She clasped the journal in her hands. Later on, she would read it, and she felt hopeful she would get the answers she needed. Anna was certain her mother had thought ahead, and because of that, she’d learn her mother's full history and secrets. Secrets she hadn't been aware of, until Arch's revelations.
Anna offered up a quick prayer of thanks for the multitude of blessings she'd received. Her life could have taken a very different turn. She was blessed, and she knew it.
Shayne picked her up and swung her around with a laugh. His joy was infectious. “Don’t worry,” he responded, staring down at her with a grin. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of Arch in the future. But for now, it's honeymoon time.”
Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER...
Anna collapsed next to Shayne, her body still trembling from the powerful orgasm that had rippled through her only moments before. He grinned at her arrogantly, his smile full of pure male satisfaction. He knew the effect he had on her body, and he loved every moment of it.
Anna definitely wasn’t the same innocent woman she had been months before. Shayne had thoroughly initiated her into sexual pleasure, and she couldn’t be happier. He was an excellent teacher.
She snuggled into his side, as he wrapped his arm around her. Both of them enjoyed the contact, and there was nowhere else they’d rather be. He loved and adored her in a way she would have never believed possible, and she knew that beyond a doubt. Her husband.
“I love you,” she said, simply. “Thank you for loving me.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wish my mom could have lived long enough to see me this happy.”
Shayne's eyes were soft. “I know, baby,” he murmured. He ran his hand gently across her back. “I would have loved to have met her. You're everything to me. You know this. It hurts me to see you this sad. I grieve when you do.”
Anna kissed him on his chin. “I just wish she would have told me about her past when she was still alive. It hurts me to think that she was afraid to tell me. I could have reassured her,” Anna continued, emotion choking her. “Nobody had a better mother than me.”
It took her a while to build up the courage to read the journal Iris had left with Arch. Eventually, she did, though. It was what Iris had wanted her to do, and the reason she wrote it to start with. Anna had learned of her origins, and everything fell into place. Iris had spent her childhood in an orphanage, never knowing her natural parents. Upon turning eighteen, she’d been released and sent out into the world, with only a hundred dollars to her name.
Her life hadn’t prepared Iris for the world she was sent into. In the end, Iris went the path that many young women had gone before her, and she allowed herself to be seduced by a smooth-talking, older man. He had promised her everything she could have ever wanted, including security. But soon, she had learned that his security came with a price tag she wasn't willing to pay. The man she slept with had sold his soul, and he wanted a woman to provide him with a child to fulfill that debt.
After vowing to never see him again, Iris had been stunned to learn she was pregnant. Knowing what would happen to her unborn child if he found out about it, Iris had gone on the run and never looked back. To her dying day, she'd never forgiven herself for being tricked into bedding a man so evil.
Over the years, Iris had experienced a lot of guilt that Anna didn’t have the things that other children did, like designer clothes and a rich home. She'd loved her daughter so much that she felt she only deserved the very best of everything. The cabin in Alaska had been an answered prayer to the woman who only wanted to provide her daughter with security.
If only Iris would have known how much she appreciated her. Iris had been the type of mother Anna hoped she could one day be. She felt very lucky to have experienced the deep love she’d received from her—and from Shayne.
The most surprising revelation in the journal had been about Arch. He’d been a significant part of Iris' life without Anna ever realizing it. Arch had walked out of the darkness one night in Denver and changed the course of their very lives forever.
The journal didn’t tell all of the details, but Arch had offered Iris a loan and somehow convinced her to take it. He was the one to set them up in Alaska. He'd also convinced Iris to submit one of her horror stories to a publishing house, leading to her writing career. Anna cringed to think of where they might have ended up, had Arch not stepped into their lives when he did. Without Arch and his angelic interventions, Anna wouldn’t even be alive.
Shayne lifted her face and dried her eyes, pulling her from her musings. “Iris knew it, baby. She knew how much you loved and appreciated her. I have no doubt of that, and neither should you.”
He held her close until the heartache passed.
THE LOVE THEY FELT for each other was enduring and everlasting. Neither one of them knew what the future had in store for them, but they were confident they could make it as long as they were together. The years would pass, but the fire between them would never go
