Page 92 of It Must Be Fate

Rhys:I’ll remember this when it’s your turn.

Phoenix:There won’t be a ‘my turn’ because Astra is never leaving the house.

Rhys:Lol good luck with that plan.

Rhys:Tristan? Have my back here.

Tristan:I’m staying out of it.

Tristan:But no one bulldozed past more nos from their wife than me, so…

Rhys:Wankers, the lot of you.

Rhys:Mark my words, I’ll get myself transferred overseas.

Rhys:I’ll leave Arsenal if it means keeping your son away from my daughter.

Smirking down at my phone, I type out one final text.

Rogue:Do it. Make it a bit harder for him, it’ll be more entertaining for us to watch.

***

Thirteen years after graduation

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tristan

“Kids,” I bellow into the intercom service that connects the different levels and wings of the house. “Dinner’s ready.”

No answer comes through the line, but I hear the movement of bodies and the shuffling of feet as the children make their way down towards the kitchen.

Kiza appears first. She walks up to me where I’m standing at the stove and wraps her arms around my waist, burrowing her face into my back.

“Hi, Dad,” she says, voice muffled against me.

Earlier this year, she started calling me ‘Dad’ instead of ‘Daddy’, telling me that only kids called their fathers that and proudly announcing that she wasn’t a kid anymore.

Plunging a knife six inches deep into my chest might have been less painful, but I’d simply smiled, said ‘okay’, and kissed her forehead.

It felt like my little girl grew up overnight. Even though I knew it was a natural part of her getting older, I feared it meant that we’d lose the special connection that had always made us close.

I was thrilled to find nothing else changed, her hugs the moment I come home still as tight as they always were. Those hugs mean the world to me.

“Hi, sweet girl.” I turn and drop a kiss on her forehead. “How was your day?”

“Great.” She grabs one of the plates and brings it to the dining table as Cato walks in carrying Hana.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, little man. Missed you.” I ruffle his hair then bend so I’m eye level with my youngest child. “And missedyou, little darling.”

Hana launches herself into my arms with a delighted laugh. I press a thousand kisses to her cheeks, then place her on my hip and go back to the stove, stirring the bacon so it doesn’t burn.

Plating two more sandwiches, I hand them to Cato who follows Kiza into the dining room.

Suki and Juno walk in together, bickering loudly and the latter in tears.

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