{143} ✔️

A/N: The final chapter! So proud of it!

There will be six updates after this one and I'm posting them all at once so in case you don't get the notifications, please make sure to check them out! I'm posting a Q&A, The Soundtrack, Official Cast, Sequel announcement, etc. (Posting them in an hour) and I'll be posting the first chapter of the sequel in four hours!

Dahlia's outfit:

Kit's outfit:

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Dahlia's POV

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"There's, like, fifty people in there who all look like clones of you. I don't mean to alarm anyone when I say this, but I think the government is finally taking over the world with all their robots and—"

"What's in there is far scarier than any robot takeover," I cut Billie off as I gently pushed her to the side and then peered through the window myself. "It looks like...A family reunion."

Everyone behind us gasped dramatically and I nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I said it. Everyone must've come down to see Denny and Julia's baby. My family is great, don't get me wrong! My aunts and uncles are really cool, my cousins are nice...It's just when everyone gets together it's so chaotic." I explained.

"Yeah. Really chaotic." Cora mumbled.

"It can't be that bad." Billie shrugged.

"Picture this; Doe family barbecue, summer of 2016." I cringed as Cora started talking, already knowing where the story was gonna go. "Dad is hosting, of course. Everyone's invited. All is well for a couple of hours and then it happens. Nana drinks six shots of the Hennessy she smuggled in, removes her underwear and puts them on top of grandpa's hamburger. 'Eat me!' She yells angrily after he and Genevieve talk about her small ass just one too many times. 'And eat my shitty drawers too!' Genevieve gets angry and takes her earrings out, Nana ties her hair up, and since nobody can get to them quick enough, they start to fight. Only, Genevieve can't fight. So, what really happens is, Nana whoops her ass for a good bit until she loses her balance, and then Genevieve drags her through the yard by her ponytail. Nana is wearing a dress. Nana's underwear is on grandpa's hamburger... Do you see where I'm going with this?" Cora raised her brow.

"Yo, I don't believe this!" Kit cackled. "Nana a real G!"

"That...Didn't sound so bad," Billie tried to sound enthusiastic but failed. "That was just one occurrence and we're used to Nana being a little crazy by now!"

"Oh, but it's not just Nana! See, if it was just Nana we could handle it, but it's Nana, grandpa, and all their crazy-ass offspring and all their crazy-ass offspring too!" Cora shook her head.

"We don't have all day so I'm just gonna sum this up as quickly as I can," I sighed. "Same day, same barbecue. Grandpa moons Nana and spits his dentures into her iced tea, my dad and his brother, Jep, happen to be very competitive, and so, change into their high school wrestling gear and have a match right in the front yard...Where the neighbors could see-"

"Yeah, that was the summer I saw half your dad's nut sack," Caden mumbled. "No offense, but it wasn't a pretty sight."

"—My aunt Juliette throws my aunt Jennifer into the pool and tries to electrocute her with my dad's grill which she also...Pushed into the pool. Hotdogs and hamburger patties are floating around in there with aunt Jennifer, mind you, and before she can even think to get out, my uncle Jax is jumping from the roof of the house and into the pool simply because uncle Jep dared him to a little earlier."

"Yeah, and Nana takes grandpa's belt right from out of his pants and whoops him for it, then when grandpa tried to get the belt back she tried to choke him with it and only failed because Genevieve threw a bowl of mashed potatoes at her head—" Cora sighed.

"—Same time all this is going on, Denny's drinking up Nana's Hennessy while he sits in the bathtub, hiding from the rest of the family, and Cora's hiding in her closet from our twin cousins, Rori and Uriah, who happen to be a year younger than her and three years bigger than her in size—"

"But hiding didn't work because before I can ask God to take me they're slamming my door open, yanking me out, and playing hot potato with me. I was the potato. Then when they got tired of that they decided to play jump rope with me. I was the jump rope. Then when they got sick of that they decided to play hangman with me, only it was the real-life version where you actually have to hang someone. Guess who the hangman was." Cora shivered as she remembered it.

"And dad's unable to help get shit under control because he's too busy icing the now sprained back that he has despite having won the wrestling match and putting out the fire that my cousins, Kendall and Korey, started when they were just supposed to be in the kitchen warming up chocolate chip cookies. They couldn't reach the microwave so they decided to just put them in the oven." I added.

