A/N: Hey readers, if you didn't already know, this is the last chapter of the story. My goal was to edit and finish this story by the end of the year and I've accomplished that. I hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I have. A HUGE shout out to Polished Gem for all of her help in editing and helping me improve the story. Thank you so much for all your tips and taking the time to beta for me. It means a lot.

Happy reading =)


EPILOGUE

Natalie

Meeting my biological father and his family was nerve wrecking, and it went as awkward as expected. James Reid wasn't who I always imagined him to be. The way Angela described him to me when I was younger made him seem like a no-good type of guy; a punk she had just hooked up with one night and got me out of it by mistake. Maybe he was that guy back in the day, but the man I met was completely different.

He was handsome, with a friendly smile and I had his warm brown eyes. I looked nothing like Jayden though, who looked more like his mother more than anything. They were a nice family, and over the years I stayed in contact with them, building a relationship with them which opened up a door to a new family I never knew.

Maureen and David encouraged my relationship with my father and half-brother, even allowing me to spend a week getting to know them over that first summer, and I was grateful to them beyond words. They had always supported me through all the challenges I'd faced and I still find myself getting teary-eyed whenever I reminisced the journey of my adoption and meeting them when I was a kid.

Vanessa and I never lost sight of our sisterhood. We were closer than ever and even though I was away for school, we talked constantly and kept each other updated with our lives. She had a boyfriend now, and I couldn't have been happier for her.

Wesley, my best friend, had gone away to a different school. It didn't work out with him and Jane so they broke up halfway through our senior year. For a while, Wes enjoyed his single life as a freshman and sophomore at university, before eventually falling in love with a girl named Olivia. I had just received my invitation to their wedding in a couple of months and I couldn't wait to attend.

As for Alex and I...we broke up more times than I could remember. Maybe our relationship was doomed from the beginning and I had failed to see it. Things had stated out so well, and I was falling more and more for him as time went on. Our first summer together was amazing. We both picked up jobs, but spend as much as we could with each other when we could. We'd gotten inseparable, and eventually our relationship had gotten more physical but I never felt ready to take the next intimate step.

Alex was understanding. Every time we would get close and I would pull away, he'd stop, take a few minutes to collect himself and we'd go back to watching a movie or finding something else to do. He never asked me to give or do something I wasn't ready for, but I let it get to me anyway. The insecurity was always there, like a dark cloud over my head.

I began to question if he would leave me, if I wasn't enough. I wasn't like the girls he used to date, girls like Yvette and Kristi. I became extremely paranoid, insecure... and it showed. I think I pushed him away, too scared to let him do it to me first. We became distant with each other, eventually breaking up for the first time just before the start of our senior year and I was a mess.

When we got back together, we talked things through and things went back to normal. At least for a while.

Corina's untimely death from her illness during our last semester broke him, and everything fell apart. The Alex I had gotten to know; the Alex Saunders I had fallen for had passed away with her. What he became, I didn't recognize anymore. Corina's passing was heartbreaking for all of us. I felt like I had lost a sister. I always knew losing Cori would shatter him, I just didn't know it would be that bad.

After the funeral, he pushed me away completely. He went back to being the guy who haunted him, the one he was trying to leave behind. He closed off. Even his brothers, Martin and Dean couldn't get through to him. Even Shane, his best friend, had a hard time keeping him in check. All of his friends, Wale, Mitch, Kyle...we all tried and he pushed us away, but none of us gave up on him.

Even when he was short with me, even when he said things that would intentionally hurt me, I always went back to him. I'd always known that Alex would be my first, when the time was right. It wasn't until after our first time together that I started to lose myself as well. I didn't know if I was ready but he was slipping away again and I couldn't bear it. The timing wasn't right, but he needed me, and so it happened. I lost my virginity to him. I didn't know why I thought that would fix things...fix us. It didn't.

We became the toxic couple I never wanted to be. Fighting over the little things, his lack of effort in school and in most of the general aspect of his life, my nagging him about it all, things like that. We'd break up, only to get back together, using our physical attraction and emotional connection of the past to convince ourselves that we belonged together.

