By the time the adults had recovered enough to go inside, they found three little girls fast asleep on the ground.
One by one, fathers put their daughters to bed. Jason carried Cyllia.
Grace picked up Aliya and looked around for someone to come and kiss the little girl good night, only to see that the little girl who once had two daddies now had none.
Now Jason's only daughter was Cyllia, and Blake had severed all ties with his stepdaughter in the divorce.
At least things can only go uphill from here, Grace thought grimly as she smiled down at her daughter and whispered, "Good night." Little did she know how very wrong she was.
Everyone else in the house had already repaired their broken heart and reunited with loved ones.
"What am I to you?" Blake wondered as he and Mist lay on the bed. "Do you love me?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Mist answered, rolling her eyes.
More than I've loved anyone else. "Do you think I'm going soft in my old age?"
"Would you still have chosen me, Jason? Even if she won the poll?"
Jason opened his mouth to say yes, of course, but then he looked past Treasure and saw Grace. Grace, and him, as they had been before all of this mess. He saw a door that he knew was closed forever, but couldn't help regretting--what would have happened, he wondered, if he'd remained true to her? Before she stopped loving him and began to hate him for the best reasons in the world. They would have been so happy together.
"Of course I would have chosen you," he assured Treasure, and they kissed.
"We can't kick Grace out because she's heir," Treasure continued as they cuddled on the bed in their underwear, "but we
can make life miserable enough that she'll leave on her own! If the brat doesn't go with her, we'll just lock it in a basement somewhere with a fridge."
"Great!" Jason answered, genuinely enthusiastic. The less he had to see of Grace, the better. Aliya would have to go with her--she was just another reminder of the life there might have been.
That night, Grace slept alone for the first time in years, in the bedroom she and Jason had built together for the life they imagined. She tossed and turned all night, which turned out to be a mistake, considering how little sleep she got over the next few days.
It started with the potty chairs that needed to be emptied, flashing Grace back to her awful childhood. She had been locked in the basement for years, only let out for the most disgusting of tasks--much like her life now, she reflected bitterly.
Then there were the piles of dirty dishes by the sink, which no one else seemed bothered to clean up. At this point, Grace was beginning to regret the skimpy sleepwear, since she hadn't had time to change and was in a house with two ex-lovers.
"
Graaaaaace!" Treasure called in a sing-song voice as she walked down the hall. "Could you feed and change the girls? The rest of us are busy--celebrating, you know."
By the time these first few tasks were done, Cyllia had thrown up on herself and needed a bath, which took another half hour.
Jason took the little girl without thanks and started playing with her while Aliya wailed in the nursery unattended, having learned only one of the necessary skills.
Mist also sat in the nursery, enjoying the company of a child for the first time in her life. Who knew having a daughter could be so much fun?
Grace showered to clean off the vomit then frantically tried to spend some time with her daughter before another natural disaster popped up. She hadn't realized before how hard being a single mother would be, and that wasn't even including the housekeeping everyone seemed to expect.
She went to take a nap before collapsing from exhaustion, only to discover that the wall going into the hallway had been removed as a joke--"I guess you won't need privacy in the bedroom any more," Treasure giggled as Mist cackled.
Instead, Grace returned to the nursery to play with Aliya, only to stop after a few minutes. She had never been so heartbroken, miserable, tired, and lonely in her life. At least, as a child, she'd never known what it was like to be happy, privileged, loved.
"Sorry, Aliya," she murmured to her daughter. "Time for mommy to go to bed."
For once, Jason and Blake were actually getting along, perhaps because they were no longer sleeping with each other's wives. They played chess together much of the time, sometimes discussing the merits of Treasure vs. Grace--men, right?
"Hey, Jason," Treasure greeted him as soon as she was done removing the wall from Grace's room and dumping out all the trash bins.
"I missed you," Jason whispered with a kiss. "Come on, I have something to show you."
Treasure had never been happier in her life.
