Well, this is it every one, the very last chapter. So ends my story. Awww, I'm sad. I don't know what to do anymore. My free time will be so boring now! I hope every one enjoys the ending and I hope you all check back every so often to see if my next story is up yet. By the way, if you would like to be notified by e-mail when I do post my next story, leave your e-mail address in your review (please review heh) and then I will go ahead and e-mail you when I post my next story! Yes, so, anyway. On with the review responses and the ending of this great story. Thank you every one so very very much for all of your reviews and your constructive criticism/helpful tips. If you have any more helpful tips, please leave them in a review. I put all the notes into Microsoft Word for future updating. You've all been wonderful. Hope to talk to you all next story around. (Never has ending a story been so sad! Awww, you're all so great!) Thank you for every review.

-Your Chica

Sweet Raptured Light: I wish you lots of optimism. Depression is EVIL and annoying… I'm really sorry about your dad; I can't imagine how much that has to suck. It's not at all pathetic that you count the days. If you ever need to talk you know my screen name. I hope you have a lot of people there for you. Just try to remember that all things happen for a reason. I hope you're doing alright. Thank you so much for all of your reviews and yeah, if you ever need anything, let me know.

Amanda: I'm pretty sad this is coming to an end as well! I'm going to miss posting as well as reading all of my great reviews. I'm really glad you enjoyed my story and I hope you love the ending. Enjoy.

Passion101: Thank you so much for all of your reviews. Hopefully I can get a new story out someday soon! It'll probably be months away, but I'm striving for January. I'm sure I won't reach that goal, but whatever! Heh. Thanks for all of the reviews, I hope you enjoy the ending.

Kinara: Who doesn't hope for Candace's excruciating death? But anyway. Here's the ending you've been waiting for and hopefully one that sits well with you. Hopefully the outcome of Candace's trial works out well. Enjoy and thank you for your reviews.

Anamika: Thank you for all of your reviews. I'm going to miss them. I hope that you enjoy this last chapter and I hope you come back when I post my next story – whenever that is. Thank you for all the reviews!!

SlowlyDancingToTheStars: Thank you so much for every review you gave me. I loved them all. I love your name, the stars are wonderful. Hopefully you'll enjoy my ending and hopefully you'll come back the next time I post a story. Have a great few months until then! Thank you again for the reviews!

FrenzyFan78: Thank you for your review! Every new review makes me so happy, heh. Let me know what you thought of this ending. I'm hoping that every one likes it. Well, thank you! Please come back the next time I post a new story!!

Wahhh…..: I meant to put in a warning for that 'explicit' chapter, but I was in a large hurry to get the post out that day and completely forgot to write in the warning. I did however correct it in the next couple of chapters with several apologies to all of my readers. I have also updated my rating to 'R' even though I still believe it to be of PG-13. I hope that you didn't stop reading my story just because of that chapter and I hope you will continue to finish reading my story. My apologies for forgetting the warning. My apologies as well for 'ruining' the story.

Steven: Ah, another anonymous who's angry over 'details' that lacked a warning. If you proceeded to check out any chapter following that one, you would have noticed in my author comments that I sincerely apologized for forgetting to put in the warning. I was in a rush the day of that post and completely forgot to type in the warning. I had apologized for it several times after and I have changed the rating to 'R' despite what I think it should be. I hope that my lack of warning has not stopped you from continuing on with this story. Just because of a few details I'd hate to lose a reader. I wanted my story to be realistic and I was not going to hold back the characters at all. If you were offended by the chapter, I ask that you do not return to read my next story because it is definitely an R and much more 'adult' than this one was. I appreciate you leaving a review anyway. Thank you.

To every one who didn't leave a review this last chapter but did leave one in chapters before; thank you so much. I appreciate all of you. Thank you for all the great reviews and all the helpful comments. I hope to see all of you again the next time I post a story. Enjoy the final chapter every one!

* * * * * * *

EPILOUGE

Five Years Later

LACEY

"Congratulations!" Lauren raced up to me and pulled me into a hug.

I'm glad she was able to make it to my graduation. Being that she's still attending a college two-thousand miles away, it was really nice of her to come back to watch me graduate. Sort of, anyway. We didn't have enough room to invite every one to the graduation, but it seems as though every one was able to park their cars in the parking lot and rush me the second I tried to head back to my apartment.

"Thank you so much for coming." I hugged her for a second longer before pulling away and looking at how different she looked. It's been a whole year since I last saw her, since she wasn't able to make it home for winter break. She looks a like different. Smarter, if possible, and more grown up.

"Yeah, well, you're coming to visit me when I finally graduate."

"Law school, are you kidding? You've got another ten years of education to go. I'll be dead before you've graduated."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Matt's hand slid across my back for half a second before he too was pulled into his own group of friends. Reece was the first to hug him. I watched him shake hands with another kid who had graduated with us and then I turned my attention back to Lauren.