The cycle came to end when Johnny Delano somehow became involved. Alex broke up with me for the last time. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. So, I tried to get him back but he wouldn't have me. He ignored me, completely. He suddenly acted as if I didn't even exist to him anymore.

Then Johnny showed up at my door one afternoon, somehow convincing me that I had to let him go. A part of me knew that when Johnny was involved, it was over. It was the hardest thing I ever did; to walk away from our relationship.

When I had the opportunity to go away to my father's place for the summer after graduation, I took it. I immersed myself in my new family, slowly tending over my broken heart. For a while, it helped.

When I returned, Alex was gone. He left town. No one knew where he was or how to reach him. Only Johnny knew but he wouldn't talk about it, only telling me not to worry about him.

Johnny had a way of keeping track of everyone. Somehow, I got close to him over that summer and we became friends. With Alex gone, Richard and I had also gotten closer, something I never really thought possible. He became someone I could talk to about anything; until we both went away for school and drifted apart.

Dean, Alex's brother married his long-time girlfriend, Denise. They had a son together and she was expecting again soon, last I heard. Martin kept in contact with me while I was away for school. He still believed that one day Alex and I would reconnect but he never brought his brother up during our conversations unless I asked about him, and he would tell me everything Alex was up. I was also happy for Martin for finally reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend, Angela, Johnny's cousin. They moved in together.

It had taken Alex a year to come back to town, after I had already left for school. He had gotten his high school diploma but he didn't go to college. He went to a trade school instead and had moved back home.

Maureen had encouraged me to move on while away; to put myself out there. So, I had a few relationships here and there in college, but nothing that lasted long. After graduating with my bachelor in nursing, 5 years after Angela showed up on my doorstep, I too moved back home.

Running into each other...it was bound to happen. I hadn't seen him in over five years, at least not in person. Sometimes I found myself navigating toward his social media. He never posted much, but once every few months he updated. Once in a while, he commented or messaged; but he kept it strictly friendly. Now his best friend was getting married, and he was the best man. And I was a guest.

I saw him before he could see me; standing there on the alter in a crisp suit. He had aged a bit, but still as handsome as I remembered.

It wasn't until the reception that he came up to me. After Kira and Shane had their first dance. After he made his best man speech, which made me tear up a bit. The dance floor was full and I was one of the only people sitting down. Veronica and Kevin were keeping me company for a bit but had left me go join the dance floor after I pushed them to it.

I was super aware of him the entire time so when he was approaching me, my heart was thundering. I wasn't sure how to react.

"Natalie,"

I looked up at his handsome face and tried to smile. It still hurts to see him sometimes. To think about him. "Hi, Alex."

He took the seat next to me and I had no choice but to really look at him, take him in completely, our eyes meeting.

"How have you been?" He casually asked.

"Great. You?"

"Good. I'm good." He cleared his throat.

My eyes averted a bit. I was nervous. He was too. Not really sure how to act around each other. The awkwardness between, it was unfamiliar. We had gotten past that stage in our relationship but now...time had passed, and things had changed. It couldn't be helped.

"I heard you're a nurse now," he stated. "That's incredible."

"Thank you."

I didn't ask what he did. I already knew. Alex and his brothers had their own business now, a shop they opened up in the name of Corina. It was doing well, and they planned on expanding in the future.

He abruptly stood up and a big wave of disappointment hit me. I didn't know why I expected anything. Why I held on after all this time. We were over and I should move on. Maybe this was the final sign I needed—

"Dance with me."

My head snapped up and I noticed Alex's expectant hand extended toward me, bringing me back to a memory that had always been vivid in my mind. The night he first held my hand. It was also the night he first kissed me. I was young back then...he wasn't my first boyfriend, but he was my first love.

I knew a part of my heart would always belong to him.

When I took his hand, and he led me on the dance floor, it was just me and him again. Being in his arms again, it was nostalgic, and that was dangerous. All the feelings I tried to suppress rushed back. I felt like I would explode.

