"In silent screams, in wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this. This love is good, this love is bad, this love is alive back from the dead. These hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me."

EPILOGUE

"I don't give a fuck, Harley. I said fucking no."

I looked up in amusement as Happy stormed inside, our daughter hot on his heels. She was just like her father in more ways than not, and had inherited his stubborn side when she was told no. "But, daddy-"

"No."

"Daddy!" She half sighed, half screamed in annoyance.

"I said fucking no."

I took a sip of the coffee in my hands when they stopped in the entrance to the kitchen and tried to fathom what the hell had happened on the ride from school back to the house. He'd been in a good mood when he'd left and had happily offered to drive 'the piece of shit cage' to go and get her. "Hi kids, welcome home! What is going on?"

Happy glared at our daughter who glared right back. I had to give it to the kid, she could hold her own. Her father's stare had made me back down a few too many times to count, but she wasn't even blinking.

"Callum asked me to be his girlfriend." Harley was the first to break eye contact and turn to me. "And I said yes, and now daddy is having a mental breakdown about it."

I sipped on my coffee again to attempt to hide the smile that had formed on my lips, but Happy caught me and turned his glare on me. "Tell her no."

Harley whined and ran her tongue over her teeth, a habit she'd already picked up from her father, than threw her hands in the air. "Daddy, sometimes you are so fucking frustrating that you hurt my heart."

"Hey! Language." Happy growled.

She must have noticed that there was nothing I could do to save her from the situation, so her big brown eyes turned back to her father in another glare. "Daddy, you cannot get mad at me for saying fuck when you say fuck all of the time."

"HARLEY-ROSE!"

Even though it had made me pause that my daughter had sworn, I couldn't hold back my chuckle any longer and I decided that it was time to break things up before they got too heated and a small war ensued in my home. "Harley, sweetheart, why don't you go and get changed out of your dress? Mummy and daddy need to have a chat."

She glared at him before she disappeared from the room. muttering a string of expletives and for me to try and talk some sense into my husband. "Ha perdido la cabeza, mamá."

He's lost his mind, mama.

She was older than her years. Way too old for her years.

Happy looked like he was border lining a heart attack when I put my coffee on the island and wrapped my arms around his neck where his veins were pulsing erratically.

"How could you possibly think that anything about this is amusing?" He growled. "Our daughter just came home from school talking about having a boyfriend. What is funny about that?!"

"Because she's six years old." I leant back enough to catch his eye but still hold him. "Boyfriends at six years old mean holding hands for a few days before they break up because one of them was speaking to someone else. Heartbreak will ensue, then she will find a new boyfriend and the cycle will repeat on a constant basis until she turns fifteen and finds someone to properly date."

He grumbled under his breath. "So, I'm meant to be okay with it is what you're saying?"

"Yes, sweetheart." I laughed lightly. "You're meant to take it with a grain of salt. Tell her that you're happy for her even if it kills you on the inside, then wait until she comes crying her crocodile tears over her broken heart. She'll need her daddy after her first heartbreak."

His eyes were narrowed into slits, "I'll suss the little fucker out and find out if he's good enough for her. I swear to god, if this little fucker-"

"Happy!" I cut him off with another laugh. "He is six years old! Besides, when is anybody ever going to be good enough for your baby?"

He muttered something else underneath his breath that was too low for me to hear, and I pressed my lips to his own to cut him off. I was half amused that he was taking Harley's first 'love' interest so seriously, half worried for Callum's parent's safety when Happy got his hands on them, since he couldn't take his frustrations out on a kid. His parents, though? They were fair game, and Happy could do a lot of convincing that would stop their son from coming near his daughter.

When his lips started moving against my own I knew that I had broken through the whirlwind of torture he was planning in his mind, and I moaned when his large palm moved from my hip around to cup my ass.

"Ew! That isn't what I wanted to see!"

I sighed against his mouth, cursing the cockblocking six year old, and looked to the entryway of the kitchen where Harley had reappeared with her twin brother by her side – nose red and sniffling from the flu – for backup against her fight with their father. He was her number one supporter and Happy had raised him to defend her until the end of time, even if he felt like his sickness was killing him. Even if he didn't agree with what he was defending her from.

"Well get used to it. You're living under our roof for at least the next twelve years, and I'm going to kiss your mother whenever I fucking feel like it." He smiled sarcastically.

Jesse sniffled. "I think that it's nice."

My heart filled as I took in the pair, Jesse in his blue dinosaur pyjamas and Harley in her yellow sundress that she'd worn to school. Their brown eyes and beautiful skin were identical to their father's. They'd mostly got all of his features, which I didn't think was fair, but there was nothing I could do to change genetics.

"That's because you're a good boy." Happy withdrew to ruffle his hand through Jesse's messy brown mop.

The front door swung open and I tensed until I heard the loud Scottish accent, more prominent because of the rage it contained, fill our house. "Harley-Rose, what is this shite I hear about you having a boyfriend, love? And where is the little fucker? I'm going to suss him out and make sure that he's good enough for you. Fucking little cretin, swooping in on my girl."

"Daddy!"

I laughed as chaos and anarchy started around me, a fight between my husband, our daughter and her god father about whether or not she was allowed to date the little boy who had made the mistake of giving her a flower at break.

Jesse snuggled into my side and watched the scene play out with me through sleepy eyes which were closing for longer with each time he blinked.

It had taken me a hell of a long time to get there - and more trauma than my children would ever find out about - but I finally had it all.

"Why are they fighting?" Jesse yawned against my stomach. "Why don't they want her to be in love? I thought that it was a good thing."

I stroked his dark hair lovingly when I picked him up and began walking him back to his bedroom, doing my best to ignore the banshee like screams coming out of my daughter who looked slightly possessed.

Chibs took her abuse stoically, didn't even flinch when she told him that he was a cunt - a word I didn't even know that she knew and made her father's eye twitch like he was on the verge of losing control. He was probably going to take it out on my body later when he was fucking me in the shower, but angry sex was always great with Happy, so I wasn't going to complain.

Her god father looked at her calmly, then very happily informed her that she had a football team worth of uncles who owned guns and would shoot anybody who tried to get close to her. She wasn't going near a boy before they all died, and Chibs planned to outlive everybody, so she'd be in her fifties before he was underground and could even think about going on a date.

In the background, Happy murmured that he'd haunt them from the grave and she would be single until she died.

Poor Harley.

"They do, baby. They just want her to be in love with the right person." I kissed his forehead after I'd tucked him in and stroked his hair away from his sweaty skin.

"What does that mean, mummy?" He yawned again.

I got to my feet and started walking towards the door. "There's a lot of types of love in the world, baby. Sometimes it's not the right kind of love and it hurts. They just want her to have the right kind of love."

Jesse peeped a sleepy eye open to watch me. "What kind of love is that?"

Harley was still screaming in the living room, calling her godfather every name under the sun, and I knew that I'd have to sit her down later that night to explain that - although her father and her overprotective uncles were frustrating - she wasn't allowed to say the things that she was saying.

"One worth facing the fire and brimstone for."

When he looked at me confused as to what the fire and brimstone was, I chuckled and turned off the light.

Happy stepped out of the hallway to meet me at the bedroom door and looked at our son as he wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me into his side so that I could lean into his body heat. I was reminded how lucky I was to have all of them.

His voice was gruff, but his eyes were soft when his hand over my cheek and took the answer from my lips, giving our son an explanation that was easier for a sick little boy to understand.

"A happy kind of love."