Chapter 45 Epilogue

Eight months later, Felicity and Raymond were on a date, she had finally given into his persuasion three months ago and they have been dating for three months now. Although she was more matured and poised now but sometimes she still shows him her childish behavior which led him to believe that he now has three children.
He has gotten a lot closer to his children and everyone found out that miraculously, Darryl was a daddy's boy. He always wants his dad around him and sometimes he claims to be sick just to miss school and then he will bug his grandaunt later to take her to work with him so that he will see his dad and will stay in Raymond's office the whole day till he brings him home. Of course he won't go to Felicity who was now working in the ICT department of The Baldwin's Empire, because he knows she will end up dropping him in the school.
How did he know that?
Because it has happened once to him.
Although Felicity may be cute, but she didn't want to spoil her kids, literally, it was Raymond and her aunt that does that and when she questions Raymond, he would be like "I missed four years of their lives, I need to make up for it" to which she always groan with a roll of her eyes.
She gracefully placed her cutleries beside each side of her plate and picked up her napkin to dab at her mouth.
Raymond stared at her nervously while eyeing the plate, "you done already? Eat more."
"No, I'm full."
"No, come on, eat more, you didn't even touch the food."
Felicity stared at him with a slightly furrowed brows, "I almost finished the meal and I'm okay now, why do I need to eat more?"
Raymond looked around nervously, "nothing, I just want you to be fully satisfied, that's all" he smiled while cursing in his mind 'where the hell did he put it?'
"Okay, I didn't want to say anything before but you are really acting strange since this evening, are you okay?"
Raymond threw his head back and laughed nervously, "strange, what do you mean by strange? I'm not acting strange, I'm completely normal" he blabbered. God, what is wrong with him? He is forty one for God's sake!
Felicity eyed him doubtfully before looking around the room, someone that entered caught her eyes and she frowned.
Raymond saw her frown and feared if he had annoyed her, "are you okay?" He asked as he followed her gaze and saw the reason of her annoyance. He cursed again, why must this day be cursed for him?
Felicity tore her gaze from Grace and turned to the man opposite her, "yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
"Nothing, it's just that...you were suddenly frowning."
"Well, one tends to frown when they see something they didn't want to, right?"
Raymond nodded vigorously as he sweated profusely, he fanned himself with his hand and opened the collar button of she shirt, "damn it's so hot in here are you feeling hot?"?
"No, I'm perfectly normal and the temperature is normal, so why are you hot?"
He ran his hand through his hair and shrugged, "I don't know" damn, get it together man, he thought to himself. He looked at her plate of unfinished food, it has to be there, where else can it be? He told him to put it in it, "you sure you don't want to finish your food?"
Felicity rolled her eyes, "I'm fine. Really, you have..." She was cut off by a woman's shrilling scream, she turned to the sound of it and not just her but Raymond and everyone else in the room. To her surprise, it was Grace that was pulling the hair of another woman and the man sitting opposite the woman was like telling her to stop in a calm voice.
Due to everywhere being in a deadpanned silence, everyone could hear their words.
"You slutty bitch, how dare you make a move on my husband? You are supposed to be my friend!" Grace was saying and of course she didn't keep her voice low.
Felicity raised her brow in surprise, "Grace is married?" She looked at Raymond, who rushed to defend himself.
"I didn't know!" Even he was surprised. Turned out that after that day of leaving her in his room, he has never heard about her anymore and hearing she is married now really shocked him too.
"I didn't do anything, we are just having dinner to discuss about a contract" the woman she was grabbing her hair answered, "and we are not friends. I have never even met you in my life before!"
"Enough now Grace, what the hell is wrong with you?" The man who was now clearly annoyed shouted at her.
"Don't you dare shout at me Evans, admit it, I just caught you cheating on me!" Grace's voice rang loud and clear.
The woman finally struggled out of her hold, she stood up and straightened her clothes, her hand ran in her hair to put every strand back in place before she glared at the man, "what the hell Evans? So the rumors are true. You are really married to a psychopath" she glanced at Grace, "I have never been insulted like this in my whole life and for that, consider this the end. The deal is off, don't you dare call my number or come by my office again. I guess I will be working your brother then" at that, she picked up her purse and with a huff, she walked out of the restaurant with her head held high.