I wasn't young anymore.

"No," I pulled back from him.

"What?" He stared at me in confusion.

"I don't want to dance, Alex." I told him. I could feel the tears threatening to fall from my eyes but I forced them back.

"Okay..." he replied slowly, his eye steady on me, trying to read me. We stood there facing each other, aware that most of our family and friends were now watching us. It was probably not the right setting but this needed to be done.

"I've been back in town for months." I finally said after a moment.

"I know."

"You never called me."

"I wanted to."

"So why didn't you?" I was angry, but of course we both knew what laid underneath.

"I couldn't."

"Why not?" I frowned.

"Because I wasn't there yet. I wasn't who I knew I could be-,"

"So, you expected me to wait for you?"

"No, I didn't. But I had to leave, Natalie. We both know what I was doing to you. I had to go, and if you knew you would have stopped me. I wanted you to move on."

"You think I didn't try? You think it was easy?"

"I know it wasn't."

"You broke every promise you ever made to me." I said to him.

"I worked on every promise I ever made to you. I know it doesn't seem like it right now but you'll see." He stated.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked him.

"It means everything I did...the person I am today, it's all for you."

A silence ensued, my eyes searching his face, searching for meaning in his words and realizing I will never know until he directly tells me.

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying that-,"

"Uncle 'Lex!"

Alex was interrupted by a little boy, who was running straight into his arms.

"Hey you!" He bent down on one knee and scooped the boy up in his arms, bringing him back up to face me.

The little boy grinned at me and waved. "Hi auntie Nat!"

"Hello Evan." I smiled at him. "Look how handsome you look in your suit.

He giggled. "Mommy made me wear it at church to carry the ring! Did you see me?"

"I did. You did an amazing job," I told him. "The cutest ringbearer there ever was."

"Can I do it in your wedding too?"

"Um,"

"Hey little man, auntie Nat and I have to talk, you think you can give us a few minutes?" Alex asked him.

"Okay!" Once he was down on ground, Evan ran back to his father and mother on the opposite side of the hall and I found myself staring as he hugged Dean's leg while Denise smiled fondly, one hand resting on her very enlarged stomach. They're little family was growing and it was beautiful to see.

I could feel Alex's eyes on me.

I could feel more than that. My feelings were pretty much in disarray. I knew this moment would come, and I imagined how it would play out.

So far it wasn't going like it all.

I couldn't look at him when he started to speak. "You should know that my feelings for you have never gone away. I thought I was doing right by letting you go, even though I wanted to be selfish. I know I shouldn't have waited so long to reach out...I guess a part of me still feels like you can do better. But I know I can be better. I am better, Nat. And I want to be with you. I've always have."

Five years I waited to hear those words. But the moment I did...it didn't measure up.

"You never should have left me." That wasn't what I planned to tell him, but again, what I imagined flew out the window. And I was vulnerable again. And I had to let him know. "I don't think I can survive it if you did again."

"I don't think I would survive it either."

I turned back and faced him. He was calm, hopeful, anxious. Everything I was feeling. It reminded me of the day in the hospital, when he first confessed his feelings for me. He had always been upfront. The words he had said to me that day...

The truth is…I have feelings for you, but I also have a lot of shit I still need to work through. I don't want to drag you into my problems.

Alex never thought he was good enough for me. I wanted to be there for him, to help work through his troubles. Then my own insecurity got in the way, and he blamed himself for it. So he left, to better himself. Even though deep down I knew that, it still didn't hurt any less. And even though the pain had faded with time, my stubborness hadn't. Ay least not completely.

"So…" I started to say, the words hanging in the air. Where did we go from there?

"So, would you like to date me again, Natalie Rogers?" He asked, a smirk appearing on his face, igniting the butterflies in my stomach.

"Yes, I'd like that Alex Saunders." I smiled.

He for me just as I was reaching for him, impatiently pulling me toward him and making me laugh. Our forehead touched for a few seconds, before his lips descended on top of mine.


A/N: Thank you all! Happy holidays and stay safe!