Deceptions & Secrets

Chapter 36: Happily Ever After (T version)

Chapter 36: Happily Ever After (T version)

Date: Mid-October +o+ Baby Natty is 9 months old

^^ A Month Later ^^

**Tris POV**

"Mama... mama... ma-mah!" Natty babbles from her high chair, her baby puff snacks bouncing on the tray as she pounds on it with her chubby little palms. I finish swiping the mascara onto the eyelashes of my left eye and pause to turn and smile at her before repeating on my other eyelashes. I had dragged her chair near the doorway to the bathroom before I started to apply my makeup― something once so foreign to me, but which, under Christina's influence, has become routine― so that Natty could see me. Now that she is pulling up on furniture and cruising, I can hardly leave her out of my sight for a moment, and I want to look perfect tonight.

Natty smiles widely at me, showing off the six pearly white teeth at the center of her mouth: four on top, two on the bottom. When Monica's husband smuggled my daughter to Amity a month ago, she had only four teeth. When we were reunited with Natty two weeks ago, that little detail― that I missed the emergence of two new teeth, that I wasn't there when she was undoubtedly up crying with the pain of teething― caused me to burst into tears, mourning the time I had lost with her even while I was overjoyed to have her back.

Really, I know how fortunate I am that I was only separated from her 2 ½ weeks; had Jack Kang not pushed so hard to move Marcus and Evelyn's legal proceedings along quickly, much more time would have passed before we deemed the situation safe. But in those few weeks, Marcus and Evelyn's separate trials were completed and their sentences carried out. Marcus was convicted on forty-two counts of conspiracy to commit murder ― one for each person who died in that bus accident ― and was promptly executed. Four and I chose not to attend the execution; we just wanted to move on with our lives, so instead, that was the day that we traveled to Amity and retrieved Natty from Monica's cousin, Tracy, who had clearly taken excellent care of her in our absence.

Evelyn was sentenced to life in prison for the steps she had taken toward overthrowing the government. That sentence ended up being much shorter than anticipated; only a few days after we brought Natty back to Dauntless, Four received word that his mother had died in the prison dining hall. Four had told me about how his mother cursed her own people on the day they were captured, and I witnessed the way she turned on them in her trial; it seems that in the process, she burned every last bridge she had and made some fierce enemies. I am sure that Four's role in the arrests of his mother and her followers didn't help anything. In the end, it was one of her own former allies that shanked Evelyn to death with a toothbrush that had been sharpened into a shiv.

When I heard the news about Evelyn's sudden death, the first thing I felt was relief. While a violent end like that is something I wouldn't wish even on that vile woman, Natty is always my top priority, and both people who threatened her safety were now dead, and unable to ever put my daughter in danger again. But that relief only lasted a moment. There in front of me stood Evelyn's son, the man I love with all my heart. My heart sank when I realized the emotions that might be playing through Four's mind and heart; Evelyn may have put him through hell, she may have left him at the mercy of a monster, and threatened the life that he had built for himself and people he loved most... but she was still his mother, and I feared how her death would affect him.

Four quickly reassured me that he was okay. "Marcus and Evelyn... they're not my family, Tris," he told me. "I gave up the idea that they could fill that role in my life a long time ago. It doesn't matter what my birth certificate says, it matters who fills my heart. You are my family, Tris― you and Natty. As long as I have you two, I'm alright, Tris. You're all I want and all I need."