Crossroads

Epilogue | Perfect

He'd been prioritising his career and the club-which has been under the Hawthorn name for more than 80 years now-but has also found someone to share all of this with, in Annika Carmichael-his wife.

They met at Ailes when Nik was studying to be a lawyer and Tris pursuing his passion for music and theirs is a love story for the books, one that is marked by their five children.

The idea of a big family was special to both of them, a dream they fulfilled with their first daughter, Audrey, followed by Callum, they adopted both Emerie and Miles and completed their family with Kit.

Danny refused to step foot in his father's office or be involved in anything that had to do with Dominic Sinclair's company-something Dominic went disgustingly great lengths to avoid, but in the end he did what he was always meant to : create Art.

Everything from assemblage to sketches-but specialising in sculptures. He'd opened up a studio to help young and up and coming artists both create and display their work.

It was a tough journey he had to take to come to terms with what he wanted to do and in that journey-also during the last year of Ailes-he'd found Cyntia Thornton who had refused to let go ever since.

Their son Grayson is a mini Daniel but their two beautiful daughters-Faye and Astrin-are a perfect embodiment of both Danny and Cyn's features.

Danny and Cyn let us choose their middle names, which none of us take lightly. Such is the bond all of us share.

I took over Carter Co after father died, ironically, it had not been my gunshot that had gotten to him but his own actions had caused his demise, his indulgence that had led to blocked arteries resulting in a stroke.

Ailes was at the outskirts of New York City, which is where we'd moved and stayed even after graduating, Adelin had majored in psychology to become a psychologist.

I asked her to be my wife when we'd freshly graduated and to my utter joy she agreed. We had a son, Rowan who is four years old and then had Leon, Levi and Lillian.

When we'd first found out we were having triplets I'd burst out laughing, blurting "You're fucking joking" right then and there, leaving the woman doing the ultrasound gaping at me while my wife had only continued to stare at the balck and white screen in bewilderment.

With Rowan, the pregnancy had flown by, Adelin was a thing of boundless beauty and seeing her maternal side had made me fall in love with her all over again.

The triplets were a different story, understandably, she was going through a lot of stress and pain with her body hosting three little humans. Her anxiety had never been this bad and seeing her in distress had made the feelings of helplessness I'd once buried deep resurface.

They were a work of a lot of blood, tears, sweat and curses when they were being brought into the world. But everything was worth it when we'd first held them.

Never, will I be able to convey the infinite gratitude I have towards Adelin for growing our children and being a phenomenal mother but I fully plan on expressing it to her in any and every way I can, for as long as I live.

Woman, with all their resilience, deserve to be appreciated and cherished.

My mother passed away a year after Rowan was born, taking with her a piece of my heart but another thing I hold gratitude for is that she got to hold and love her eldest grandson.