Grace stared after the woman before looking at her husband apologetically, "she was the one you told me about right?" When her husband didn't answer, she sighed and bit her lip, "I'm sorry, you know how..."
"Don't you start" Evans raised his hand to stop her, "just don't start!" He stood up while shaking his head slowly, "I can't do this anymore. For crying out loud Grace, this is the sixth contract you are making me lose in a month!" He shouted, not caring they were in the public anymore, "Jesus Christ!" He ran his hand through his hair frustratedly, "I can't do this anymore. I mean I tried to understand you, I tried to put up with you but seriously Grace, this is getting out of hand. Why are you always so paranoid? You really need to see a doctor or better still, apologize to whoever it is that you have wronged, because you know what? I can't take this anymore!" He slammed his hand on the table, causing everyone to jolt "for goodness sake, you are ruining my life! You always go about believing I will cheat on you with your friends, which is the reason I don't relate with any of them.
Finally, you got me to stay away from all your friends and then you switched to my business associates, my staff. How many secretaries have I changed since I married you, I have lost counts! You always go about with your same words every time, 'how dare you make a move on my husband, you were supposed to be my friend!' When where they your friends? I honestly don't understand and you won't even tell me what is wrong with you. Because of you I don't have any female friends anymore! God!" He shouted, throwing his hands into the air while Grace did nothing but sobbed.
"God, I love you, I mean I really do but seriously, I can't do this, I can't go on with a wife who can't even trust me. Who always believes I would cheat on her with the next thing in skirt" he sighed, and shook his head, "I want a divorce, maybe when you finally get the help you need, we can talk about us but right now, I really can't. I will send you my lawyer" he turned then and only seemed to realize that everyone heard what he said. He sighed and dropped some dollar bills on the table and walked away.
Grace stood, sobbing, she couldn't believe what just happened, she had lost her marriage because she couldn't get herself to stop believing that her husband will cheat on her or might make a move on her friend. She just loves him so much and don't want to lose him but deep inside, that wasn't the only reason and she knows it, because every night she dreams of how hurt Felicity looked five and a half years ago when she saw her kissing her husband. She of all people knew she loves Raymond, but yet, she betrayed her friend because of body cravings.
She knew everyone was staring at her but one particular stare was boring a hole in her heart, she looked up and she met a pair of green eyes. She will know those eyes anywhere. Her face took in the whole of Felicity's face, she knew she was back for almost a year now, even before her wedding but she couldn't bring herself to go see her. All through the years she had believed she was the one that ruined her marriage. Her eyes caught the man sitting beside her, his light gray eyes was fixated on her and with the look of things, it seemed like they were back together now. She smiled to herself, they had made up while she has just lost her husband. Not able to take the embarrassment anymore, she ran out of the restaurant.
"That was interesting" Felicity commented when she was gone and she heard Raymond chuckled.
"Show some compassion, she used to be your friend."
"Thank heavens you said 'used to be'" she rolled her eyes, "she is serving Karma. Karma is a bitch but it does exist" she smirked, "careful, you will have your own coming to you soon."
"I didn't do anything" Raymond defended and she rolled her eyes, "besides, even if it is true, I believe I have already served mine" he smiled.
"Yeah right" she rolled her eyes once more and reached for her drink, intending to chug it all down at once but she spat out everything almost immediately, "what the hell?" She asked shocked, staring at the diamond ring that was now sitting on the table where she spatted it out.
She looked at Raymond who had his eyes closed only to realize that half of her drink landed on him, "oh my gosh, I'm so sorry" she apologized immediately while trying to stifle a laugh.
Raymond picked a napkin and dabbed at his face before looking at her, "at least, now I know where he put it."
Felicity smiled and picked up the ring, she stared at it before gazing at Raymond, "and I have always known you were up to something tonight Mr. Baldwin" she raised her brow with a smirk, "what? To shy to ask a woman to marry you so you had the ring put on my drink?" Although she was talking so coolly, her face still turned crimson red. After all, she was being proposed to.
