Chapter 318 - Gray's Turn

A pleased smile crossed Gray's features as he saw the headline on a tabloid website. 'Aaron Hale Replaces Father As CEO In Unexpected Coup d'état' So he finally did it. Excellent.

Now it was Gray's turn to mess with their father. He had prepared the article weeks ago. All he had to do was send it to a journalist friend of his and it would hit the headlines the following morning.

With Aaron's news already trending, the Hale family would be in the spotlight. It was the perfect time to release additional news. People ate this stuff up.

He could imagine how the news of the two most eligible bachelors in the city secretly being brothers would make waves. Even more would be made when they found out that one of them was already married.

He sincerely hoped Keeley was prepared to handle the news. It was inevitable that someone would figure out who she was sooner or later.

Gray sent off the article to his friend and leaned back in his chair, perfectly at ease. The police hadn't come looking for him again, his father was getting what he deserved, and all was right in the world.

===

Aaron had texted her that his takeover was successful during his lunch break so she finally felt comfortable updating her last name, marriage status, and pictures on social media. The person they were trying to hide it from already knew so there was no point now.

Instantly, astonished comments began flooding in from people she hadn't seen in years.

'Since when do you have kids?!'

'YOU MARRIED AARON HALE?!?!?!'

'Twins? You had twins?'

'How did you end up with the most eligible bachelor in New York?'

To mess with them all, she simply responded with a smirking face emoji. It wasn't really any of their business and it would be a nightmare to explain.

The caption to her group of pictures was 'A lot has happened in the past year but I wouldn't change it for the world' and a heart emoji. Her post included pictures of the wedding, of the babies, and of their trip to Niagara Falls.

A notification came in; Aaron had liked her post. Of course he did. He was probably thrilled he could show her off now. He was weird that way.

She scrolled through Instagram and did a double take when she saw a series of pictures posted from inside her house. Of Dinah. Of the babies. And of her. She definitely didn't post them so who—?

Her eyes flicked up to the username and saw hail.storm, her long-time follower, was the culprit. Keeley let out a frustrated noise. That idiot was following her on Instagram the entire time and never said anything?! She didn't even know he had an account!

She shot him an annoyed text. 'When were you going to tell me about your Instagram account?'

'I just did' he replied with a smiley face tacked onto the end.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, she calmed herself. This wasn't worth getting upset over. It simply proved that Aaron was even more of a devoted sap than she thought. And she already knew he was pretty sappy.

'You're ridiculous, I hope you know that'

'Yeah, but you still love me'

Keeley rolled her eyes. He was going to hold that over her forever, wasn't he? She would regret telling him if not for how happy he had been.

It was true anyway. She wasn't like he used to be—if someone said 'I love you' to her and she truly loved them back, she had to say so. She had punished him long enough.

The past was dead. Aaron of the present was an excellent husband and father. He made her feel loved, made her laugh, and supported her dreams. He was her best friend yet again.

Cries came through the baby monitor and Keeley put her phone down to go check on her children. They were probably hungry; they had been napping for a while.

Feeding them was a lot harder when Aaron wasn't home. She had to listen to one cry while feeding the other and it both broke her heart and gave her a bit of a headache.

"Hang in there Violet," she soothed. "Kaleb will be done eating soon and then it will be your turn."

Violet didn't stop crying. Of course she didn't. She was hungry; words meant nothing. What mattered was food.

Once both of the babies were fed, burped, and had their diapers changed, she set them down on their padded mat under a mobile and began reading to them. They listened happily to their mother's voice and kicked their feet in the air.

When Aaron came home the babies were in their bouncers and Keeley was making dinner. He kissed her cheek as he presented her with a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream.

"I thought we could have ice cream later to celebrate our victory today."

The side of her mouth lifted. "Our victory? Pretty sure this one was all you. I had nothing to do with it. You've been working on this for a long time."

He shook his head. "You were the motivation behind it all. Besides, you did help me hold him off by pretending to be Bethany Carlisle a few times."

Still, it didn't feel like much of a contribution. But her heart skipped a beat at the reminder that he did this all for her.

Eight years ago. He started down this road eight years ago because he loved her and wanted them to be together safely. It had been such a long time and he never gave up.

She abandoned the vegetables she was cutting and threw her arms around him, enveloping Aaron in a tight hug. He returned the embrace eagerly.

"What's that for?" he asked with a slight laugh.

"I'm glad you didn't give up on me," she admitted. "I didn't make things easy for you."

"And I didn't make things easy for you so now we're even. I've told you before—you didn't give up on me when we first met so I could never give up on you."

Keeley's arms sn.a.k.e.d around his neck and she kissed him until all the feelings that were ready to make her heart burst had worked their way out. She didn't have words to describe how happy she was that they were finally able to be together safely and in love like they always should have been.