Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, I just use their creations to have my wicked way with them. No copyright infringement is intended.

Epilogue

Fifteen years later…

Edward never really recovered his love for performing. The joy he felt whenever he was on stage, singing his amazing songs in front of a rapt audience, never really outweighed the trouble he had with keeping his sobriety. And so, after serving out all the stipulations of his contract, Edward Masen retired from the stage.

Looking back, it was the best thing he'd ever done with his life. Though a small part of him missed performing, the rest of him loved his new career as a songwriter and producer. He was earning a living in the music world, still creating, but with none of the personal risks that came with it.

Besides, even when his career took off after his songs made it big in the charts, he had a lot more time to spend with his Bella.

If there was ever anything in his life he was proud of, it was the decision he'd made to let Bella into his heart. Not only was she a constant source of love and inspiration, the admiration he felt as she shone both in college, and subsequently law school, rivaled nothing else in his world. Both he and her dad—though the latter from a distance—were her number one cheerleaders as she went through the tough process of passing the bar and making a name for herself in her chosen field.

There had been times when he'd come home to literally pick her up from the floor after she'd crashed in a state of utter exhaustion, and even more times when he'd been close to calling her professors or supervisors to cuss them out for abusing her like that. But in the end, her happiness when she finally made it to that corner office with her name on a brass plate next the front door of a downtown high-rise made it all worth it.

Edward sighed, digging his back a bit deeper in the sand as he closed his eyes and let the warm, early morning sunlight wash over his face. It was mornings like those that he lived; sneaking out of the house early with nothing but his notepad as he headed into the dunes to write, knowing his family was still tucked up in bed; safe, warm and loved.

They'd bought their beach house shortly after Bella had landed her job. It was their escape: the place they went to on the weekends to celebrate each other and forget there were things like jobs and other responsibilities waiting for them in the city. Bella had once admitted to him that in times when things were extra stressful at work, it was their weekends spent together at the beach that saved her sanity.

Edward couldn't agree more.

Their place was a lot smaller than the one Carlisle and his sister owned but that suited them perfectly. It was their place, after all—their escape. Not some fancy house to boast about to your friends.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Edward looked up, his smile widening as he spotted a small figure, almost completely obscured by a huge picnic basket, running in his direction.

Emily.

His daughter had been another game-changer for him. Happy as he'd been to give as much time to his job as Bella had to hers, ever since her arrival he'd taken a huge step back from his job to become something of a stay-at-home dad. After all, his job allowed him to work from home where Bella's was a lot harder to configure around the precious life they had been gifted, and since he was his own boss, he could do whatever the fuck he pleased anyway.

And, like his decision to quit his career as a recording artist, he'd never had a moment's regret in his life. How could he have, when he was allowed to enjoy the best of both worlds and see his daughter grow a bit by bit? Edward watched her play around in his music room while he created songs she inspired.

Emily had come as a very welcomed surprise to both of them five years ago—a whole hand, as she would put it with her huge, chocolate brown eyes shining with confidence. They'd just started talking about trying since they were both settled in their careers and their life together was finally stable enough to bring a child into it. It turned out, fate had already anticipated their next step and, a couple of weeks later, they were listening to their baby's tiny heartbeat for the first time.

She'd stolen his heart from minute one and kept doing so on a daily basis.

She was his everything.

"You carried that thing all the way from the house?" Edward asked, with a hardly faked surprise and awe.

She nodded, her mother's seriousness shining out of her big, brown eyes. "I'm big now, Daddy. I can carry things all by myself."

"Of course you can." Taking the basket out of her hands, he pulled her little body to his, smacking a loud kiss on her unruly dark brown hair. "Is Mommy going to join us, too?"

Emily nodded. "She's still on the phone with Auntie Alice."