"So, guess what." I held up my hand and waved it in her face.

She screamed when she noticed the engagement ring.

"WHEN!? Oh my God!" She jumped up and down then grabbed my hand and pulled it in for a closer look. She spent a lot of time staring into it.

"Two nights ago."

"What? And you didn't call me right away?!" She dropped my hand and put her hands on her hips, trying to glare at me through her smile.

"Well, we were busy! We were talking and stuff and then all yesterday we were just worried about getting all the graduation stuff together."

"Talking and stuff. What kind of 'stuff'?"

"Stuff stuff." I left the guessing up to her. Matt and I hadn't spent the whole night having sex, but it was fun to get Lauren all excited about it.

I almost felt bad for her since her and Rydel had split up about a year ago and she hadn't found someone new. Since they were still good friends it wasn't a rough break up, but I still wished she had someone. I hate showing off Matt to people who don't know what love is like.

"Tell me, Lacey, will your wedding night be your first time?" She pressed.

"Yes, it will be my first wedding night." Again, I smiled at Lauren's excitement.

I must say I'm pretty excited myself. We haven't set a date, but we're hoping to be married by next year. I guess Matt's pretty excited, too. He's been waiting for me for a long time now. But, he says that he's glad he's waited this time and that he knows it will only be better because of the wait. It makes me feel pretty special.

Lauren stomped her feet and gave up, knowing I wasn't going to give in just yet. "You are truly evil, truly, truly, evil." She gave me another hug and then stepped back to let someone else in.

I screamed and jumped into a huge hug with Reece. It was a quick hug, because Annie was waiting in line. The hug I gave her lasted a bit longer. "Thank you so much for coming, both of you."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Annie told me.

"I'm only here because I promised myself that if by some miracle you actually managed to graduate, I would be here to see the pigs flying." Reece winked at me.

I slapped his left arm while Annie hit his right. We laughed at how our thoughts were the same.

"Congratulations, Lacey." Reece hugged me again. "On the graduation and on the engagement. Let me tell you though, being married is like being in hell. Run now; run as fast as you can!" He was joking again and Annie knew it, but chose to give him another hit on the arm anyway.

"Oh, oh, Lacey. Random news for you." Lauren stepped back in and hooked her arm with mine, dragging me a few feet away from Reece and Annie.

She let go of my arm and stepped in front of me. "Are you ready for this?"

"Oh, I'm a college graduate, I'm ready for anything."

"Okay, well, I heard about oh maybe half a year ago that Candace's mom was trying again to get them to let Candace out of the mental institution."

Oh God, I don't want to hear this. There is one thing I hate about Lauren; she still talks about Candace from time to time. Mostly, it's just updates about Candace and her family. But it's still annoying.

I let her continue despite the fact that even now my scar still ached at the mention of Candace's name.

"Well, they tell her that if she argued with them one more time, that they'd let her come in and join her daughter permanently!"

"God, that woman is just as crazy as Candace is."

"So I've heard. She tried again! They locked her up! Candace's dad even signed the papers to have her committed! Isn't that great?"

"You're kidding?" I laughed. "Oh my God, that's actually awesome."

"So yeah, happy graduation and spread the good news!" Lauren skipped away and I laughed at her.

Oh this is a happy week.

"Well." A voice came from behind me.

I spun around and stared at my mom. "Well." I repeated back, smirking at her.

"Oh come here!" She pulled me into a huge hug that lasted longer than all the others put together. "I'm so proud of you, Lacey."

I giggled. "So am I!"

"Well, your apartment is all set up. Aorian had one of the waiters bring in a bunch of food and a cake Aorian made himself! It looks great. So, we better get back over there before the waiter decides he should eat it all."

"Which waiter?"

"Pudgers."

I laughed. Oh Pudgers.

Mom has been a big part of the Aorian restaurant for nearly five years now. She'd assigned nicknames to all of the employees, and one of the pudgier waiters ended up with Pudgy. Fortunately, Mom made sure that every time she hired someone, they had a good sense of humor! Pudgers made fun of himself more than anyone else did and practically came up with the name himself.

"I'm excited. I can't wait to see all the food he sent over. Plus, I can't wait to see how many cool people are actually showing up."

"A lot of other people had their graduations today, too, Lacey. You received all the party 'invites', so don't expect it to be a huge turn out."

"Oh please, Mom, who wouldn't want to come to my shin-dig?" I joked. "I don't want a huge-turn out, anyway. Just my good friends. They had all better be there."

"I'm sure they all will. Lauren flew out just this afternoon to be here! Have you thanked her yet?"

"Yes, Mom. I'm not a little kid anymore. I can thank people on my own."

"I'm just making sure. Jeez. One college degree and all of a sudden you think you're somebody important."

