Dear Ex Wife Please take me back by The Every Woman

ATHENA

Five years later.....

"Rayen, not too much water! You're flooding the whole kingdom!" I call out as I dig my toes into the warm sand.

He rolls his eyes in a way that only a nine-year-old who thinks he's the smartest person alive can. "It's for the moat, Mum. A castle needs a defense system."

"Obviously,” Alex says beside me, reaching over to smear sunscreen across my shoulder. "He gets his strategy from me."

"And the attitude," I mutter, shooting him a look.

A giggle interrupts next to us, two actually, and I glance down to where the twins are crouched by the sandcastle, their little hands covered in wet sand and their faces glowing with excitement.

Four years old and already impossible to keep still.

Asher is trying to carve a tunnel through the base of the castle while Alina carefully arranges seashells on the turrets.

Both of them have blonde hair like spun sunlight and green eyes sharp as emeralds.

Totally miniature versions of their father.

I swear my genes didn't even put up a fight.

"I carried them for nine months," I grumble playfully, poking Alex in the side. "I went through labor, and all I got was being the emotional support parent. You took all the genes."

Alex laughs, the sound low and warm, pulling me closer with an arm around my waist. "You gave them your heart. That's the most important part."

I try to pretend I'm annoyed, but my smile betrays me. I rest my head on his shoulder, watching our children build a kingdom in the sand like the world has never known pain.

This.

This is the life I never thought I'd have.

Rayen runs up suddenly, tossing himself into the sand beside me and brushing sand off his shorts.

"Mum, guess what?"

"What?"

queen of

"Oh, did you now?"

tower. "But Daddy has to be the

groans, already rising. "Of course

as always. And I sit here, hand on my heart, watching the man I once hated become the man

This right here?

is our

ALEX

my fake

a plastic shovel as a sword and starts swinging at

something about lava traps, while Alina, my sweet little

Deadly ones.

Apparently.

dragon?" I boom, my

squeals, "We shall defeat you with

prepare to lose,

tumbles backward into the sand, her curls bouncing with every

near them

The dragon has been defeated. Oh

of me, cackling

"Victory is ours!"

and it hits me all over again.

is what we

still clinging to my back like a monkey,

now, her

hips, pretending the 4like

with

looks just as

laid eyes

she's

s

She's mine.

we call the kingdom?" Rayen asks, nudging

head in