Chapter 25

Three months later

SPOV

Everything seems to be getting back to normal. We moved Grandma into the house with Daddy last week and with two bathrooms and a little bit bigger house it seems like they have a lot less to fight about. No one speaks to me about Val, and I don't ask. It just makes life easier on all of us, I don't think that Val really speaks to anyone in the family anymore but I don't know.

After the whole blow up with Val, Ranger and I took a trip down to Miami for a couple of weeks and decided to elope while we were down there. Neither of us really wanted to make a big fuss about it, and after everything that had happened we didn't want to do it in Trenton. We decided we would have a family dinner and tell everyone about getting married. Ella agreed to get the conference room ready on the 3rd floor and have everything catered, she was even making a wedding cake. I was pretty nervous about telling Daddy and Grandma I got married, I didn't want them to feel like they were being left out of my life. Before we left for Miami we were having Daddy over for dinner at least twice a week and we'd go see Grandma a couple of times a week as well. Unfortunately after her broken hip she hasn't been able to move around as well and has been confined indoors, I guess since Mom couldn't clip my wings she did succeed in clipping Grandma's.

A couple of hours later everyone started piling into the conference room. Ranger and I made our way around and greeted everyone before we finally made the announcement that we got married. We had a couple of pictures of the wedding and showed those to everyone and sat down to eat. Ella brought out the beautiful wedding cake and Carlos' sister Ceclia took pictures as we cut the cake. It was such a great night that I really didn't want it to end. For the first time in a long time I felt like everything had come full circle. I finally felt like my life was pretty much complete. I felt loved and accepted by both sides of my family and most of all I felt loved by my husband.

Five Years Later – Epilogue

The past five years have been absolutely crazy. Rangeman has taken off so much that we've opened two new branches, one in Chicago and one in Dallas. Ranger has delegated out of the responsibilities and now just acts as the CEO of the company, very rarely does he actually get out in the field, and I don't think that he really misses it. Julie has taken an interest in going to college at Princeton, so she has come to visit more and more and we both love it. Having children really bring life to a house, so having Julie has been wonderful. Julie loves being at the house and her younger siblings love having her around. About a year after we got married we welcomed Maria Ella Manoso. She is such a great mix of the two of us with big blue eyes and black silky hair. Then last year Ricardo Carlos Manoso III was born. I've taken to motherhood pretty easily, and all of my fears were pretty much squashed after the first time I held Maria in my arms.

Joe and Terri actually got their acts together and realized that they truly loved one another and that their marriage was not exacted in revenge. Joe quit drinking and has been completely faithful to Terri for the past five years. They have a 4 year old son Joseph Morelli Jr. and Terri is pregnant again, they are hoping for a girl this time. After Joe sobered up he came and talked to me, which Carlos was not happy about, but I was curious as to what he needed to talk to me about. He told me the truth about all the cheating he had done during our marriage and how if he could change things he would. He apologized to me for the hell he put me through and told me that he hoped that I had all the happiness with Carlos as he had with Terri. After all these years it finally put an end to all of the what ifs in my head about our marriage and let me finally let go of it.

After Grandma's hip broke her health never fully recovered. Earlier this year she finally passed away, which I took very hard. Daddy remarried two years ago to a nice widow who had moved to Trenton from Newark and they still live in the house outside the Burg that Ranger had gotten for Daddy.

Valerie went off the deep end about a year after Mom died and became totally detached from reality. Steve found out about the changes in her behavior and fought for custody of Mary Alice and Angie and won. The judge found him to be the more stable parent and the three of them moved back to California. After that Val started taking it out on Albert saying she lost her girls because of him. Albert finally grew a backbone and divorced Val taking Lisa with him. After Val realized there was no one around her she checked herself into rehab in Philadelphia. She has gone back to the judge and has been able to convince both judges to let her have supervised visitation with the girls. She travels out to California about once every other month to see the older girls and sees Lisa once a week normally.

My life has done a complete 360 in the past 6 years but now looking back I don't think I'd change it for anything. Everything has brought me to where I am now.

**Thank you guys for all your support through out this story. Check out my new story Tick, Tick, Tick. I had such a fun time writing this one and I'm sad to see it end, but I didn't feel there was much further I could take it.