“Megan, did you really use to think that being incarcerated meant being burned alive?” Penny asks, grinning at me mockingly as her little feet sink into the sand.

“Mom, what have you been telling her?” I ask, half-shouting so she can hear me. She's smiling in the sun as she gets closer, her skin still wet from having been in the resort swimming pool. She looks happier and more beautiful than I’ve seen her in years.

“Just some old stories,” she says.

“‘Incarceration’ and ‘incineration’ sound similar,” I say to Penny, shrugging.

“And to think I take grammar and vocabulary advice from you,” Penny says, shaking her head.

“Hey, that was a long time ago. I must've been, like, six,” I protest, getting defensive despite my attempt at staying cool.

“Twelve,” Mom corrects me.

“Hey, whose side are you on, Mom?” I ask. “Wait. Twelve, really? Damn.”

“Yes, honey, really,” Mom says, smiling as she turns around to follow Penny, who’s already laughing and wandering off toward the water.

When I turn to look at Ethan, he's grinning at me from his wicker lounge chair, which is identical to mine. “So did you think people got arrested and then burned alive?”

“Hey, I just used to misspell the words, okay? I didn't confuse the meanings.”

“Okay,” Ethan says, laughing as he moves his hair out of his face. I can't help but notice the wedding band on his finger—a mark that he's all mine. I still can't believe my luck sometimes.

Without thinking, my fingers rub my own wedding band. Not long after I moved back into our apartment, we decided to start wearing our wedding bands again. No pomp, no ceremony.

One morning, I just came across the rings in a drawer and said that we should start wearing them again. Ethan was happy to oblige.

“Are you sure you don't want a real wedding, kitten?” Ethan asks, as if he can read my mind.

This is not the first time he asks about having a “real wedding,” like a vow renewal and a reception. We’ve already had the paperwork taken care of the first time we got married in his office, so we won't have to repeat that.

“Yeah.” I’ve been telling him I’d rather use the time and money to travel as a family, which is why we’re here now.

“You know we can afford to have a family vacation and a wedding, right?” Ethan asks.

I laugh. “Yeah, I know you have truckloads of money.”

“‘We,’” Ethan says, correcting me. “Whatever is mine is yours now. It has been one year, kitten. When are you going to realize that?”

“I don't know. Sometimes I just can't believe how lucky I am. Everything still seems like a dream.”

“It's okay. We have all the time in the world,” he says with a smile.

“Yeah.” I return his smile. We may not have exchanged any real vows, but I don't doubt for one moment that Ethan plans to stay in my life forever. “Real wedding” or not, he’s the love of my life. He's the person I want to grow old with.

What's a wedding for, anyway? I’ve seen too many dysfunctional marriages to believe in the institution. A marriage certificate didn't stop my dad from leaving.

We’re a family. Just another American family in the Caribbean, enjoying a vacation.

Right now, we’re just Ethan, Megan, and Penny. Oh, and my Mom—she’s the matriarch now that she has a step-grandchild.

Mom has never had the money to travel before, so I was ecstatic when Ethan said there's enough room for her in his—I mean our—private jet. She makes a great babysitter; it warms my heart to watch her play with Penny.

True to her words, Mom has been spending more time in the city, staying over every couple of weeks, giving Ethan and me some opportunities to be alone.

Mom has been making comments, comparing my relationship with hers. It's slowly dawning on her that she can do better than Frank, that she can hope for a healthy relationship like the one I have with Ethan.

I’m hoping this vacation will give her some space to think and make plans.

She's always welcome in our home, of course. But she’d probably want to keep her home and kick Frank out, and that’ll take some time. Luckily, we have Ethan’s team of lawyers on our side. Oops, I just did it again—our team of lawyers, I mean.

The legal team should be able to resolve things pretty quickly, even if they are getting busy with the upcoming case against Lucas Murdoch. At my urging, Ethan has been taking the complaints of people who were wronged by Primaland and having his lawyer prepare a case on their behalf.

Previously, he was worried that countering Murdoch’s attacks against him would incite him to do something worse and affect Penny in some way. But after lengthy talks with Penny, he realized that she’s old enough to understand what's going on, and she fully supports the lawsuit.

Taking care of Lucas Murdoch will take care of Ashley as well. Without his money and the might of his PR team behind her, there won’t be much she can do.

Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and we’ll be able to help everyone—my Mom, as well as Lucas Murdoch’s victims.

I think this experience has made Ethan more mindful of how his giant corporation can affect small, local businesses. Despite his shareholders’ protests, he has decided to scale down on his expansion plan so his team can conduct extensive research and make sure to take local communities into full consideration.

But whether we succeed or not, the main thing is that our little family is happy—including Mom, even if she's still technically living with Frank, at least for the next couple of months.

We’re happy, healthy, and we stick together.

After going through a few tumultuous years, I’ve learned not to take things for granted. There are always going to be problems in life—sometimes big and sometimes, thankfully, small. But with Ethan on my side, I feel like I can do anything.

Honestly, I haven't said this to anyone, but I'm even thinking about maybe having a baby with Ethan.

Wait, don't get excited yet. I said maybe. In the future.

I still want to focus my energy on my career right now; in fact, I’ve just gotten a pretty good internship at a broadsheet newspaper right here in San Francisco.

It's just that I’d never found the idea of parenthood to be appealing. But then I look at Penny and I think, maybe it wouldn't be so bad; maybe it would be pretty cool. Just accepting it as a possibility is a big step for me.

“What are you thinking about?” Ethan asks, looking at me with that smile that makes my knees go weak. Luckily for me, I’m reclining on a lounge chair on the beach, relaxed as can be.

“You,” I answer honestly. “And our future together.”

Ethan takes my hand and strokes the back of it with his fingers. Our gazes lock, and I know he's thinking the same thing: everything is perfect just the way it is, and we can’t wait to grow old together.

The End

* * *

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