Biting Temptation

Epilogue.

Like Real People Do (Live Version) - Hozier

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Everything around me felt amazing. Smelt amazing. Looked amazing. I couldn't begin to describe the euphoric feeling passing through my very veins. It was always the same whenever I came here.

Paradise. Well, to be more specific Jamaica.

On this rock, the smooth, cool waves hit the tips of my tanned toes. The waters were calm this evening. Although ahead, where Cuba was situated there were thick orange clouds settling above the sea; the sharp flashes of lightening touching the surface of the waves. A storm was heading their way.

I inhaled the warm salty air and allowed the breeze to blow the edges of my loose dress around my ankles. All those years ago Katherine's vision didn't make one lick of sense until I finally stood on this very rock when Michael took me here for our honeymoon. I could remember it with exact clarity.

"What's wrong? Is it too hot? Are you-"

"No," I murmured turning to him with wide eyes. "This was what Katherine saw!"

Mike's eyebrow rose and I could practically feel him thinking, 'she's lost her mind already.' "Um,"

"Weren't you there?" I exclaimed. "When Kate was saying she saw me standing on a rock or a boulder? No? You weren't were you?"

"Maybe you should lie-"

I smacked his stomach when he climbed up beside me and he flinched. "Don't patronise me mister. She said she saw me on a rock or a boulder surrounded by nothing. This is it. The sea is the nothing. This is what she saw." I murmured more to myself. Katherine had saw our happily-ever-after after all.

I smiled at the memory of that day. The feeling that after everything we'd gone through, Kate did see our happy ending.

"...mom."

It was odd to think of those fateful months now. We'd all moved on, we'd all grown up.

"...mommy."

Nobody really talked about it anymore, nobody dared to mention her name. She was nothing more than a fantasy. I wouldn't even call her a memory. Because fantasy's don't exist. And to all of us Florence never existed.

"Mom seriously?"

I blinked out of my thoughts and turned. Standing with her hands on her hips the girl flared her nostrils - just as Michael does - and widened her green eyes.

I tried to hide my smile as she started to chew on her lip. Now I understood why my mother hated that habit. Call me a hypocrite, I don't care, but I didn't want her to grow up with the same damn habit I started at her age.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Jonas won't let me and Mia play with his Nintendo because it's a 'boys' game and that we're not allowed to play it 'cos we're girls."

From the distance I saw Jonas racing out of his villa with Amelia hot on his heels in our direction.

I turned to my darling Anna with a smirk. "Is that so?"

She threw her hands up in the air effectively knocking her red hair off her shoulders. "Mom."

That's right. I won the bet when Anna Marie Reeves was born six years ago. The deal was that I chose the name. But I couldn't. I wanted Michael to be part of her name choosing. I had a name all along and it was for her to have an abbreviation of Anastasia's name. Michael couldn't have been more thrilled.