Raymond chuckled and somehow found encouragement from her blush, "I actually requested for it to be put in your food" he smirked but he still stood up and went down on one knee, grabbing her hands in his as he looked intently at her. Felicity couldn't keep up her cool face anymore, she bit her lip shyly and looked down, not daring to look into his eyes, "Felicity Amelia McCarthy, although the way we met was that of a lie and I took the one year you had to live with me, denying my feelings for you. It hurts that I only got to know how I truly feel about you when you were already gone but I made a vow to myself to get you back. Because you my dear, was the best thing that ever happened to me. I regret it so much for the years we already had to miss because of my stupidity but you didn't give up on me.
You carried our children and raised them, even though I wasn't there, even though I hurt you the day they were conceived, you didn't give up on them, you brought them up with so much love that I envy at times. But now, I only pray you will give me the chance to do the right thing. To be the man I was supposed to be to you, a good husband and a responsible father. I never thought I will be asking this of any woman, but my darling, I don't see a world without you. So please, give me a chance to be a happy man, to experience the love of a family that I never got" he smiled nervously and licked his lips, "marry me, please? Let me live the rest of my life with you and our family of an unending love, please?"
Felicity smiled then and bit her lips, she looked around and blinked continuously to keep the tears from falling but at the end, they did but this time, it was that of joy. She sniffed and nodded, she never knew coming back will bring her the happiness she so longed for and it wasn't just because of their kids, but because he loves her, he never stopped singing it to her everyday, "yes" she breathed with a tearful, charming smile.
Raymond seemed to have breathed then as he smiled too and took the ring from her finger, carefully slipping it into her finger while everyone in the restaurant clapped for them. They couldn't believe the TV reality show they just watched. First, they all witnessed a couple breaking up and then they witnessed another, wanting to become one. It almost looked like a Telenovela to them.
Raymond pulled Felicity to her feet and kissed her with all the love in his heart, "I love you my darling Felicity."
"I love you too" she responded for the first time and his happiness knew no bound.
?
When they got home that night, they broke the news to Katherine and Mercy who were so happy for them and congratulated them. The next day, they told the children and they were so happy.
Finally, their mom and dad will be living together and their family would be complete. Their wish from Santa Claus has been fulfilled.
Raymond and Felicity drove to his grandparents mansion with the children to announce the news to them and also to tell them the truth about the contract. He hope that they won't be so mad with him after all, they are getting married for real this time.
Hana and Desmond were so happy and when they heard about the contract marriage, they both smiled.
"We already know, we were the ones that told Morris to suggest it to you that day" Desmond and Hana revealed.
And so, it was then Raymond and Felicity who were then shocked.
"But grandpa!" He called surprised and the old man laughed.
"What did you take us for? Two old fools? Little Ray, if I was so easily deceived, I wouldn't have founded more grounds to the Brown's Empire. Our plan was to get you to live with a girl for one year in your house, that way, you are bound to fall in love. That was why we said we wouldn't hand over the family company to you till after a year. Everything was just to follow our plan. We have already discussed everything with Morris and how he was going to present it you. We offered to prepare your wedding because we knew you wanted to arrange a fake one and we had hoped both of you would fall in love before the year is up and wouldn't want a divorce anymore but then what happened, happened and it looked like we fail, until little Lee returned with the two munchkins, we knew we were back on track," Desmond grinned after his explanation, "if not, why would I believe that after telling you to get married and giving my condition, you suddenly had a girlfriend of two months?" He rolled his eyes while Hana chuckled.
Raymond couldn't believe that at the end, it was his grandparents who played him. Damn, he got played by two dimwitted old couple. As for Morris, he would take care of him later.
Felicity covered her mouth as she chuckled; she too didn't know that the old couple could be this scheming.?
After all discussion, a wedding date was fixed but not without Raymond announcing to his grandparents that Felicity's first pregnancy was a fake. Now that got the proud old couple shocked and Raymond smirked, he got them back, it was 1:1.
Two months later, on their wedding day, Raymond's parents returned and their reason was that, they couldn't miss their son's second wedding to the same woman and they couldn't wait to see their grandchildren. Raymond decided to put their differences aside for the day, after all, the day was a very important day in his life because today, he married his cute childish bride again only that she wasn't so childish anymore and they actually had children. But he was happy, because finally, he is going to have a family of his own.
THE END.