"Screaming and crying children running around everywhere, aunt Jasmine's nipple starts bleeding when she—too exhausted to do anything right—starts breastfeeding the wrong child, who happens to be seven at the time, and Dahlia almost breaks her neck trying to prove to a then two-year-old child that she can do a back handspring. Spoiler alert: She could not do a back handspring."

"I can now!" I added quickly.

"A lot more happened at that barbecue but I've worked hard to repress those memories so I don't wanna let them come back to the surface." Cora shook her head.

"And now...For the first time in three years...It looks like all our family is here again." I mumbled as I looked through the window again. I gasped as one of our little cousins seemingly spotted us. "Everybody get down!" I whisper yelled, ducking to hide behind a bush.

"Don't make any sudden movements!" Cora hissed.

"You guys are being ridiculous!" Bea whispered. "Everybody's family is a little crazy sometimes, but they're family! What are we gonna do, hide out here all day?"

"We could do that or we could get back on the bus and head back to Arizona." I shrugged.

"You should feel ashamed of yourselves," Cooper's voice made me jump and turn to him. I thought he was still on the damn bus. "I'd never treat my family like this. Course, they all live in Asia, so it's not like I could even if I wanted to—"

"Man, get the fuck—"

"We need to get in there and see your brother's baby!" Ken exclaimed, cutting me off. "I don't care how crazy your family is, I wanna see it!"

"I can ask him to send us a picture or something?" Cora suggested. "His phone's camera quality is A1, dude, I swear it's, like, better than my eyesight!"

"Get your asses up, take a deep breath, and let's go in here and greet your family!" Kit ordered as she grabbed each of our arms and pulled us up.

"Take me under this bush!"

"I love you, please screw me!"

Cora and I glared at each other after we spoke at the same time. I rolled my eyes as I begrudgingly brushed myself off and then put on a face that I'm hoping didn't look as alarmed as I felt.

I love getting to see my aunts and uncles, my Nana and grandpa, and even all my badass cousins. But it's just...Together?! We're all fucking lunatics! I want nothing to do with this.

"Promise you'll still love me even if aunt Juliette starts talking about her favorite sex toys?" I sighed, squeezing Billie's hand.

She smirked. "How old did you say she was again? Is she the fine one with the long, straight hair and the thick booty walking around in that pink pants suit?"

"We're divorcing, you'll be hearing from my lawyers." I mumbled before letting go of her hand and knocking on the door.

I let out a deep breath and pumped myself up as I heard what sounded like a thousand pairs of feet running for the door at once.

When it opened, I was attacked with hugs from some of my little cousins.

The hugs didn't stop for about...Thirty minutes after that. After walking into the house, a thousand questions were thrown my way about school, my vacation, my goals and plans for the future, my relationship status, everything.

This is going to be a really long day.

***

"Okay, I'm gonna go quickly so try to keep up," I told all my friends as we stood in the living room entrance. "That's uncle Jep, he's thirty-nine, his three kids are Korey, the ten-year-old, Kendall who's fourteen, and Penny who's five. His wife is Rachel, the pretty red-headed lady over there screaming at whoever she's talking to on the phone. See that woman over there yelling at all the kids? That's aunt Jasmine, she's thirty-six, and she's the mom of the twins, Rori and Uriah who are fifteen..." I stopped and frowned as I looked at them. Had they gotten smaller?

I mean, they're not small, they're about dad and Denny's height, but they're lanky as hell. They used to be kinda fat. Huh. Maybe Cora won't have to worry about them being so rough with her anymore. At the very least, if they decide to sit on her head or form a dogpile on top of her again, she probably won't pass out this time.

"Ugh, aunt Jasmine is married to Wyatt, the curly-haired dude over there munching on carrots. Then there's aunt Jennifer and she's thirty-three, her husband is Michael, the blonde guy over there dancing with the little girl in the tutu, who happens to be one of their kids. She's five. Her name is Blaise. Her other two kids are Brick, who's ten, and Perrie who I think is three months old this month." I pointed at everyone as I explained who they were. "That's aunt Juliette, she's single, no kids—"

"Oh, so she is the fine one with the pink pants suit." Billie smirked.

