On the Beach, Hamptons
Eight weeks later - March 22nd
Gently, Emily took her little son out of his baby carriage and carried him over to the water. When the waves washed over her feet, she stopped and looked down at Julian, who was looking at her with wide eyes.
"What are you doing?" Daniel shouted to her. He was sitting on a blanket a few yards from the water.
"Showing him the ocean." Smiling, she turned to him. "It's the first time he's here. I remember how much I loved the beach and the ocean as a child …" She stopped in the middle of the sentence when she saw Daniel's wrinkled forehead. Of course, it crossed her mind. He didn't know that she was playing here when she was a little girl, before his parents betrayed her father, put him in jail, where he got killed. "My parents were often with me on the beach," she added, before Daniel could become suspicious.
She was happy with him. Happy with her baby. And she felt as though Victoria was gradually accepting her. At least they had closed a kind of truce since Emily was back in the Manor. And Daniel's healing progressed well. He still couldn't make long walks or go jogging, but he didn't have to lie in his bed or stay at home any longer. The desire to go back to the beach house had become overwhelming in the last few days. She finally wanted to be undisturbed with her husband. But she knew it wouldn't be easy to convince Victoria to leave the Manor.
"Don't you think he's still a little too young to learn how to swim?" Daniel said, smirking.
"You can't start early enough." Emily stepped out of the water and went to him. "Here, hold him!" She put the baby into his arms. "I want to enjoy the waves as long as we have high water," she said, running back into the ocean.
Smiling, Daniel watched as she dived into the waves like a dolphin and disappeared. How much he wished to join her. But the doctors still didn't allow any physical exercise. He remembered the one time on the beach, where they had made passionate love. An activity he had avoided so far. At the same time, he wanted nothing more than to show her how much he loved and desired her. But he was also grateful that he had survived and had even gotten another chance to a shared future with Emily. The events on the island had changed him and her equally. He knew now that Emily loved him unconditionally and was even willing to die for him. She had forgiven him. He still couldn't believe it. And even though he had shot Aiden, he wasn't held responsible. Self defense, the police had said. He knew that Emily didn't take Aiden's death lightly. But they didn't talk about it. They were trying to concentrate on what they both had. He looked smiling at his son and gently stroked his cheek. There was so much to be thankful for. Not only did he survive, but Julian's condition also progressed from day to day. Nobody would suspect that he was born as a preemie two months ago. He had grown and showed interest in his surroundings when he was awake. His thought was suddenly interrupted when Emily came back and grabbed her towel.
"It's still a little bit chilly out there. But I just couldn't resist." She bent down and kissed him gently.
"Wait ...!" He got up and put Julian back into the baby carriage before he grabbed Emily and pulled her to him. "I think we can do better ..." He didn't wait for any reply but leaned forward and kissed her with such passion that he could feel her surrender under his pressure.
Moaning softly, she opened her lips and allowed his tongue to enter, while she ran her fingers through his hair and clung to him tightly. How long had it been since they'd slept together? She didn't know. But at that moment the desire to feel him everywhere was so overwhelming that she lost control. With trembling fingers, she pushed his shirt over his head and groaned softly as he shoved the straps of her bikini top aside and let his lips move over her neck to her breasts. When he pulled her down to the blanket and kissed her passionately, her resistance melted completely. Presumably, they would simply have given in to their feelings, if not a voice had brought them back from their carnal rush.
"Daniel! Emily!"
Startled, both stopped. Emily was the first to react and moved slowly away from Daniel. Hastily, she pushed her bikini top back to its original position. "Victoria! We didn't hear you coming," she said, still struggling with the sudden ambush.
"I could see that." Victoria looked at her son disapprovingly. "Honestly, Daniel! What were you thinking? And even in the presence of the baby!" She quickly looked at her grandson who slept peacefully in his baby carriage.
Daniel reached for his shirt and slipped it over. "I don't think it upset him," he said, eye-rolling. He rose. "Mom, I think it's time for Emily and me to go back to the beach house," he said firmly.
"But why?" Victoria asked, visibly affected. "You're still not healthy enough to ..."
She didn't come any further when he made an impetuous hand movement. "Two months, Mom! I think the doctors had said a few weeks. It's been months now. I'm fine. I am almost completely fit again. And there's no reason why Emily and I should live longer with nurses and nannies under one roof!"
"We can tell the nursing staff and the nanny that their help is no longer needed," Victoria tried to remedy the situation. "But that's no reason to move out."
"We want to live our own lives again," he explained again. "Also called privacy. If you can't understand that, well, then I'm sorry!" He bent down to the blanket, folded it together and put it on the baby carriage. "Em, are you coming?"
Emily glanced at her mother-in-law, who stood there shell-shocked. She wasn't accustomed to such a rude rejection. Emily was even more impressed that Daniel had had the courage to speak his mind. She knew he had done it mainly for her because she had often complained that she lacked privacy in the house, despite the many rooms the Manor had to offer. She grabbed the baby carriage and followed him.
"Phew ..." He wiped an imaginary bead from his forehead. "I hope she got it now."
Emily turned around and found that her mother-in-law was still standing in the same place, looking out to the ocean. It wasn't the first time she'd asked herself why her father had been in love with Victoria at that time. He, whom she had remembered as caring and loving. She had been a little girl, when they had been separated, but she could remember every detail. What had it been that had attracted him to this cool, calculating woman?
"Emily?"
Daniel's shout disrupted her thoughts. And as she went back to the Manor to prepare everything for a return to the beach house, she wondered if her life would have been different if her father hadn't been murdered.
