Two months after I broke the baby news to Joey, we got married in a small autumn ceremony in Salem. Brad got out a month early on good behavior, and Joey chose him to be his best man. Heather was my maid of honor – actually, she was my only bridesmaid. My grandmother walked me down the aisle and cried tears of joy the entire time. Not only was she gaining a grandson-in-law, but also a great-grandchild. We didn't go on the typical honeymoon afterwards. Rather, we decided to spend a week at the Cape Cod beach house and just relax – and have an ungodly amount of sex!

Joey became a full-fledged detective that fall, also. He said sometimes he missed being on patrol, but he loved the challenge of putting the pieces together in an investigation. He was damn good at it, too! He even got partnered up with Detective Blake, who showed him the ropes. They made a great team.

I graduated from the University of Massachusetts in December and gave birth to our first baby, a daughter whom we named Elizabeth Rose, in January. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and Joey was so proud to be a father. He was so happy – that is, until he changed his first diaper! Parenting was a challenge at first, but with a little guidance from my grandmother, we got the hang of it pretty quick.

I started classes at Yale that fall and began working towards becoming a clinical psychologist. I dreamed of opening my own practice one day with a focus in helping people who had gone through similar things that I had. I realized that if I'd had someone to talk to who understood what I was dealing with back when I was recovering from Aaron's bullshit, life wouldn't have been so stressful, and I wouldn't have shut people out as much as I had. I wanted to be that someone for somebody else.

Heather and I had become best friends. When I'd officially inherited Fairytale Weddings, I hadn't known what to do with the business. I didn't know the first thing about wedding planning, nor did I really have an interest in carrying it on. Heather, on the other hand, was a wedding fanatic! She'd planned all the details of Joey's and my wedding, and done a brilliant job! With a bachelor's in business management, I was sure she could handle it just fine. Heather became the new owner of the company shortly after Elizabeth arrived.

As fate would have it, Heather and Brad were introduced at our wedding and became inseparable. Two years later, Joey and I were the best man and maid of honor at their wedding! Not too long after getting married, the pair announced that they were pregnant with a little boy to be named Joseph.

Most of my schooling, I was able to do online, but there were some classes I had to physically go to New Haven for. It was difficult raising a child while I was going to school full-time and still working part-time at the coffee shop, and Joey was working full-time, but we made it work. He would take days off and go with me when I needed to go to Connecticut. Sometimes we'd have Heather babysit. Elizabeth and Joseph got along great! Joey never let life come between us. We always made time for each other and supported each other's goals.

By the time I graduated with my doctorate from Yale, Joey had worked his way up the ladder to Lieutenant, and Heather and I were both six months pregnant again. She was having another boy, Matthew, and I was having our first son, Samuel. We were both due on October 2nd.

Now, seven years later, I can honestly say we're the happiest we've ever been. Despite my fears in the beginning, I never heard from or saw Aaron again, nor did any of us ever have to deal with Veronica or hers and Mike's cohorts again.

I opened a practice in Boston with Dana, another psychologist whom I'd become close friends with at Yale. I was accomplishing my dream of being the support system that several young people needed to overcome their pasts, while Dana was a family and marriage counselor, helping to mend broken relationships and support children in need. She'd even adopted one of those children.

The $3.2 million dollars had been divided up into several chunks. Some of it went to my education. Some of it was used to buy the soccer mom minivan that we needed. Some money went to starting up our practice in downtown Boston. And then there was the $1.4 million that Joey and I donated to help children who were battling cancer at the Boston Children's Hospital. The rest was partially invested, partially divided into our kids' college funds, and what was left over was put into savings for whatever comes up in the future.

Today was Joey's and my eighth wedding anniversary. We celebrated by getting matching tattoos that said in my grandmother's stunning cursive, Relentless.