One Who Flees - A Modern Cinderella Story

Chapter 27 - Our Epilogue

Chapter 27 - Our Epilogue

"Brooke calm down." Hands were placed on each of my shoulders but I continued to bounce anxiously in my seat. "Stop bouncing." Ethan pressed down harder on my shoulders so I took a few deep breaths and managed to relax a little. "Better." He said removing his hands and taking hold of one of mine instead. "You know she'll be fine." He said.

"I know but that will not stop me getting nervous as you well know." We were waiting for the dance school's annual recital in which Jessie was performing. It was now almost 2 years since Zane had gone to prison. To my great relief he was sentenced to life without parole. Only once he was sentenced had my nightmares eased off. I still got one occasionally but not very often anymore which was great for everyone.

"It's not like it's her first show. She danced in it last year too." Ethan reminded me and I smiled at the memory.

"I know but at least last year I was dancing with her too." I had introduced Jessie to dance when I was finally cleared to start again myself and she had taken to it like a duck to water. Dance was all she talked about now and Karen always joked that between the two of us she knew more about dance than she ever thought possible. As it turned out Karen not only adopted me but she decided to adopt Jessie too. She told me that it was time I had stopped being her mom and started being her sister. She also pointed out that Ethan's apartment was only one bedroom while she had a spare bedroom since I wasn't living there anymore. Jessie was more than happy with the arrangement and had melted all of our hearts when she decided after 6 months or so to start calling Karen 'mom'. I couldn't have been happier for her because she had never known what a proper mom was like.

Everyone was here to see the show as they had been the year before. Maia was there but looked very tired which wasn't surprising considering she had a 2 month old baby at home. Logan, not being a dance fan, had said he would happily be a stay at home dad for the night and give her a chance to get out. She was a great mom and as you could have guessed her and Logan's baby was seriously adorable and Carla was absolutely loving being a grandma.

Kara was there but Dylan wasn't. She'd tried to persuade him to come but he said fiancé or not she could not change his mind. They had been engaged almost a year now but there was no wedding coming up for them any time soon. Kara said she was still tired from Maia and Logan's wedding which I kind of understood. Maia in the weeks before her wedding, had run us all ragged with ridiculous requests and stress about tiny little things. By the time the big day came around me, Kara and even Madison, were totally exhausted.

The only one of the brothers who was here was, unsurprisingly, Max. His boyfriend was one of the school's top choreographers and dancers. There was nothing that could have kept him away.

John and Mel were sat a little way behind us with Jill next to them. She looked as nervous as I did because Connie too was performing the in the showcase. She had really dedicated herself to dancing in the last 2 years and much to the annoyance of her big brothers she was really into hip-hop/commercial style dancing. Tyler, who I had come to get along with pretty well, had wanted to come tonight but had sent a message earlier saying he was stuck in a meeting. Mr Franklin was nowhere to be seen which no-one was shocked at. He still didn't really get along with us.

I looked down at my watch and saw that the show was about to start. "Karen's still not here." I said looking nervously at Ethan.

"Please don't stress." He said gently. "She's picking up Madison on the way so it's little wonder that she's running a little late." For a second a wave of nausea came over me and I saw a look of panic come over Ethan's face. It soon passed.

"I'm fine." I said, sipping at the water bottle I had grabbed from my bag. "It's nowhere near as bad as it was a few weeks ago." I squeezed his hand and he relaxed a little.