Epilogue
Two and a half years later
Bastien
“I still can't believe you're real sometimes.” I picked up my two-year-old daughter, Aleesa, and held her out at arms length, looking her over.
It'd been about three years since I came back to be Olivia's bodyguard, and knowing that we made this little monster together still blew my fucking mind.
Sometimes I had to just look at her, to convince myself that she was real.
Aleesa had my black hair and big nose, unfortunately, but she had her mother's piercing blue eyes and beautiful face. I couldn't help but smile whenever I saw her cause a little trouble. It drove Olivia nuts...
Which made me smile more.
“Oh thank God!” Trisha rounded the backstage corner of the theatre. She placed a hand over her chest in relief. “She certainly takes after you, running off halfcocked like that. Aleesa nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“She's just keeping you on your toes, grandma.” I smiled as my mother eyed me. She was still as graceful as she'd always been, but with Delvin now in prison, some of that fire had returned to her eyes. They were as pretty as I’d remembered.
“Mommy,” Aleesa excitedly exclaimed, seeing Olivia on the stage behind me. I pulled her close and made all the right noises to quiet her during Olivia's rehearsal. Olivia was almost done for the day so I figured we'd all surprise her for dinner.
“Are you sure we can be here?” Trisha side stepped some of the bustling human traffic. “I'd hate to get kicked out of a Broadway show.”
“I'd love to see them try.” Olivia was their show's lead actress at the Palace Theatre in one of their biggest plays. They weren't going to kick her family out of a rehearsal.
Now that we had Aleesa it was impossible to go to all of Olivia's rehearsals, but I still never missed one of her actual shows.
I turned and watched Olivia flit around the stage, hitting her marks and delivering her lines with crisp perfection. It was hard not to fall in love with her every time I watched her perform. She radiated talent and passion like she had when I watched her in high school. She seemed so much happier now that she was done with film. Stage acting had always been her real passion anyway; Delvin just forced her to do otherwise.
Olivia had overcome a lot to get to where she was now—the hottest new talent in the theatre world. Between the viral video of Olivia kissing her bodyguard in an illegal underground fight and the news of Delvin's arrest and eventual conviction, the media wasn't too kind to the Ward legacy.
The craziest thing was how fast it all went away.
For two whole months, Olivia was crucified in every major outlet, then it all disappeared. The news moved on to the next scandal, then the one after that.
Weirdly, Olivia began getting this cult following that loved her new bad girl image.
In the end, it actually helped solidify Olivia as the 'Broadway Bad Girl.’ She wasn't cinema's young adult sweetheart anymore. Her hair was no longer dyed, but the side of her head was shaved for her current roll as a villain.
Her fan base changed completely, but the new edge in her image allowed her to audition for all the roles she always wanted to play.
I guess it was true that there was no such thing as bad publicity.
We never could find out much about John Warwick aside from the affair he had with Olivia’s mother. He was always a secretive guy even when I was with him. He seemed to keep the world at arm’s length. It was something I understood far too well. Knowing that in the end he died alone, ultimately unknown by those closest to him, really hit home for me.
If it wasn’t for Olive, that could’ve been me too.
It scared me and made me incredibly grateful all at the same time. She saved me in so many ways that I might never be able to articulate.
But at least I’d have the rest of our lives to try.
“Down!” Aleesa declared, wriggling impatiently in my arms. Even at two years old, the little monster had me wrapped around her finger. Despite being an undefeated fighter, Olivia was the one to lay down the law for Aleesa.
I'd save my menacing scowls for the boys Aleesa brought home when she was older.
“Bastien, grab her!” Trisha reached out toward Aleesa and shouted. Aleesa ducked between my legs, then beelined out on stage to her mother.
Olivia
“Mommy!” The most adorable voice in the world caught me by surprise. I pivoted and saw my beautiful daughter barreling straight for me.
Aleesa tripped over her own feet and flopped onto her stomach like a sack of potatoes. She had inherited my grace, that's for sure. Aleesa was already crying when I scooped her up. She calmed down when she realized she wasn't actually hurt.
“You ok, Monster?” I asked Aleesa. She didn't answer. She just squished me as hard as she could. I never thought I could love anything as much as I loved Bastien, but I was wrong.
