Clato: The Cost of a Broken Heart

Epilogue

CLOVE

15 years later...

"You can't catch me," Eli shouts as Cato chases him through the meadow behind our house. He's gotten so big this year, it's amazing to think he's already six. How fast time has flown. Eli was born a year after the wedding, and, no, that is not why we had it. He was a surprise, much as Link (Cato's best man) likes to joke otherwise.

Laney, though, I wanted her so badly. We tried for three years before I had her. The look on Cato's face as he held his first daughter is one I will never forget. I may not be the only girl in his life now, but I can live with that.

Cato scoops Eli up as he catches him, ticking his son as he laughs. "Would you stop torturing the boy already?" I scold teasingly.

"Only if you ask nicely, Mrs. Hadley," he says and kisses me, then my stomach. "Only three more months," he says, with the same trademark grin that swept me off my feet at seventeen.

"Would you two quit it already?" Says a voice from the crest of the hill, "nearly sixteen years together and you still act like a couple of teenagers, all sappy and romantic."

"Uncle Brutus!" Eli shouts and runs to give him a hug. Although Brutus's beard is grey and his hair is now gone completely, he lifts my son up like it's nothing.

"Hey kiddo, how ya been?" Brutus winks at us as Cato puts his arm around my shoulder. Laney, my little wanderer, searches quietly through the field. She doesn't step on a single flower. "You two had better start getting ready soon, the ceremony starts in an hour."

"I'm the maid of honor, they'll hold it a few minutes for me. Besides, it's Elise, what's she going to do? I'm the whole reason why she and Roni are together in the first place."

"Ahem," Cato coughs none too subtly and I shoot him a look.

"Okay, fine, you helped." He grins and flicks my nose. We really should be going. I'm about to go get Laney myself when she calls for me.

"Mommy, what's this?" Her big brown eyes are huge as I crouch beside her, despite my growing belly. In her small hand is a golden chain. It's a locket. "What's this," she asks again as I take the locket from her and let it slip to the grass. I take her hand as Cato comes to collect us, Eli on his back. Cato laces his fingers through mine as we make our way up the hill.

"But, what was it?" Laney insists.

"Nothing," I say, and it is.

A/N I hope you enjoyed this! Once again I am so thankful to everyone who has read my stories and just everything that has happened with them. You don't know how much the things you've said mean to me. And with this final page, I bid you adieu, for now.

"How long is forever?" Said Alice. The White Rabbit responded, "Sometimes, just one second."

"As long as you have hope, the battle is never lost."

"Kiss me, Hardy, kiss me quick!"