I elbowed her in the side and continued on. "And then that's Jax and he's single, no kids." I finished, letting out a long breath afterward.

"Good to know," Heidi grinned. "He's sexy."

"Ew," I mumbled. "Okay, now that you know who everyone is, go mingle! We're gonna go up to the guest room cause that's where Denny and Julia are—"

"What? You can't just leave us down here! These people are apparently crazy!" Jessica gasped.

"Well, we need to go see the baby and we can't all go in at the same time, so—"

"We'll just wait outside the door in a single file line and wait our turns!" Ori stated quickly. "We're not staying down here in the midst of this chaos, though! I heard your Nana tell somebody to suck her right ass cheek a few minutes ago!"

"Fine, but don't make too much noise when we get upstairs." I sighed.

They all agreed and we quickly made our way up the stairs, narrowly avoiding all the people trying to start conversations with us as we went.

When we were outside of the guest room door, I knocked softly on it and let out a deep breath.

"I can't believe I'm about to meet my niece or nephew!" I whisper yelled to Billie.

"I hope it looks like me. I'm adorable!" Cora giggled.

A few moments later, Denny was opening the door with a tired smile. "Hey guys. How was your va—"

"Take us to the child!" Billie demanded, wearing a blank face.

"Alright then, bitch, way to be creepy." He mumbled before opening the door wider.

Billie, Cora, the twins, Jessica, and I got to go in first and the rest of our friends waited outside.

"Hi!" Julia whispered, gesturing for us to come over. She was lying in bed, holding the baby close to her chest, and I gasped as I got a good look at her.

"Julia...Why do you look good?" I questioned.

"What?" She laughed.

"You had a baby three days ago, you're supposed to look like trash!" I told her.

"It's very hard for me to look anything but wonderful." She joked.

We all got closer to the bed and I squeezed my hands together as we waited for her to move the blanket she had wrapped around the baby a little so we could see it's face.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Jessica chanted quietly after seeing the baby's face. "Is that—"

"Yep!" Julia smirked. "It's a girl! Just as I told Denny it would be." She gloated.

Jessica and Cora quietly high fived after realizing that they'd guessed the gender right. Denny rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, this is the first time in my life that I've ever been wrong about anything, so...I guess you just got lucky." He chuckled.

I grinned as I watched them. Neither of them could seem to take their eyes off of the beautiful little baby in Julia's arms. I could feel my cold heart warming up as I stared at them. Yuck. This is too cute.

Oh my god, Denny hasn't even cussed at me yet and I've been standing in this room for like two minutes...That's insane!

And when he saw me and Cora, he smiled and asked us all how our vacation was...He didn't mess up our hair or rub our faces in his armpits or wipe his spit on us...This baby's only been here for three days and it's already making my life better!

Holy shit! This is incredible! I can't believe—

"You look stupid today, by the way." He grinned, looking up at me for a brief second before his eyes flickered right back down to the baby.

Oh.

"Well, what's the angel's name?" Caden asked.

"Well, I don't know if you guys will like it, but it's a lot better than naming her 'Clitoris' or 'Osteoporosis'." Julia giggled. "Her name is Barbie Kailee Presley Doe."

"Oh my gosh, that's so cute!" Cadence whisper yelled.

"That's adorable!" Jessica grinned. "We're aunts!" She said, turning to hug me and Cora.

"W-We got it presents," Billie mumbled. "They're out in the bus."

I giggled as I grabbed her hand, trying to make her feel more comfortable. She'd been standing there stiff as a board the whole time, side-eyeing the baby as if she'd jump up and attack her at any time.

"Billie, you look like you're gonna pass out." Denny laughed.

"Yeah...Here, why don't you sit next to me?" Julia smiled, sending me a sly look as she scooted over to make room for her. I nodded quickly as Billie began trying to argue, and I pushed her so that she was sitting down and then put her legs onto the bed.

She froze in her spot after turning to look at Barbie again, her eyes widening as she watched the sleeping baby.

"Wow, my arms are really tired. Maybe you could hold her for me? Just for a few minutes?" Julia didn't wait for her to reply before carefully placing the baby in her arms, even as she—and everyone else in the room who'd seen Billie hold a baby before—argued.

