My Crown

Epilogue

Do you know what's annoying? Thirty-eight weeks of feeling awful in your own body followed by thirty-three long hours of the worst pain imaginable only for not one, but both of your babies to be mirror images of their father.

I know it's early and they will change as they grow, but they both got his dark brown, almost black hair and silver eyes.
They even look completely caucasian!

Do not get me wrong, they are perfect. But would it have killed one of them to look something like me?

I knew Hades would be my ruin five years ago when we met and he finally did it. I honestly thought I was going to die.

Labour is no joke.

But I am deliriously happy now. I think it's the hormones.

My beautiful, perfect creations were born two days ago and Hades has not let anyone but Mira, Adam's daughter who is a pediatric surgeon, in the house and she only comes ocassionally to check on the babies.

Mira and I met four years ago and instantly clicked. She is tough as nails, crazy as the other Leos and the most caring person I have ever met.
I may have been slightly biased since she shares the same name as my mama, but she has proven to be an amazing friend. It helps that as a half-Indian woman, she is also a woman of colour. The group was starting to feel very white when Yaya and Nic moved mainland. They wanted to put Zwena in school so she could have a somewhat normal childhood.

So did Girl.
She wound up falling in love with and adopting a little boy not long after Yaya announced her pregnancy. She bought a house right next to theirs and is killing it at motherhood.

Speaking of mothers, Seph and Emery have a boy of their own and she is already pregnant with their next. She made pregnancy look so beautiful and effortless that I fell for it.

When Melly died, I decided that life is too short. Her death was sudden, a brain aneurysm and it was hard on Pam and I. But we knew that she had lived the life she wanted to live, and had no regrets.
So we took a page from her book; I decided I wanted to try for a baby and Pam is now a bestselling author.

Today is Hades' birthday and the first time anyone else is coming to see the twins. Of course it is Andy and Mr. and Mrs. Leos.

I would have invited Savat and Ita, but Savat and Demi are caught in a storm in Bali and Ita is still working.
Andrea did her part, no mafia families are involved in human trafficking anymore. But now small time thugs in America and Russia are capitalising on it. And Ita, being Ita, could not help but involve herself.

I do not terribly mind. I have come to look at all the Leos as family. Especially Andy.
It warms my heart to watch them cooing over my sleeping angels. Andy and Mama Leos are each carrying one with Mr. Leos looking from over his wife's shoulder.

"They are so beautiful." She smiles teary-eyed.

"They are perfect." Andy smiles down at the baby in her arms.

She was the most excited for the babies. Somehow, she knew when we decided to start trying a year ago and bought me a hundred pregnancy tests.
When we found out we were having twins, she went crazy and bought two of everything imaginable, including controlling shares in two small companies which I came to find is a Leos family tradition.

Rich people things.
I will never get used to their lavish lifestyle.

"I still cannot believe you have twins." Andy smiles up at us.

"It's not surprising. We are both twins." I would be more surprised if we didn't have twins.

They are all staring at me. Did I not tell them this?

"You have a twin?" Mr. Leos asks disbelievingly.

"Had." I correct him. "Venus." I thought I told Hades about her but he looks as surprised as the others.

"What happened to her?" Mama Leos asks.

"She saved my life."
All eyes are on me again prompting me to tell the story.

"My mom took a really bad beating to her stomach towards the end of her pregnancy. Venus took most of the hits and died in-utero.  She was born stillborn first and I was the surprise. They didn't even know mama was having twins." It was incredibly lucky she was already eight months along at the time and I was not too premature.

"Has everyone in your life died?" We all laugh at Andy's question.

I can laugh about it now.

"These two won't." I say looking at my babies. I would burn all of Europe down before I ever let anything happen to them.

"What are their names?" Mrs. Leos asks still rocking the one she is holding.

I am sitting in bed and do not know which one it is.

"Ares and Athena Leos." Hades tells them tightening his hold around my shoulders. I lean back into him absolutely content with my life.

In fact, content is not enough. Happy? Overjoyed? Ecstatic? Jubilant?
I cannot think of any words to adequately describe what I am feeling.

Mama Leos looks even happier at their names and tears up further. We named them after greek gods like Hades, and their names both start with 'A' like Andy.

"Wouldn't Apollo and Artemis make more sense?" Andy asks.

"I told you." I smirk smugly at Hades. He thought his mother would point it out first but I knew it would be Andy.

"Not for our little warriors." Mrs. Leos defends.

"Ares and Hades rhyme. Plus, they are both gods that are often shown in a negative light. And Athena is the greek counterpart of Minerva." I explain.

They are all looking at me again. This time I look directly at Hades. Silver eyes meet mine and I just know.

"That's my name, Minerva Martinez." I finally tell him.

The look in his eyes is priceless, and one I will never forget.
He knows what it means that I am telling him my name.

"The Roman goddess of intelligence, war and the working class. The name suits you perfectly." Mama Leos comments.

"Of course, she is an ancient goddess whose worship goes all the way back to the Etruscans."

I am interrupted from her rant when I feel Hades pull at my hand.

Looking down, I am absolutely blown away by the stunning flawless seven-carat halo pear diamond ring with a yellow-diamond cluster platinum band sliding up my ring finger. It is absolutely gorgeous.

I look back up at Hades who is staring at me.

"You finally figured it out."

I did, "You were never going to let me go, were you?"

He steals my breath with an electrifying kiss,
"You are My Crown."

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😢😢 This is it guys.

I am going to miss these characters.

Writing this story has been amazing and I am going to miss all of my amazing readers. This story would not exist without you.

There will be no sequel.

Love you all 😘😘😘