Lars and Riley waved back to Llewellyn and Lola, walking with their paws linked, from the couple's home. The night was chilly, but not unbearable. They'd been invited over for dinner, and Lola and Lars had gotten on together fantastically. Everything had been delicious and warm; everyone involved had an excellent time. Since Riley's house was in walking distance, and the weather was pleasant, the two decided to walk back, rather than catching an uber.   

“You were right." Said Lars, laughing. “She's lovely. And Llewellyn is fantastic fun." He was almost outright giggling. He'd been back to laughing for almost a week now, and it made Riley's heart swell with pride and love. The tiger had been solemn and serious for almost two weeks after everything that happened with Isaac. Riley had tried to give him the space he needed, but it had hurt to watch the love of his life's emotional state in such disrepair. He'd learnt by now though, that the best way to let Lars deal with stuff was to let him do it. He'd work through it, and ask for help where he needed. They'd spent a lot of nights together, cradled on the floor of Riley's bedroom, Lars just sobbing unbelievably.

“I thought you'd all get on. Llewellyn has…hmm, improved my life a great deal." Explained Riley. Lars nodded, squeezing his paw affectionately. They walked in silence for a while, before Lars spoke.

“We've been through so much." He said, quietly.

“Yeah." Replied Riley.

“I can't believe it, y'know? These things…I dunno. It's surreal." He said. Riley nodded in agreement.

“It's not over yet." He said. Isaac had been arrested for numerous charges, and was supposed to be having a trial in about nine months time. Riley and Lars were both going to be required to testify what had happened. At the same time, a small hearing would be taking place to decide the sentence for the good Reverend Marks. After Isaac's arrest, Riley hadn't felt safe knowing how deranged the family was. He sent the Reverend an encrypted email, saying:

In the next seventy-two hours, I'm sending that black book in to the police. You have two options, you can confess yourself now and try to save face when that happens…or just wait. They'll come for you. Don't worry.

He didn't sign who it was from, but he was pretty sure the Reverend would figure it out. Indeed he did, claiming God had 'spoken' to him, and told him the error of his ways. He managed to salvage some of his reputation, but he'd be in jail likely for years, child abuse was pretty frowned upon in the judicial system.  And Riley didn't have to explain his actions that night, he could remain totally separated from the instance.

“Hey." Said Lars, stopping. Riley stopped too, turning to him.

“What is it?" He asked.

“I just…" Began to the tiger awkwardly. “I dunno. I just wanted to tell you that I really love you. Thank you, so much, for being a part of my life." Riley beamed back at him.

“I love you too. Honestly. I'm so glad that we're together, it was worth the fight." Lars blushed. Then he leaned in, and the two engaged in a warm, soft kiss. It was a beautiful moment.

Isaac did end up being convicted of his various crimes, being sentenced to several years in prison. The Reverend suffered a similar fate, although his sentence was more like a decade. Lars and Riley eventually both graduated. Maybe they grew apart and split up, as many young romances do. But after all they had been through together, they probably stayed happily together for a long time. They would have had a healthy, happy relationship, if they did. Lars's family loved Riley like he was their own son. Lars got on extremely well with Riley's dad, and on one awkward occasion might've even managed to meet Riley's mother. It feels like there aren't many happy endings anymore; the world is often far too bleak and cynical for that. But maybe these two kids worked out okay. They probably did. You probably will too.

AUTHORS NOTE: I decided to write this at the very end, rather than at the top of this chapter. That way I would be free to talk about anything and not spoil it. If you read this far, thank you so, so much. I really rarely continue with long projects, but the frequent reinforcement and advice has been amazing. It's an incredible feeling to write something, and know that it actually had an emotional affect on somebody else.

I really enjoyed writing “Welcome to the Family", even though I never managed to change the title. I think my writing has gotten a lot better since I started, and especially since my last story. The entire text here, is twenty chapters long, including the epilogue that you're reading. In my word file (Using Cambria (Body), 14pt, 1.15pt spacing) it's 215 pages long. It has 61,000 words, 280,000 characters and I've apparently spent 2515 minutes working on it. I just thought they were pretty interesting statistics.

I hadn't meant for the story to focus so much on religion in the end, and I honestly hold nothing against religious people. But there are people out there who take it way too far. I'm sorry that the good people inside religions have to be associated with them.

I really hope that you enjoyed reading this, thank you so much. I hope the ending was okay, if maybe a little melodramatic.