Sweet Little Lies

Epilogue

Nineteen Years Later

"Piper! Dad wants us downstairs!"

Piper rolled her eyes, glancing at her shut door. Percy had banged on her door like they were being sieged. He was smart enough not to throw it open, though. He learned that at a very young age.

She shut her laptop and reluctantly followed the path of her brother down the stairs. Then she heard a crash.

"Sorry!"

When she turned the corner, she saw the mess Percy had made. Apparently, he had been running so fast he clipped a corner and made one of their parents expensive vases fall to the ground and break all over the place.

"Woah there." Piper stopped her youngest sister from stepping on a shard. "Aelin, you've got to be more careful."

"What happened here?"

She looked over her shoulder and saw Olive coming up from the basement, paint splattered all over her clothes.

"Percy broke another vase." Piper answered dryly. "You'd think mom would just get rid of them all or lock them up until Percy moved out. At this rate, we won't have anything left of this place."

"Yeah, but it was kind of ugly." Olive stretched her limbs.

Piper snorted. "Fair point."

At this, their father came out of his office.

Harry Styles looked good for his age, pushing fifty with some grey peppering his hair. He stayed fit, though, and Piper knew that her dad used to fight too. Apparently, he had been pretty good, but stopped after some psycho tried to kill him during a fight. Piper always thought that guy must have had a death wish. Nobody messed with her parents and got away with it.

All her dad had to do was give Percy a look before his son was rushing for the broom to clean up his mess. He leaned against the wall, crossing his ankles, and counted his kids. "I'm missing one."

"Here!"

Asher was the last to join them. The six year old ran up, stopping next to his twin sister, Aelin. He still had on his school uniform, but his tie had been lost and Piper saw the back of his shirt was completely untucked and hanging out. She stifled her laugh. The twins always looked a mess. They were going to be as rowdy as Percy growing up.

They had been the "accidents" of the family. Piper was eleven when they were born and she remembered how tough the pregnancy had been on their mom. She had been on bedrest for a majority of it, being driven mad by their dad fussing over her the entire time. She had once overheard her father telling Uncle Griffin how mom had almost died during birth.

Piper hadn't been able to sleep that night, thinking about how much she would miss her mom if that had happened. That was probably why she was such a rule follower. She had wanted to make her parents life as easy as possible, so she studied hard, got good grades, and when she finally learned about the family business and what an "heir" was, she embraced it.

Now, at seventeen, she was top of her class, captain of her lacrosse team, and slowly learning the ins and outs of the family business with her dad - Although, he did keep her away from some of the nastier stuff. Piper was determined to make her parents proud and carry on their legacy.

Her siblings were much more rebellious, though. Percy, freshly twelve, got in trouble all the time. He was constantly spying on their dad, following him around, wanting to be just like him, but all that energy was not containable in the little body of his. Piper was sure he would hit puberty soon and shoot up in height like all the men in their family. Maybe then, he'll mellow out a bit, but she doubted it.