{18+ COMPLETE} For the past three years, Bren Hadaway has been preparing to die.
When he was sixteen, he watched his dad murder his mom. And ever since, he's been counting down the days until it was his turn to be at the end of a gun. And Bren has...
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Strawberry.
Not strawberry blonde.
Just strawberry.
Our daughter had strawberry hair and dark blue eyes, and she'd barged into the world and seized my heart.
A piece of me and a piece of Madie in one small human.
Oh god, I loved her. I loved them both.
Madie had Emery by the waist, stopping her escape attempt into the ocean. She walked her across the beach before sitting down in the sand on a daisy-patterned blanket. Giggles could be heard over the roar of the ocean's waves. They were loud today, the wind fierce. The sun, bright.
When Madie told me she was pregnant on graduation day, I hadn't expected it. It hadn't fit into our plans with me heading to graduate school and her starting her career. But I'd also been oddly ready.
For so long, I wanted nothing more than to feel normal. To have a family in the traditional sense. And it wasn't like I would have needed that to be happy, not as long as I had Madie. But this—them—it felt so right.
Madie was a vibrant mother. I'd known she would be.
We decided to wait to get married until after Emmy was born; we simply weren't in any kind of hurry. I only asked Madie to marry me when we were still young because calling her my girlfriend hadn't seemed enough anymore. It sounded inadequate when mentioning it to people. Because girlfriend implied the potential for temporary, and there was nothing temporary about my feelings for Madeline Lenertz.
Well, Madeline Hawkins. Now she was Madeline Hawkins. Because like hell was I going to give her the same last name as my dad, the same last name as the man who tried to kill her.
We were the Hawkins family now. Bren, Madeline, and Emery Hawkins. Named after a woman who was stronger than she realized and deserved to have her name carried on in memory. A woman who tried to save me, who wanted to continue our family without being a Hadaway. And I wanted to give my mom that. Finally.
I hadn't been able to save her. But I could save myself in her name.
Madie and I married a few days after Emmy's first birthday. It was on a beach. Of course, it was on a beach—a small ceremony with only the most important people and waves crashing in the background. Madie wore a simple gown that clung to her in all the right places, and it was everything that I never even dared to dream of.
Afterward, Emery stayed with Grandma Caroline for the week while I took Madie to Catalina Island. And the things we did on Catalina Island were definitely things that I had dreamed of. And would continue to dream of for a really fucking long time.
Today Madie wore the same bikini that she brought on our honeymoon. It was a lavender-blue color with straps that criss-crossed over her stomach, and I watched as one breast nearly popped out when she reached across the daisy-patterned blanket to grab a book.
