Alright you guys, this is it! Final chapter! *sniffles* I know, I don't want this story to end, myself. I feel like I wanna keep writing with these two characters, but I also feel like this is a good place to leave them. I had intended to leave it at chapter 24, but I thought I should give them a closing word on where they are after a few years.
I want you guys to know that I am incredibly grateful for the response and love this story has gotten. I've read each and every one of y'all's reviews, and I can't begin to tell y'all how shocked I am that my little story has gotten even this much attention. I never thought any of my stories would get this much of a following. I'll even put this down here; as of 9a.m. as I'm posting this, we are at 80 favs, 158 follows, and 315 reviews... That's insane, for me. In the 14-15 years I've been writing ff, I don't think I've gotten anything like that. So, like I said, that's huge for me. And I just wanna tell y'all how much I love y'all and can't tell you how much it's meant to me to write this story and have y'all read it and actually appreciate it. Muah!
Also, I did have some requests from a few of y'all for a picture of Bella's wedding dress from chapter 23... Thing is, it was never one dress that I'd seen, as a whole. It was bits and pieces of different dresses that I'd put together in my mind. So, through some serious work, I put together a pic of her dress, and put it on the group pages, if anyone wants to see it. It was as close to what I imagined as I could get.
So, with all that being said... proceed for the final time!
Chapter 25 - Epilogue
BPOV
Five years later…
"Maggie Grace Cullen! This is your last warning! We are leaving in five minutes! I'm not telling you again!" I yell up the stairs, hoping she actually listens this time.
The response I get is more giggles, and I just sigh, hanging my head.
That child has a stubborn streak about a mile long, and unfortunately, she gets it from me.
We're heading for the beach house Rose and Emmett bought out here for when they visit. They rent it out when they're not in town, and Jasper and Alice manage having someone come and take care of the place for Rose and Em.
Yep, I said Jasper AND Alice. Those two got married three years ago after they'd started dating around the time Edward and I'd gotten married.
Jasper had moved out here right after our wedding, before Maggie was born. He based himself out of Charleston as an agent on the East coast. Which wasn't so bad. He and Rose shuffled things around and he's now representing me and Alice.
Alice kept her line based out of Charleston, but AliCat has blown up all over the country. Her line started getting a lot of acclaim when Rose and I started wearing it all the time, and then with the dress I wore to the premiere and then my wedding dress. She became a hot commodity almost over night.
She and Jasper have a little girl, also, that's four years old. Her name is Lily, and she and Maggie are thick as thieves. Every time they get together, they're always off doing something. They're best friends, kinda taking after their mamas.
Rose and Em stayed in L.A., but do make the trip out here, maybe every other month. Rose is still an agent, and Emmett did finally get into music producing.
I'm just waiting on the day that they break down and make the move out here. Rose and Em can't get enough of the area.
Edward is still doing home restorations around Charleston. He also is doing some woodworking, here and there for people around the area. He's done some music with me, off and on, but he loves what he does around town. I don't think I could ever ask him to change that.
As for me… Oh, where do I begin?
After the Disney movie we did together, Edward and I decided that, with us having a daughter so young and having other things going on back home, we were kinda done with our quick stint in the movie industry. I did have one more movie that I ended up doing, but that was it.
I ended up deciding to raise my daughter, that I was afraid I was going to lose the day she was born. That day… I was so scared. I was scared of losing her, of possibly leaving her and Edward. It made me realize that I wanted to be home with her and Edward as much as humanly possible, and not jetting back and forth to L.A. for jobs.
So, what I did was, along with Edward's expertise, found a large historic home in downtown Charleston, restored it, and opened it up as a Bed and Breakfast. It's been open for a little over two years now. It took us a little over two years to do all the restorations, but we did it, and we did it right, making sure that it looks like the authentic historic home it used to be.
It's a four floor home, large wrap around porches, beautiful curved detail and craftsmanship on the top, columns, lots of Palmetto trees around it.
On the inside, it had a wide open foyer with a large, wrap around staircase, lots and lots of beautiful detailing.
A huge kitchen to cook a mass amount of food in. The kitchen is seriously amazing. It's like part solarium-part kitchen. I love it.
The rooms were all period styled and furnished. It's all really comfortable and welcoming.
I kind of run the day to day things there, but I do have someone, Kate, who helps me with everything. She's literally my right hand person. She's the 'care-taker' of 'The Charleston Inn B&B'.
She's amazing.
When I've got some free time, which isn't really that often, I do still write songs. Some I've kept for myself, others I'll send off to L.A. for other artists.
Maggie keeps me pretty busy, as it is, so between her and Edward, the Bed and Breakfast, and writing, I feel like I don't really slow down.
Which isn't a bad thing, necessarily. Being this busy again feels good and productive.
Maggie… I swear, you would think Edward wasn't even involved in the process of making her. She is the spitting image of me as a kid. It's kinda scary, but she does have these little cheekbones starting to take shape, so, who knows. She may end up having some of Edward's bone structure.
She acts just like both of us, though, so that ends up being a good thing and a bad thing. She's a sassy little thing, I will tell you that.
Lord help me when she becomes a teenager…
She has ended up being our only child, which we both take it as a miracle. The damage to my system and the turmoil with Maggie's birth, I don't think I could go through that again. I'm not sure I, or both the baby and I, would survive something like that again. I can't risk that.
