Path To Redemption (Fighter's Den, #1)

Epilogue - Emily

5 months later...

"Emily Resnick?"

I look up when the nurse calls my name and return her smile. Jaxon growls from where he's seated next to me and I stifle my laugh, knowing what he's pissed about.

"She should've said Emily Cage." He grumbles.

"Baby." I laugh and pat his knee. "We sort of have to be legally married for the name change thing."

He sniffs. "Well, that's fucking stupid. In my eyes you're already my wife and besides, I put a ring on it, didn't I?"

That he did. I smile and look down at my left hand where it's resting on his knee. The stunning design, a seizable diamond levered slightly up and clearly the star of the show, surrounded by tiny pieces of sapphire along the circumference of the ring, is truly a thing to gawk at. The women in the room haven't been able to keep their eyes off of it. Or my ridiculously sexy fiancée. It still makes my heart skip knowing that we're going to be married. He's always felt like my soulmate but to make it a legal notion for the entire world to see is another thing entirely.

It wasn't long after the "incident" as I've taken to call it, that Jaxon proposed to me.

After being discharged from the hospital he'd demanded that I move in with him where he could watch over me. The request caused quite a battle between him and my father, one Jaxon hadn't won right away. That was another thing I was still getting used to. Being so open of our relationship in front of dad was all kinds of weird but I'm pretty sure Jaxon got a kick out of it. He'd purposely kiss the shit out of me anytime we were in front of dad, who'd growl his disdain and tell Jaxon to drop and give him fifty. And he'd do it. Every damn time. Silly man.

Dad had argued that Jaxon's neighbourhood wasn't safe enough for me every time the argument made a reappearance. Jaxon's biggest "fuck you" had been buying a house where the size of my old apartment easily equalled one bathroom in our new place. Being seven million dollars richer had its perks. The house was lush and picture perfect, the neighbourhood an even better area than my dad could've fathomed. Not that he'd admit it. Jaxon had also requested that Del and Greta move in with us after attaining my approval. It was a no-brainer because those two had really taken care of him and Lizzie and that was a debt I knew Jaxon needed to repay. The rest of the money was divided between Lizzie's college funds and being safely tucked away until we needed it.

Moving in with him had helped in ways I don't think either one of us could have imagined. The nightmares were frequent and a daily thing at first for both of us. One would wake up before the other or sometimes we'd both jerk awake in the dark and silently grab for each other. We needed the comfort. I always saw Lucas getting shot in my nightmares, over and over again, and each time I'd fail him instead of saving him. Jaxon always saw Tim shooting himself or yelling obscene things like it was his fault that he took me away from him. We started seeing a therapist together because despite the comfort we seemed to be gaining from each other, it wasn't enough to stop the nightmares. We still had the occasional hiccups but we'd made progress. The nightmares barely came around anymore.

Life with him and Lizzie had been going amazing. Having those two as my family was what really healed me in the end. Waking up next to Jaxon, whether his arms held me tight or his head travelled between my legs, was a thing of fairytales every damn morning. Then we'd call for Lizzie who would happily skip to our room and snuggle between the both of us. My heart was full, a check-up one month later had confirmed my full recovery, and Jaxon's birthday arrived on time for me to give him his surprise.

"Baby!" He called from the main foyer when I heard the door close behind him.

"In the kitchen!" I called back, turning the stove off.