3 weeks later

Damian POV:

It's down to the last minute, Autumn should be out of the courthouse by now.

Over the course of three weeks, the process for the restraining order against Matthew Knight has gone by pretty fast and before we knew it, it's the day of the hearing. Autumn was pacing around every morning for a week because of this.

I know this because she calls me every morning, making up scenarios of how it will turn out, while in the background, I hear her feet stomping throughout her apartment. And with every phone call, I have reassured her that she doesn't need to think about the outcome very much, and doesn't need to stress over it.

That manages her to calm down, until the next morning. Which I'm always expecting in a silent greed.

Also during these three weeks, Evan and I somehow started talking again. I don't know it started but, secretly, I'm glad it did. Even though I hated him for what he did to our mother, just leaving without a word, inside, against my better judgment, I still love him, and I missed him.

We talked about what had happened during the years with our parents, how our dad just left like that, with no texts or phone call, or a fucking warning, all three of us were just confused, but also deeply sad.

Our mom started to become depressed and she lost her passion for the things she loves, Evan started to distance himself and became a stranger, and I just became a work-alcoholic, I wanted to give my mom the best life that she could possibly have. I wanted to take care of her.

Evan said that after dad left, he just became lost in the world, he believed that everyone is out for themselves, and that's why he distanced himself, because he thought that me and mom would eventually leave him too.

He also apologized for the way he acted with Autumn, and that he truly felt sorry for trying to sabotage my relationship. I said it would take time for me to forgive him, but I want him back in my life.

This now broken bond that we used to have is going to take time to heal, but I informed him that our mom would love to hear from him again, she truly misses him the most.

As I thought about the last three weeks, Mel suddenly jumps up, and I automatically look towards the doors. Autumn's coming out the double doors with a big smile on her face, once she sees me and Mel standing outside, she beams, like her face lights up.

Also the main reason that me and Mel are standing outside is that Autumn didn't want me to punch that motherfucker again, which is a hundred percent possible that I would do again, and Autumn feared that Mel would curse Matthew out in front of the judge, so we agree that we would wait outside for her.

Autumn first hugs her lawyer, squeezing her tightly. She then turns to us, and then runs towards us, she extended her arms and hugged us both, making our faces pressed up against her cheeks.

Releasing us, Mel and Autumn hold hands as they jump up and down together with bright smiles on their faces, laughing together.

Autumn then turns to me and I pull the flowers I had behind my back, Carnations, her favorite types of flowers, (with the help of Mel), Autumn gasps as she takes them from my hands and inspects them, touching every single flower and smelling them.

Still holding the flowers, she embraced me tightly, and I had only a moment to react before I did the same thing, resting my chin on her head as she rest her head on my chest, I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling

"Mel, stop" Autumn suddenly says after a few minutes of hugging.

I opened my eyes to Mel holding her phone out, aiming it towards us, while smirking behind her phone.

"What? This is a cute moment between you guys, you'll thank me later" Mel says, waving Autumn off.

And with that, Mel goes back to taking pictures of us while Autumn tries to cover her face.

Finding amusement in this, I pulled Autumn's arm down, revealing her face. She doesn't even have a moment to react before I tilted her head up and kissed her, giving Mel the perfect picture of us.

                                         *

Once again, Noah and James act like absolute children, I thought. Honestly, they are a bad mix when they are together.

And Autumn and Mel are just cheering them on.

As I stand in the corner, sipping on my drink, while trying not to show the amusement on my face as we watch Noah and James trying to argue their way into winning a game of uno.

Even Bunny is scared of the scene in front of him, as he looks around with his big black eyes.

I look towards my now filled cabinets of many things. After Autumn and I had sex, she urgently said that we needed to go back to the library to go grab her car.

She said she had a surprise for me.

When she opened her trunk to reveal what it was, I was surprised to see bags of spices, pan and cooking essentials. I was so shocked that I just kissed her, I didn't have any words to say, so I showed her that I appreciate this surprise.

Looking back on that memory, I look towards Autumn and admire her, her face glows as she smiles, casually drinking her drink. She is truly a strong spirit, fighting with ex-fiance to court and winning the case.

I'm truly lucky to have her, I don't know how differently my life would have turned out if I didn't meet her at that beach. Maybe that day was a good day to have an awful shitshow of a shift.

At one point, Noah and James' argument got so heated that Mel had to step in and try to explain the rules to them, but they weren't budging, they were determined that what both of them said was the right way to play.

Autumn goes back into the kitchen to refill her drink, she catches me staring at her, so she comes over to me, and smiles up at me.

Putting my drink down, I embraced her into my arms, and looked down at her. We said nothing for a short silence until, I whispered "Let's go"

Autumn, being taken aback "What?" She said, like she didn't catch on to what I was saying.

With her still in my arm, I started to move towards the door, making Autumn walk backwards, she chuckles awkwardly, "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Clearly Mel, Noah and James are too busy being caught up in trying to make up some rules for uno" I turn her around towards the door, making her gasp in surprise, "So let's go"

I didn't wait for Autumn to respond or retaliate, if she was going to, I just grabbed her hand, my keys and headed towards the door, opening and closing it quietly, so the others wouldn't notice.

"But they are going to notice that we're gone, and they might worry about us" Autumn points out.

"I don't think they're going to notice" I said, waving her off.

And with that, I tug Autumn throughout the hall, out of the building and into the parking lot, and we set off in my car.

As we pull into the parking lot of the beach, Autumn looks at me and gives me a knowing look, she doesn't say anything, she just takes off her shoes and gets out of the car and proceeds to walk onto the beach.

I follow suit, doing the same thing, and leaving my shoes in the car as well, I follow her as she stops just beyond the shoreline.

"Jeez, I hope you don't try to kill someone again, I mean, if I wasn't there that day that we met, someone would probably end up on the news about a suspicious murder" I said as I laughed.

Autumn exhales as she turns back towards the car and starts to walk away, "Okay, I'm leaving, you're done"

She only took a few steps before I ran over to her, tugging at her arm to make her turn around, and she and I both know that she's capable enough to force her arm out of my grip, but she stays.

"I'm only joking, I'll stop now" I said.

"Good" She said before she leaned in and kissed me, grabbing onto my arms to maintain her balance.

Kissing her back for only a few seconds before I intertwine her hand with mine, and lead her to the water, not too far into it, but just enough for our ankles to get wet.

It's just about to hit seven o'clock, and the sun is almost setting, Autumn looks towards the horizon and I don't even want to look at the sunset. All my attention is on her.

I can't even believe how fast she came into my life, I can still recall the first day I met her on this beach, and now I am truly in love with her, like generally.

As Autumn admires the beautiful sunset, I get my phone out, the picture that Mel took of us popping up as my wallpaper.

Secretly took a picture of Autumn, saving it to her contact picture, under 'Princess'

Smiling at myself, and putting my phone away, I kissed her head and watched the sunset with her.

Omg, Matthew is finally over and I get to enjoy these two live birds.

Also one more chapter left until this book is completed, so sad but also very excited.

-Summer Roe