But we're incredibly happy with having Maggie. Despite her sassy-pants that she seems to wear all the time, she's been such a good kid.
James is officially in prison. He ended up getting thirty years… Which I think he should've gotten more, but it's at least something and he's off the streets and can't hurt anyone else. I'll take what I can get.
I've put him in the rearview, and try not to think about him anymore. Yes, there are the occasional times where I'll have nightmares of that night, or things that remind me of it will pop up, and I'll have my meltdown. But they aren't as bad, or often, as they used to be.
Thank God.
"Maggie! Now!" I hear Edward yell as he walks through the front hallway with the couple of bags that we're taking with us for a couple of nights over there.
The house that Em and Rose have is on the Isle of Palms, which isn't that far away, but we all just wanted to be able to spend the weekend together, as a group, and not worry about having to head back to either of our houses.
Which is what we love to do. A lot of the time when Rose and Emmett come out here, we'll do this. Not every time, but we love to be able to spend as much time together as we can, because we don't get to as much as we would like to.
We end up going around town, showing Rose and Em more and more of the city. Over the last five years, I think we got in most of the things they've wanted to see, and things they should see, but there's always so much more to do, and go back and see.
Maggie finally races down the stairs, almost tripping over the last step in her haste and adding a couple more grey hairs that I'm gonna need to cover up pretty soon. She does, unfortunately, have my clumsiness. Which I'm hoping she'll grow out of. I was so unbelievably clumsy as a kid, but when I was about sixteen, I started getting my legs under me, as it were. So, I'm praying she'll get better with it when she's a teenager.
Getting Maggie, and Braveheart, in the car and us on the road was always a struggle, but we finally got them both in and started towards the IOP connector to Rose and Em's place.
Braveheart… my sweet little baby boy has been such an amazing addition to our little family. He's such a good cat. When we brought Maggie home from the hospital, he kinda became her protector. Always watched over her. If she was ever in distress, he'd come get us if we weren't right next to her.
They've kinda been inseparable. Which is why we bring Braveheart with us to Rose and Emmett's. And everyone's in love with the little furball. I think it's something about grey and whites.
Pulling up to the beach house, I can't help but love that Rose and Em ended up finding this place. The beach beyond the house is beautiful, but the house itself is adorable.
It's two floors, with double sided stairs coming up the front, and a lookout point on the roof. It's just super cute, and what you'd think of a beach house in the Isle of Palms in Charleston.
"It's about time you got your butts here! I've gotta see my girl!" I hear Rose yell as she walks towards the car. She then proceeds to pull Maggie from the back of the car and hugs the life out of her. "Mag-Pie, I've missed you, sweet girl!"
"I missed you too, auntie Rose." Maggie beams at her aunt and Rose carries her off into the house.
"Missed you too, Ro!" I yell after them.
Rose spins around as she's walking and quickly yells, "Love you!" as she continues back around and walks into the house with Maggie.
I just have to shake my head at her shenanigans. Rose has loved Maggie as her own since the moment she met our daughter.
Alice, Jasper and Lily were already here, which kinda shocked the hell out of me.
It takes Alice and Jasper ten times longer to get Lily out of the house than it does for us to get Maggie out of ours. I think it's Jasper's fault because he's such a pushover for his little girl.
Shockingly, Jasper is an incredible dad. Or, not-shockingly. I should have known he'd be a good dad, because he was already a caring, compassionate guy.
When Lily came along, he was like melted butter for that little girl. Literally. He caved for any and everything for her, and never apologized for it.
I gotta say, Edward is kinda the same, but not nearly as often. Edward keeps some boundaries for his daughter.
Jasper, not so much.
Alice has to be the one to put her foot down with Lily, which makes her 'the bad guy'.
But you have to set boundaries for you kids. That's all there is to it.
Grabbing a bag that Edward has pulled out of the car, I make my way into the house and see everyone is doing their things. Jasper and Emmett are getting things setup for the kids to build a fort, Rose and Alice have Maggie and Lily in the kitchen and getting started on baking some cookies.
Edward walks past me and sets the bags down by the hallway and walks over to the kitchen and gives Rose a kiss on the cheek, along with Alice and Lily.
Looking around at everyone, this is what I'd been needing. Family, familiarity, healing, closure, joy, love. Having the people I love together in one place.
It feels like a comforting hug having this in my life.
It's like the song I wrote for Edward, years ago.
Finding that road to take you back home after you've been lost out in the great big world, you make it back to where you belong. The world tries to break you, but you can't keep running. Sometimes, you have to come home. You have to heal, you have to make new memories, you have to be in a warm, welcoming place. A place that has the people that you love the most in the world.
And home's not always just a place. It's the love you surround yourself with. The people that you love and care for.
It's the best four letter word.
The End
A/N: *sniffles again* Ok, so that's it for our couple. I hope y'all have really enjoyed this story. I know I've loved writing it, and am so proud of this one. It's probably my favorite story I've ever written.
IAM working on a new story, on top of trying to figure out reworking some of my older stories. I know, why would I do that to myself? Things just start speaking to me, and sometimes, I gotta start writing them down, or I'll forget them and they'll be lost forever.
Anywho, again, thank y'all for reading and, hopefully, I'll see y'all on the next one!
Muah!