INSATIABLE (Complete)

Epilogue

It's been a rather interesting and educational time. Often she felt like walking around  with a recorder and document what her life has become.

Even after all these years, it all still felt pretty surreal... Even unreal.

Although this was happening less now, she would still get startled when she'd feel her lion move under her skin, or when it would start talking to her.

She was still mesmerized at the fact that at night she was capable of  feeling, smelling, hearing all the small little lives tinkering  yards away within and beyond those trees if she was focused enough at night when everything else stood still.

The possibility of it all being a dream, a world of imagination that a comatose brain have conjured to cope, never truly left her mind completely.

But only because she was happy.

Like... Truly happy.

It was hard sometimes to accept that simple truth when you've lived in the dark for so long and have accepted it as the norm.

So it didn't surprise her when this darkness still found a way to creep up sometimes just to remind her of her past and what she had endured to become who she was today.

The nightmares were almost non-existent. Sleeping and waking up in the arms of her husband helped with that. Still doting and loving as ever, no matter how busy he might get, he always made sure to be home for dinner and be by her side at the end of the night.

On the rare occasions where he had to travel and she couldn't go with him, she'd never admit it, but yea... She would still wake up with beads of sweats coating her skin.

It was always a variation of the same nightmare. She wouldn't tell him, but it couldn't be a coincidence that every time this would happen, her phone would ring almost immediately, and he would stay on the line with her until he lulled her back to sleep.. And more often then he should, she'd wake up the next morning and he would still be on the other line.

Never once has she ever imagined herself capable of loving another with that much intensity. And when she thought her cup was already overflowing and she couldn't possibly love him more, he'd do or say something to prove her wrong.

Like when a year after she'd settled within the pride, and he threw her a surprise birthday party. It was the very first she's ever had and she was floating on cloud nine, but that wasn't even his real surprise.

In the middle of the night, right when the party was in full swing, he took her aside and silently lead her to their favorite hiding/make out spot. A beautiful waterfall in a little hidden clearing within the forest.

She was more than ready to thank him properly for the party, but they weren't alone.

There sat a man near the river bed. A place that would make anyone instantly relax, but his anxiety was rolling off of him in waves, almost like the world was weighing on his shoulders. It was suffocating.

When he heard them approach, he swiftly turned around, got up and almost fell into the water if not for her quick response in grabbing his forearm.

As he regained his footings, she quickly let go and returned back next to Henri and grabbing his hand, needing his touch all of a sudden.

"Baby, I'd like you to meet someone. This gentleman here is Anthony Toussaint... Your father."

He had a literal kingdom and countless businesses to run, but he still found the time to find her dad and surprise her.

She felt her eyes water, as she remembered Anthony falling to his knees in tears as he profusely apologized for not being in her life.

It was quite a sight to behold. The man was not small. She clearly took her heights from him. Short hair with a little bit of gray on the sides, dark chocolate eyes, dark skin, with his nose a bit wider, she could see the resemblance between them.