After all these years, Bella and Alice were still as close as sisters. Much to Alice's, and everyone's, surprise, she had made Jasper Cullen the happiest man on earth when she finally agreed to go out on a date after five years of him asking—begging—to take her out. It had been the best decision of her life, or so she claimed, and the two had been inseparable ever since. Though they had opted for an apartment in a more lively part of town, while Edward and Bella had bought a place in a quieter area of the Upper West Side, they met up at least once a week to keep each other posted.

It had been a little weird at first, seeing his nephew as the partner of his girlfriend's best friend. And it had been a hell of a lot weirder during family functions, when Esme and Carlisle were still getting used to the whole shift in dynamics, but after a couple of years, it had been like Alice had always been a part of their family. Like Bella and Edward, they just belonged together in spite of the age gap. Alice, a buyer with some big-name fashion house, was expecting her first kid with Jasper in a couple of weeks and freaking out on a regular basis. That was why it wasn't even a surprise to Edward that she was on the phone at nine on a Sunday morning.

Things with his sister and her husband were in a much better place. As both of them realized he was really serious about mending his ways, they had slowly started to accept him back in their lives and, while Carlisle and Edward would never become the best of friends, they tolerated each other well enough for things to not be awkward whenever they were together.

The same thing kind of went down with Bella's dad. As forgiving as Charlie had been about Edward's past, there was one thing his love's father could never forgive him for, and that was stealing his little girl from him.

Edward could understand that, especially now that he had Emily. Hell, looking at his daughter he knew he was lucky enough that Charlie hadn't taken him into the woods shot him and buried his body someplace no one would find him the first moment he had the opportunity to do so. Because that was his plan when some piss ass boy put his paws on his sweet girl.

"Can I have a waffle, Daddy?" His daughter begged, doing that thing with her eyes that always got her whatever the fuck she asked for.

"I bet Mommy told you to wait, huh?" Edward tried, knowing Bella probably had plans for the distribution of the food trapped inside the basket.

Emily pouted. "But I'm hungry!"

There was no saying 'no' to that. Edward's had already started to unfasten the clasps that held the basket shut when a voice called out above them, "Edward Masen. If you value your life, you will step away from the basket right now!"

"Oops!" Edward grinned, he and his daughter shared a not-so-guilty look as Bella waddled down into the dune they'd made their breakfast spot, her hand stroking her six month pregnant belly.

"You're a bunch of greedy, impatient pigs!" Bella fake-scolded, much to Emily's humor, as she started to place the waffles on their plates, topping them with fresh strawberries and whipped cream before distributing the yummy goodness. Kissing her daughter's head she sat down beside them, sighing contently as she laid her head on his shoulder and stared out towards the ocean.

"Do you remember the first time we had breakfast in the dunes?" he asked, his mind going back to the days when she was still nothing but a girl and he was a complete fucking fool. "Did you ever think we would end up like this?"

He could feel her shaking her head against his shoulder. "I didn't even dare to dream about it!"

Smiling, he felt a sense of pride as his mind traveled through the years that separated past from present. "Things turned out pretty good, didn't they?" Taking stock of his life like that, he knew that in spite of the horrors he'd had to face along the way, he was well and truly blessed to be in the place he was in right then.

His demons no longer had a hold on him.

He had music in his life and a career he loved, but not so much that he allowed it to keep him away from his family.

He had money in the bank that allowed him the freedom to do whatever the fuck he liked.

He had friends and family who loved him and whom he could rely on to kick his ass whenever his fame and fortune went to his head.

But most importantly, he had his daughter playing in the sand at his feet and the prettiest girl in the world by his side.

He'd say he had it all.

The end.

Thoughts?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my beta, LadySharkey1, from the bottom of my heart for all the hard and amazing work she's put into this story and for putting up with my stubborn, grammatically challenged self. Writing this story wouldn't have been as much fun without her by my side.

It's going to be hard to say goodbye to these two but I feel that their story has been told. My next story will start to post in a couple of weeks. It will be very different from this one as it's going to be a murder mystery set on a remote island. I hope you'll give that one a shot as well.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who reviewed and/or this story. I've loved reading your thoughts and comments.