Epilogue
Australia – Marina Black
Another day another dollar but this time they are Australian dollars never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this life for me, if you asked me five years ago where I would be today, I would have said married, a couple of kid's boring upper middle class suburbia. Running a home, by running I mean telling the housekeeper and cook what to do.
Instead I almost lost my life and my mind as well, after that fateful coffee at the gym it wasn't long before I discovered the man I was hoping for the happy ever after with was pining after someone else, and not just any someone else, but I was the reason he could stay close to her.
I had just about gotten over that when I was hit by a double whammy, the man I had slowly started to date and trust had lied and tricked me and the only man bar my daddy I would have trusted with my life had tricked and conned me too.
So just over four years ago I cut all ties with my family, jumped on a plane and called one of my best friends to see if he had any work going as a kitchen hand.
Rick just laughed at me and said no but come to lunch with me and one of my great friends as well as my wife and maybe we can look at what your options are.
Little did I know that day would put me on the next and most challenging step of my journey, an apprenticeship with Adriano Zumbo,.
After about a month I e-mailed mom just to let her know I was alive basically, I knew I had to be careful if I didn't want to be found and for a long time I didn't, want to be, found that is, so I never gave her any clues that Christian could use to start to search for me.
But I did wonder about my family, about my niece and if Kate and Elliot ever did get married or had Ana woke up yet, and so I started to rival the stalker extraordinaire, my brother, every night when I crawled back to my apartment exhausted from another day under the maestro, I would turn my computer on and run Google searches of my family and most nights they ended with me crying myself to sleep
I worked and slept, and cried, for months that was my life, and then I started to doubt myself, after all I hadn't given either of them chance to explain before I took off, so I started to search for Grant on Google and found a lot more out about him than I ever had while we were dating, from photos and the reports of the divorce petition Marianne took out against him I was maybe the fifth or possibly the sixth girl he had dated after marrying her, at least I didn't have the shame and ignominy of a divorce or being named in one to live with.
My work was my life, for the longest time I barely socialised, occasionally Rick would just not take no for an answer and one of those times he dragged me to a fiftieth birthday BBQ at about the time I was coming to the end of my apprenticeship with Adriano and I met someone there, he was fun, sexy and young, so young I think like about eighteen and a kitchen hand.
Adriano had known him since he was about ten his parents lived next door to Adriano so I knew he was safe, no wife or unrequited love lurking somewhere, he wouldn't hurt me, of course I wasn't 'in love' so he couldn't hurt me, emotionally anyway and we had a great fun loving summer before he went to university.
He helped to heal me so I will always have fond memories of that summer but I still wasn't ready for anything more than a bit of fun with someone I liked, really liked but love, no that boat has sailed, I will never allow myself to love that deeply again, but maybe it's time to forgive, Christian at least, never Grant, no I'll never forgive Grant he took my heart and trampled it to death.
During my internet searches, stalking my family, I discovered Christian had bought a company here is Sydney and as the last leg on his trip round Australia checking up on his companies here he would be visiting Sydney I tossed and turned all night, was I ready to see him again?
I knew he would want me to go home with him if I contacted him and I was not sure if I was ready for that yet, I had completed my apprenticeship with Adriano so in theory I could just pack up and move on but Oh God was I ready to do that, I really didn't know.
I went on like this for quite some time, night after night I tossed and turned never quite making my mind up one way or the other till the day Christian landed in Sydney.
I picked my phone up and found his number, my heart was pounding and he answered, I heard my brother's voice for the first time in so long and I was sobbing really sobbing "Christian" I sobbed "Mia? Baby Girl, is that you?" "Yes" I sobbed "where are you baby girl? I'm coming to get you" and I gave him my address and within fifteen minuets he was pounding on my door and then I was in his arms, we talked and talked for hours and hours, we spend every spare minuet we had together, till the day before he had to leave and then he asked the question, the question I had been waiting for "You coming with me princess?" and just like that I knew my answer "yes"
A/N will be starting a new Story featuring Mia 'Mia Happy Ever After? right about now so go to my profile for direct link to it
The new story will be starting approximately six weeks before Ana is due to give birth to the miracles and will be a series of one shots with much longer chapters and will not cover everyday living, just significant events in her life