She stepped backed, pulling a camera from her pocket, and snapped a photo of me. Then she pulled him into another tight hug that managed to last longer than the first one.

These hugs are good; though long. I'd really miss them if anything ever happened to her.

I squeezed back. I wish Dad was here to see this, too.

MATT

College graduation. I have a college degree. It's still sort of hard to get used to, considering at one point in my life I remember swearing off college; saying if my parents got their degrees then I'd never get mine. And yet, here I am.

Reece gave me a hug and a handshake, and one of the guys who'd been in the majority of all of my classes gave me a handshake and promised he'd be at our graduation party a little later. He headed off to go congratulate some other guys, and probably promise to be at their parties as well.

"God man, you made it. How's it feel?" Reece asked me.

"So good, so damn good." I stole the sentence from him actually. It was what he'd said to me at his graduation ceremony a week ago.

He laughed. "How does it feel to be engaged?"

"Even better."

He shook his head at me. "Soon you'll be an old married couple like me and my old hag."

From out of nowhere, Annie appeared, slapping Reece's back. Well, it was more of a love-tap considering how hard she hit him.

He laughed at her and gave her a kiss.

He looked at me and slapped my shoulder. "I'm going to go congratulate the bride-to-be. We'll see you at your place in a bit."

He took Annie's hand and they walked over to Lacey.

I watched all of them talking to each other and couldn't help but smile.

Reece and I had become best friends over the years. The four of us would meet every semi-annually at his parents cabin in Colorado and spend a few days just hanging out. Even after him and Annie got married two years ago, we've been going back to the cabin and enjoying our vacation with them. They haven't let being married take them away from their social life; which comforts me for marrying Lacey, because I really enjoy our social life as it is. We hang out almost every week with a different group of friends. Lacey enjoys it as well. She really fits in here. I hope she's not too disappointed that we're not going to be seeing all our college buddies too much after today.

The account my parents left for me that they'd fortunately forgotten about had enough money to get me through four full years of college. It was how we'd managed to afford a lawyer good enough to put Candace in an institution for good. Not only did he put Candace away, but he also got Lacey and her mom an amazingly large settlement.

Uncle Aorian had been taking a small percentage out of Lacey's mom's paychecks every week and depositing it back into my account so I'd be able to go to college. I received some of the settlement money as well to help pay it off. I would've insisted that Lacey's mom not even bother paying me back at all, but they refused to call it a hand out.

Not that it really matters to them now. The settlement they got was big enough to put Lacey through college without a problem. Her mom even bought her a brand new car for her graduation. It's waiting back at our apartment right now. She's been driving her mom's old car and I've been driving a cheap Honda since the day we started college. Lacey will be very happy to have a new car and probably even happier to be able to sell her mom's old car. She hates it with a passion.

The whole ordeal took a little over two years from that miserable day at the cabin when Candace went off the deep end. The whole trial and sentencing itself took about a year and a half. From what our lawyer kept saying, it was a quick trial. For Lacey and myself though, it seemed like an eternity. It was the worst for Lacey. Every step of the way I was right there by her side, but at times there was still nothing I could do to make her feel any better. I'm sure she spent more time crying during that year that she has in her whole life, and from how much she cried, I hope she spent more time crying then that she will in the rest of her life to come.

The best thing is that it's all in the past now. Lacey couldn't be happier right now. I'd never seen her as happy as the day the trial ended. Every day since then has only been an improvement for her; as well as an improvement for us. I couldn't be happier right now.

Lacey and her mom have money. They're not rich, no where near it. But for once they are getting by without being in debt and without having to try so hard. Lacey's mom has even managed to get by working only part-time throughout most of the month. She's happy which makes Lacey happy.

Lacey is also happy because well, I haven't screwed up (terribly) in five years! I was amazed at how quickly she said yes when I asked her to marry me. I was afraid that she was still secretly angry with me for all the shit that happened so long ago. But it seems like she really has forgiven me and has forgotten about the whole mess for the most part as well. She's happy. That's all I want anymore.

I strive for it, I think. I spend most of the day trying to make her happy one way or another. She knows it, too. I love her so much.

Some days over the past few years, I've come across random memories. I feel as though I've always been in love with Lacey and I just never knew it before. I keep remembering things about our past, the before Candace days, things that remind me of why I love her so much. These memories I never knew existed before just keep coming to me over and over.

Several years ago Lacey made me promise not to push her for sex until we were married. It's been a hard five years so I'm pretty anxious for our wedding night right now. I almost feel like a born-again virgin. I've tried to completely forget that Candace and I ever had sex. If I think about it at all, then it doesn't make the first time with Lacey seem as special as it really is. I can't wait. God, I can't wait to be married to her! I can't wait to buy a house with her. I can't wait to have kids with her. I can't wait to grow old with her… God, I love her.