Epilogue
10 Years Later
"Mom, please I've topped my class this semester too, can I go camping with uncle Harry, aunt Steffi, Sarah and Steve?" Asked a flustered ten-year-old Daniel. Steve was Harry and Steffi's five-year-old son while Sarah was their nine-year-old daughter upon whom Daniel had a crush.
"Let him go, Angel," said Damian as he sat making finger puppets with a three-year-old Danica. She squealed with delight seeing the monkey finger puppet that her dad was making.
"Alright, Daniel. You can go but you have to stay with everyone all the time. No wandering about here and there on your own," Angela told him strictly.
"As if I do that," he said, rolling his eyes.
"What time do you leave?" She asked him.
"They'll pick me up at lunchtime on their way," he informed.
It was a lazy Saturday but not so lazy for Angela with four kids to handle, a house to run and a cafe to manage.
Xavion walked in with his three kids, Xandros who was seven, Alexander who was five and a three-year-old Xandria. "Hey Angela, Juliette sent her love," he said with a grin. He and Juliette had cleared their misunderstandings and got married.
"Why didn't she come over?" Asked Angela. Juliette was working as the Head of Operations at Xavion's company.
"She has an important project to deliver today, " informed Xavion.
"Oh, Carla's cooking lunch. Stay over, I'll inform her. I've got to rush to the cafe. I'll return by lunchtime," said Angela.
"Uncle Xavion, could you help me with my packing, please? I'm going camping with uncle Harry, " said Daniel.
"Sure," said Xavion going to his room with him.
Angela went to the kitchen to inform Carla and her helper Susan that Xavion and the kids had come over for lunch.
"I can't believe that you broke my crayons. It's so mean, Dean. Mean Dean! Wow, it suits you," said a six-year-old Diana to her twin brother.
"Mom, Dean's broken all my crayons," wailed Diana.
"I'll get you a box on my way back. Okay? Mom's gotta go now baby," said Angela, finally picking up her handbag.
"It's okay aunt Angela. Diana can have all my crayons, " said Xandros, coming closer to Diana and holding her hand and leading her away with him. Angela watched them and somehow they reminded her of herself and Damian when they were young.
Dean and Alexander came over to her, "Mom, we're hungry," he said.
"Carla can you give them something to munch, please. I'm getting late," said Angela.
"Go to Carla, She'll give you guys something to eat," she said with a smile.
Angela went to the living room and kissed Damian's cheek, "I'll come back by lunchtime," she said and he nodded.
"Mommy, I want brownies," said Danica and Xandria also clapped her hands,"Me too, me too aunt Angela, " she said.
"Sure, I'll get them on my way back," she promised.
"Did you need anything?" She asked Damian and he groaned.
"Don't you know what I need?" he asked eyeing the children who were all busy with one another. Dean and Alexander were busy eating their cheese sandwiches. Diana and Xandros sat at a corner as Diana showed him her broken crayons. The two little ones were busy with their finger puppets.
"At night. Make these little ones very exhausted," she winked and Damian grinned.
"Deal. Children let's go and play football. C'mon," he got up and clapped his hands. Angela grinned and left for her cafe.
It had been five years since she had started this cafe two blocks away. She got the place pretty cheap since the owner was broke and couldn't run the business anymore. She renovated the cafe and gave it a whole new warm yet upscale look and 'Cafe Delight' came into existence. Her mouthwatering recipes soon popularised the cafe and now she was struggling with the massive amount of workload.
She walked into the cafe and saw it running smoothly as always. Going into the kitchen she hugged aunt Sandra as she tasted the fresh batch of chocolate mousse cake for the dessert of the day.
"Thank you so much aunt Sandra. I'm late as always," she apologised.
"It's perfectly fine dear. I and your uncle Elliott love coming here and looking after our business, " she said with a smile. Uncle Elliott was a nice and sweet gentleman of aunt Sandra's age whom she had met and married eight years back. After Angela and Damian's wedding, aunt Sandra joined her dad's laughter club. There she met Elliott McLaren, who had divorced his wife, a month after their wedding when she ran away with all his money. He never trusted anyone else enough to remarry. Aunt Sandra and uncle Elliott immediately started liking each other and decided to get married after two years. Aunt Sandra moved into his house.
Later after graduating with food technology when Angela wanted to buy a restaurant of her own, uncle Elliott suggested that she buy a cafe in their neighbourhood which was selling at a cheap price. They too contributed to the venture and thus the cafe came about on a fifty per cent partnership basis. Angela was glad of the help as aunt Sandra and uncle Elliott lived nearby and were very dependable.
She returned home at lunchtime as promised with brownies and a set of crayons for all and a football for Daniel. His last one fell into the pond in the neighbourhood park and he'd been sulking ever since.
Damian had just returned last night from his visits to his farms. He has been doing very well with vast expanses of organic farms specialising in every fruit and vegetable. Currently, he owned around 20 farms all over Texas and it's neighbouring states, all of them doing extremely well.
They still lived in the same house beside her dad's, Damian's grandfather's house. Her dad lived with Adam and his wife, Martina and their two daughters, Annemarie and Adriana, both six years of age. Alex bought the house diagonally opposite to theirs and lived with his wife, Kimberly and three children, eight-year-old Kieron and Katherine, who were twins and a two-year-old Knox. Arnold and Clara came to visit them frequently as they lived in their old house, a five minutes walk away. Their kids Camilla who was nine and Connor who was four came every weekend to play with the kids.
Angela came back home and handed Daniel his football. His eyes shone with happiness. "Thank you, mom," he said kissing her cheek.
Harry came over to pick up Daniel. He waved at Angela, Damian and Xavion. "Catch up next week, " he shouted out to them as he drove away with an excited Daniel. Angela went inside with Xavion and Damian. She handed the brownies to the little ones whom Susan fed.
"Thank you," they chorused.
She handed a box of crayons to all the children and they excitedly checked their boxes out like treasures. Lunch was served and they all ate up hungrily.
After lunch Xavion left with the kids. Diana went with them for a sleepover while Alexander stayed back to explore some game with Dean. Angela sat down and massaged her temples when her dad came over. "Angie, all the kids have come over for a play date. I'm taking away the kids with me, " he said and all the children excitedly rushed out with him to play. Carla and Susan had wrapped up all their work and rushed after them. They were quite a handful and Martina needed the help since her housekeeper would be busy with work.
They all left and the house was suddenly quiet. Damian locked the main door and turned around, "Time for parents to play too," he said, picking her up on his shoulder and going upstairs to their bedroom.
"So, what promise did you make before leaving huh?" He asked, stripping off his clothes.
Angela grinned,"I stick to my promise. You're the one who's never at home," she said cheekily.
"Ok, I become a stay at home dad from tomorrow," he said, pulling her clothes off.
"I didn't say that," she started.
"We can argue on that afterwards. Right now let me ravish you," he said, laying her on the bed and kissing her hungrily. God, he had missed her so much in the last week that he was away from her.
They hungrily made love, not getting enough of each other. They had known each other for twenty-nine years yet their love for each other grew stronger day by day.
Although their journey of love wasn't an easy one yet their strong feelings for one another, their determination to be with each other made them gravitate towards one another. In the last ten years, they saw many ups and downs but they knew they could sail through and make each other's dreams come true. They could conquer all odds with their four children upon whom they'd passed the same loving genes that they possessed. But whether Daniel would find true love with Sarah, or whether Diana would find her happily ever after with Xandros are questions which only time can answer.