After the End: Book 4

Epilogue

There are two epilogues! Don't skip the one after this!!
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June 2024

Harry's POV

The flat was empty. I'd watched all of my things get carried out, with the exception of most everything in the music room and that stupid desk in my bedroom. The master bedroom had been empty for a long time since Naomi had moved out nearly two years prior. She lived in NewYork full time now. It was where she was working on grad school.

I hadn't really lived in the flat much that year either. Louis' wedding had been the previous year and since then, I'd found myself staying at Cory's more often than not. It was a natural thing. It happened quietly.

Even though I hadn't necessarily been living in my flat, looking at it empty made my stomach twist a little bit. I kept waiting for my cat to come around the corner, but she didn't because she'd been enjoying some supervised access to the open fields infront of Cory's house. My cat hadn't even really lived in the flat for a year. I just sort of stopped bringing her home from visits to Cory's. When I did bring her home it had been like a vacation. It felt finalizing. It wasn't going to be my home anymore. The home I shared with Lux was officially not my home.

Not that it was being abandoned or anything.

We were just leaving for New York for the summer, as had become the traditional thing. We'd spent 4 summers in a row there and this would be the 5th. When we returned, the crews were supposed to be finished with moving the new furniture in. They would add some cubicles, but I'd requested that things stay pretty mellow looking down there. I was hoping I could probably bring the bean bags back out to the living room area even if it did become officey. They'd already finished the remodel upstairs at Louis old flat, so I at least knew what to expect. He'd officially moved out sooner than I had. He'd done it almost immediately after the wedding. He was eager to get the building converted and I was the one dragging my feet.

Becca and Louis had purchased the entire building and they were converting all the flats into office floors for the label. It had been two years since the official launch and things had been moving faster than anyone could have predicted, but the need for a more permanent London office was obvious and our building had seemed like the perfect choice.

The top floor had been converted into the executive office, which housed Louis and Becca's joint space. They were the heads of the entire organization, and Louis liked being able to flaunt that. He wasn't going to give up the top floor for anything anyways.

My floor was staying mine as well. It had only taken about 3 successful fundraisers in that first year for me to get Becca convinced on the foundation thing. She had been tempted from the start. She spent the first summer we were all in New York working on the plan for it and by the end of summer it was almost ready to launch. There were legal hurdles, but eventually the H.S. Light Foundation was brought to life. It was mine, but it was legally connected to the label in ways I didn't care to understand. That meant Becca could help me run it and that was fine by me.

My name was on something unquestionably good and it's new home office was officially moving into my flat while we spent the summer in New York again.

Inhale. Exhale.

That's huge.

I was reflecting on all of that while standing in my empty flat that afternoon. Lux's mural stared back at me looking bright as ever. The paint did have some blemishes from the years, but they didn't bother me. There was a chip against one of the lower flowers from Oliver ramming a toy truck into the wall that always made me smile. There was a rather large strip higher up from a shelf that had been pushed too close to the wall as well. I smiled less at that one. Overall, if I ignored the blemishes it still looked fresh.  I was thankful I'd still have it to look at when the office was fully moved in. I wasn't ready to part with it yet. We'd been very clear to the remodel team that the mural remain untouched while we were gone.