Epilogue

Approximately one year later...

Sophia

The sun warms my back as I lazily watch the crystal clear water rise and loll, licking the shore in sweeping arches. This place looks exactly like one of those pictures you see in magazines of tropical paradises you never thought actually existed in the real world, but here it is, white sand so fine it almost disappears into the air like chalk dust when you run your hands through it, water so clear you can wade out to your chest and still see the fishes swimming around your toes, and a shoreline dotted with fallen coconuts from the countless palm trees that surround us.

I steal a look at Ryan flat out on the beach towel next to me, eyes shut but definitely not sleeping, and can’t help but think I’m the luckiest girl in the world. This place really is paradise, but it wouldn’t be anything at all without him in it. He has given me absolutely everything over the duration of our relationship, and my love for him has just grown and grown.

“Are you alright, honey?” Ryan asks, somehow able to tell I’m thinking about him. He reaches out his hand and I take hold of it.

“Perfect”, I say.

“Then enjoy it while it lasts, Maddie’s going to be up soon.”

I flatten myself against him and run my fingers through his hair. “Is that why you’re pretending to be asleep?”

“No”, Ryan says, shaking his head, and it makes us both laugh.

Not even six months old and already as cute as a button. Madeline after my grandmother, Evie after Ryan’s and Moreaux Speed for the both of us. After that day, that ultrasound photo, the unremitting support from Ryan, and the idea that had already lodged itself in both of our heads, we simply couldn’t get rid of it.

In fact, the only person that didn’t want me to have the baby, was Jack, who told me to get rid of it as soon as possible and even offered to pay me back the five hundred dollars he stole from me to have it done. When I refused flat-out, he distanced himself from all of us and I haven’t seen him since. When Maddie’s old enough to understand, I’ll let her decide whether she wants to have any contact with him.

My parents were shocked when I told them, but telling them Ryan and I were married lessened the blow slightly. At least it did, until I told them the baby wasn’t his, and Mom practically fainted. By comparison, Ryan’s parents have been incredibly supportive. I think they are over the moon that Ryan has finally matured enough to get married, look after someone else’s child as though she were his own, and, most importantly, move his boxes out of the garage.

Apart from Ryan, Maddie is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and not a single second goes by that I regret having her. Yeah she’s difficult at times, and being pregnant sucked for the most part and the labor was intense and she takes a lot of looking after, and it hasn’t been easy getting back into work, but just one of her incredible smiles makes up for all of that.

Ryan is not only absolutely brilliant with her too, he was patient with me throughout the whole process, even when I was horrible to be around. He’s thoughtful, caring, always willing to help, around whenever I need him and one hundred percent head over heels in love with us both.

After we decided to keep Maddie, and a few months into our marriage, my visa was granted for the ability for me to stay indefinitely in the country, and a little while after that, when we’d been assessed three times by the legal team put in place to distribute Ryan’s great aunt’s will, we were finally granted the full amount of his inheritance money.

Suddenly, in less than three months, I was on the way to becoming a US citizen, I was married, I was expecting a baby and I was one half of a millionaire, and I still can’t believe it now.

Our story made the paper - both the story of our relationship blossoming from Marshall’s play, and the story of Ryan’s unusual inheritance claim - Ryan and I moved into a two bedroom apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, we bought a car, we bought Alex some motorbike lessons and Alice a holiday to Europe to thank them for their support, and we settled into married life.

The last year has flown by. I can’t believe that Maddie is already getting her teeth, and soon enough she’ll be off the milk and onto solid food. Ryan and I have already celebrated our one year anniversary, and because we couldn’t do it at the time, we’ve finally come away on our honeymoon now, to spend a glorious couple of weeks bouncing around tropical islands along the Caribbean coast with a couple of nights planned in Costa Rica before we fly back to the states.

I’m happier than I have ever been right now, and happier than I ever thought possible.

Ryan twists onto his side and pulls me against him to rain kisses against my lips.

“How about we?—” he whispers. “You know.” He nods his head in the direction of the hotel. “Before Maddie wakes up.”

I slide my hand down his belly and slip it under his shorts. “Ryan!” I exclaim when I realize just how hard he already is. “How long have you—?”

Ryan shrugs. “The sun makes me horny”, he says.

I give his cock a squeeze and then put my hands back around his neck. “When it goes down, come and meet me inside”, I say, before I kiss him and spring to my feet.

“You look sexy with the sun behind your back”, Ryan says, looking up at me.

“I look even sexier with you behind my back”, I say, grinning mischievously. “Don’t take too long.”

“Wait”, Ryan calls, pulling himself to his feet. My eyes go down to the huge bulging erection barely concealed by his shorts and back up to his eyes. Ryan attempts to readjust himself but it doesn’t work. Thank God there’s nobody else on the beach today.

“Come on”, I say reaching out to take his hand. “Let’s go and see if we can make Maddie a little brother.”

Ryan smiles and falls in alongside me. “Deal”, he says, and with his arm around my waist, my pussy wet just thinking about what he’s going to do to me, and his rock hard cock throbbing against the fabric of his shorts, we make our way to the hotel room, with hearts and minds firmly fixed on our future together.

Ryan constantly says that we’re the luckiest people in the world, not because of his inheritance but because we found each other, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

THE END