my dad. Asking for advice. His dad just told him to fix it. And that’s how Fynn first met me,” I squeaked at the end.
Images flashed in my mind from the night of my father's funeral. The man standing outside my window in the rain. The man with a cigarette.
“He found out where my dad had lived, and he stayed in town watching my house until after the funeral,” I explained to the guys. “I saw him after my father's funeral. I was seven at the time, but I can remember it like I’m playing a video of it in my mind. He was there, outside my window. Watching me.”
“Fynn got weirder than normal right after graduation. He told us that college wasn’t for him a few days later. He said he signed up for the military instead,” Colten added, giving me an idea of what pieces he used to solve the puzzle.
“In reality, he used his share of the money from the paintings and gave it to my mom. Claiming that it was a pool of money brought together by the community. She went to the bank, officially put her name on the account, and walked away from it. That’s the money I have been spending my whole life.”
Some truths didn’t hurt, but others stung like a bitch.
Graduationfinallycame.Theguys forced me to go to my ceremony. I had enough time to roll around the truths I had learned about Fynn through his entries. I wanted to be angry with him, and for a while, that was all I felt and all I wanted to feel. But eventually, I got tired of snipping at the guys.
From there, I eventually learned to let it go. Fynn had held on to his dark secret, changing the course of his life, mine, and countless others. I couldn’t hate him when I looked into the sea of faces and found a group of loving, powerful men with their eyes on me. I wished I could say my mom's eyes were on me during the hooding ceremony. I was sure she hadn’t stopped ping-ponging her gaze across my men.
Initially, she reacted to the news of my relationship with three other men with shock. Then Hannah bounced in to give my mom an unsolicited hug before showing off her impressive harem. Mom had been stuck in a state of shock ever since. If she decided not to come around, then that was her loss.
Per my request, we celebrated my graduation by getting on a plane and flying to Montana now that we were free to start our lives over. In a quiet little town, in the middle of nowhere. Just me, Tanner, Nik, and Colten. Tomorrow we would wake up with a whole new life.
I didn’t know how many tomorrows I had, and I had weathered enough storms for a lifetime. But I had found one truth, even the worst storms eventually pass as long as you have tomorrow. You have time to rebuild.
Epilogue
5 years later
“Fynn,putthatdown,”I yelled.
The adorable but infuriating blond toddler looked at me with intelligent eyes before moving his plastic bowl of cereal to the side and releasing it.
“I knew naming him that, we were asking for trouble,” Nik laughed as he padded into the kitchen. “Good morning, beautiful,” he purred, encircling his arms around my waist. Bending me over the counter, making my toes curl with his kiss. Every kiss with Nik was a soul-shattering moment and likely a reason why our kids were only eleven months apart.
Nik slowed the kiss, leaving me breathless as I straightened up, and he left me with a smug look on his face as he went to get a cup of coffee.
“Still wasn’t earth-shattering. You’ll have to try again next time,” I teased after him while I tried to gather my thoughts back together.
“She kept her word. That’s all that matters,” Fynn said, looking up from the dining room table. He was reading through his stack of reports for the morning. His long blond hair was tied back into a tight bun.
“Yeah, well, if I had known you were still alive when he was born, I never would have let my son—”
“Ahh!” I said, pointing my finger at Nik before tossing the towel over his shoulder. I took his coffee cup from his hands and smiled at him. “You know the rules. No one knows who the biological fathers are,” I scolded him. “Now you get to clean the soggy cereal up off the floor.”
“He has blond hair,” Nik said in his defense, bending down to scoop the mush back into the bowl before attempting to wipe the floor.
“Fynn was here for Grace and didn’t have any issues over us naming her after your sister,” I reminded Nik as I went to sit with Fynn at the table. When I approached him, he looked up from his papers, scooting his chair and patting his lap. We looked out the window through our back porch and watched as the sun peeked over the horizon.
“I wish you had let us know sooner that you were still alive,” I said, giving him a chaste kiss.
“I’ve already told you, sweetheart, I wasn’t coming back until you were safe. There were so many evil, wicked men out there that had seen your face. Men that imagined owning you one day, and-”
“It’s okay,” I said, putting my hand over his heart. Breathing in deeply, letting him mirror me.
Fynn had burst back into our lives just after the birth of our first son, Fynn. He had awoken inside the rubble of the mansion, broken and bleeding from his grenade. But, alive. After that, Fynn decided he would take down the sex trade of New York before he could come home to me. He couldn't come home until I was safe. If he failed along the way, I wouldn't have to suffer his death again.
When Fynn burst back into our lives, it wasn’t the happy reunion we all expected. We all had to work through many emotions, and that started with hearing out Fynn’s side. He didn’t want to return until I was safe because he couldn’t survive that shit again.