"Julia, I'm going to murder you as soon as this baby is old enough to fend for itself!" She whisper yelled.

"See, she's nothing to be afraid of," Julia ignored Billie's threats as she readjusted her position so she was more comfortable. "She's really no trouble. I mean, she's a baby so obviously, she cries, but not that much. She mostly just sleeps a lot! Just like you." She smirked.

Billie was too busy staring at Barbie to pay attention to what she was saying. The longer she stared, the more her facial expression changed. At first, she looked like she was gonna vomit any second, and then slowly but surely, her expression changed from one of terror to one of awe, a small smile making its way onto her face.

I knew she'd probably try to act like a hardass if we said anything, so I pretended not to stare at her as I began talking to Denny again.

"So, hows everything going so far? You know, with the family? Uncle Jax hasn't jumped off of anything has he?"

He smirked. "No, everyone's been on their best behavior so far. I was a little worried about them all being here, but dad suggested we invite everyone to meet the baby and apparently he's got an announcement that required them to be here. He promised to keep everyone in line and so far so good. I mean, except for earlier when Nana pushed Genevieve down the stairs, but I can't blame dad for that. Nobody can control Nana."

My eyes widened as he mentioned the fact that Nana had pushed the poor woman down the stairs. He noticed and waved it off. "She's fine. She landed on top of uncle Jep. Anyway, now all the family's met the baby and that went well. After everyone else gets to see her, I'm gonna come downstairs so dad can make his announcement."

We all talked for a few more minutes before heading out of the room again. Denny had told us that Billie's family was here too, and so were Julia's parents, so we headed to go find them.

"You held the baby, you held the baby." I sang, poking Billie's sides as we walked. She rolled her eyes and pushed my hand away, trying to hide her smile.

"Oh, shut up." She blushed.

"Holy fuck!" Cora whisper yelled, stopping in her tracks as she stared down at her phone.

"What's up?" I questioned curiously.

"Hayes just texted and asked if he could stop by!" She whisper yelled. "He's apparently been waiting for me to get back and—Oh my god, I have to go change!" She shrieked.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Slow your roll." I said, grabbing her arm to keep her from running away. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

She rolled her eyes and let out a small sigh. "I know you don't like him, but seriously—"

"No, no, it's not about that! It's just...As much as I don't like the guy, even he doesn't deserve to have to meet all our family...Like at once." I shook my head. "I know they're being good for right now, but I'm calling it now, Nana's gonna refill her flask one too many times, grandpa's gonna get on her nerves and she's gonna try to choke him again, and then everyone else will join in on the chaos."

"I'm willing to take my chances! He's really hot and I'd like to see his hotness in person!" She squealed before running off. "I'll be back in twenty! I gotta go home and change!"

"I'm gonna keep an eye on those two." Billie mumbled.

***

About an hour later, and everyone besides Julia and the baby was gathered around in the living room for dad's big announcement. My dad, much like the rest of the family, is naturally pretty damn pale, but I don't think I've ever seen this man looking whiter than he is right now.

"Are you okay?" I whispered to him, causing him to jump. I guess he hadn't realized that I'd made my way over to where he was standing by the stairs. He looked down at me and sent me what was supposed to be a smile, but it looked more like a cringe.

He was acting really suspicious. "Dad, is everything okay? Did you commit a crime? I'm no snitch, you can tell me—"

"It's fine! I'm fine! Everything's great!" He whisper yelled, trying to sound excited.

I looked over at Josephine who happened to be standing right next to him, and she simply sighed and grabbed his hand, trying to comfort him.

"Okay, everyone, all eyes on Mr. Doe!" Cadence screamed over all the noise. Dad had asked her to be in charge of getting everyone's attention, and he was smart to do so. "Any unnecessary chatter will result in the immediate removal of you and whoever you're chatting with! If you refuse to go peacefully, you'll be taken by force!"

"She's hot." Uriah whispered to Rori. I cringed.

"Um, thank you for that, Cadence." Dad smiled. "Now, we have some big announcements to, you know...Announce. Um, the first one is that...Ugh...Well—" He chuckled nervously as his eyes flickered between Denny, Cora, and I.

