.:Chapter 19: That's All I Needed:.
.:I was outside on the porch with Hope in my arms, gazing around at my new surroundings. The house Fanny had promised we'd have was finally finished. Hope was almost two years old. I was very grateful to have such a loving sister like Fanny around; she was nicer to me than she was to anyone else, maybe because they still thought she was a bad apple:.
.:Reverend Wise had came to see Hope a few weeks after she'd been born. He told us we should have had an abortion because this child was evil, filled to the brim with our incest lust. His words had angered me and I had told him to get out. We hadn't seen him since:.
.:Darcy and I knew that he might try to cause trouble for us, but Fanny was enough to get him to back down. No one but the Wises and our family knew Darcy and I were related. And no one else needed to know:.
.:Sometimes I wondered if something was wrong with me, for I never felt ashamed of the love Darcy and I shared. Maybe we were meant to be. We could have met somewhere else and she might have never learned that she was a true Casteel herself. Maybe God was out there, helping us along the way:.
.:I soon noticed that Luke and Annie had a very close relationship and I recognized that they loved each other. Sure, they were family, but it was the look that Darcy and I often shared. Even though Heaven wasn't my real sister, she always treated me kindly when she saw me:.
.:"Colvin?" a voice said and I looked up as Darcy approached me. I smiled as I handed Hope to her, my arms going to embrace her waist:.
.:"It's beautiful, isn't it? I can't believe Mom did this for us. . . it's so wonderful," Darcy said with a smile. I nodded:.
.:A part of me suddenly thought of Hope, hoping she was safe and happy wherever she was. A part of me knew that she was alive and I was sure that things were just fine. Hope was a survivor, as I was. I wasn't a piece of nothing that shouldn't have been born, not like my real mother had said I was. I was loved. That's all I needed:.
A/N: Thank you everyone who has stuck with me with this story. I decided to end it here because life is getting extremely hectic these days. I hope the ending wasn't too corny and you guys liked it. Thanks!
Cari