He still came in at a very close second.
I told the rest of the cast that it was a wrap. I'd kept them all there too long as it was and the scene was already starting to take shape, so we were looking good for our opening in a few weeks.
I looked past Aleesa to Trisha, who mouthed that she was so sorry. Bastien wore an amused smirk and casually shrugged. I shook my head at him, but was secretly glad that despite a few hard years some things never changed.
Delvin’s career and legacy were both destroyed by the spectacle of his sentencing. I couldn’t think about that without feeling a pang of regret. I didn’t regret what happened to him of course. He was a horrible person and deserved what he got. I regretted not knowing that I had another father out there, a real father, until it was too late.
Olivia Warwick.
After countless months searching through records and talking to known acquaintances of John Warwick I still never got a good sense of who he was. He seemed every bit as elusive as the media made him out to be. While searching one of his offices I came across a hair of his and had a DNA test done. The test confirmed that I was indeed his daughter.
I couldn’t imagine not knowing I had a daughter for eighteen years…
Maybe she was too afraid of what her husband might do, but I got the impression that Mom never told John that she was pregnant with his child. I had no idea how he found out, but the man was a billionaire after all. There probably wasn’t much he couldn’t find out if he wanted to.
If Mom had survived my birth and ran off with John I might’ve never met Bastien or had Aleesa. The regret of a life that could’ve been never lasted too long though, and for as hard as it was to have the Ward name growing up I was glad I had it.
All things change and in the end, Bastien was right. I looked down at the tattoo that ringed my finger. Giving up the Ward name lifted a massive weight from my shoulders. I carved my own path now.
I'd always be thankful to Bastien for that.
Traditional wedding bands couldn't ever be worn on stage, so it made sense to get something that could always be covered with makeup, but never taken off. It might be hidden, but it was always there, like the tattoo of my pendant on Bastien's chest.
I loved the idea that the symbol of our love could never be lost or stolen.
So many other things had changed in the past few years with me and my career, but surprisingly it was Bastien that changed the most.
He donated all the money he’d received from John Warwick. It was the biggest donation from a single person in history, not that Bastien accepted any of the credit despite him being the one to go through with it.
For a little while, giving up all that money made me extremely nervous, especially because technically it was my inheritance. I didn’t hold it against Bastien. He was only honoring John’s last wishes. Besides once I saw how much good that money was going to do in the charities that Warwick had picked out I knew in my heart that it would’ve been wrong to keep any of it for ourselves.
When all the bills and debt started to stack up, I was ashamed to say that my previous convictions wavered a bit. I’d just found out that I was pregnant and my film career was over. The future looked really difficult for us.
Bastien always had faith I’d bounce back and that we’d be ok.
To make ends meet he jumped right back into the fighting world, but this time as a coach for a small gym in Manhattan. He never got back into the ring as a combatant, but his experiences gave him an infamous reputation, and soon he was the go-to trainer for all the best up and coming MMA fighters.
I’d drop in occasionally for lunch to see him and his students. Bastien was a surprisingly patient teacher!
Aleesa was exhausted. By the time I made it back stage, she was almost asleep.
“You want me to take her?” Bastien asked, holding his hands out.
“Nope, she’s all mine.” I turned my back jokingly, then kissed my husband. He wrapped an arm around me and we watched Aleesa doze off.
“Who needs an Oscar, when you have an Aleesa?” Bastien whispered in my ear.
It was a corny joke, but he was right.
All the crazy events that tore us apart, then brought us back together, culminated in this one toddler. Aleesa was living, breathing proof of what unrelenting love could accomplish.
Oscars were overrated.
END
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I just lost my half of five billion dollars.
Five. Billion. F*#king dollars.
The voicemail still chimed in my skull: “Your father is dying. The inheritance is no longer yours or your brother’s. If you want that money, you’re going to have to play by some… unconventional rules.”
Rules? Screw that. I didn’t get this far by following anyone’s rules.
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That’s probably exactly what my brother was saying right now, too. He and I hate each other, we have for years. We know hate, and we know what it means to compete.
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Knock someone up.
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Billionaire Takes All is written from the perspectives of the two King Family brothers. This is their journey to screw the other one over, find love, and eventually father a child.