"You're sending one of us off to military school, aren't you?" I shook my head. I bet it's gonna be Cora. I'm a good child! For the most part. I don't get into much trouble.

Other than getting a nude leaked, fighting multiple people, beating my own mom up, taking pills not prescribed to me and going binge drinking after a temporary breakup, I've done practically nothing wrong!

Ah shit.

I'm going to military school.

"Dad, I swear to god, I can change!" I told him quickly.

"You're not going to military school, Dahlia." He rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't look good in the uniform."

"Wow, okay, I—"

"Josephine got pregnant and now she's engaged!" He yelled, pointing at her and stepping away from her as he did.

"Damn, you did Doe daddy wrong." Kit mumbled.

Josephine's eyes widened as she looked at him and then back at us. "I—Um...He got me pregnant and asked me to marry him." She whispered.

"Holy shit!" I yelled.

"We really are gonna be cousins!" Cadence yelled as she ran over to me and brought me in for a hug. "I can't wait!"

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Denny grinned as he went over to hug dad and Josephine, who looked shocked.

"We thought you guys might be a little freaked out. I mean, we've only been seeing each other for seven months and I'm already three months pregnant." Josephine mumbled.

"B-but we're not getting married just because she's pregnant!" Dad quickly added. "It's just that...I really love her and everything so...Yeah." He blushed.

"Well, I think this is great!" Cora smiled. "Now there's gonna be two girls in the house again! Hopefully, three when that baby is born." She winked.

"I told yall's asses," Nana coughed as she walked up to us, quickly putting out the cigarette she'd lit up before she did. "I knew she was pregnant all this time! I know a pregnant woman when I see one. I was pregnant six times, for shit's sake!"

"Yeah, and you owe Nana an apology for 'cursing her out' a while back when she offered to come over with some gifts for the baby." I smirked.

Dad rolled his eyes. "Sorry, mama. I was just a little freaked out about the fact that you somehow knew about Josephine's pregnancy before anyone had the chance to tell you."

"That's okay, you'll make up for it later," Nana smiled, squeezing his cheeks. "A diamond necklace will do just fine. It'll got nicely with the diamond ring Ms. Harmon's husband got me!" She grinned as she held her hand out for dad to see.

Almost everyone in the room let out a loud gasp as they came over to see the big, nice looking ring.

"William? Come here!" She called.

A few seconds later, an older man appeared, smiling brightly at us all as he wrapped an arm around Nana.

"This is my husband, William. Doesn't he look better than your grandpa?" She grinned, poking Cora.

"Maybe in another world!" Grandpa shouted, pushing his way through the crowd and towards them. Genevieve was following closely behind.

"What do you mean 'husband'? Don't you mean fiancé?" I asked Nana.

"Oh, no, honey. We were gonna wait a while to get married, but then I got bored. Everybody else had summer plans and there wasn't nothing for me to do so I just said to William, 'William, why don't we gone ahead and get married so we can get that out of the way?' Cause you know I plan on starting a garden soon and I've got other things to do too. Few months from now, I wouldn't have had the time to get married so we went on up to Vegas and did what we had to do and came back." She explained.

"Well, congratulations!" I smiled.

"Thank you, honey. And you'll never guess what else happened!" She smiled. "We got us a house down here, closer to you guys! Now I'm just a twenty-minute drive away! And that's good too, cause this way you can come over and help me make all my social media accounts and help me take my selfies when I get ready too. And I can pop in on you and make sure you and Bella keep having safe lesbian sex!"

"It's Billie and...That's great." I sighed, trying to smile.

"Well, I think it's a damn shame you're closer to us!" Grandpa grumbled. "I don't wanna risk running into you at the grocery store or something. It's bad enough I have to see you when we come to family events like these!"

"Believe me, you won't catch Justine in any ratty old grocery store that you must shop in. We like to eat healthily, so we go to the farmers market." William told him. They glared at each other as they stepped closer to one another.

"Everybody back up." Dad whisper yelled as he shoo'd us away from them.

I knew this was gonna get ugly.

I sent Cora an 'I told you so' look as she quickly told Hayes that what he was about to witness might be slightly unsettling.

"You must be the ex-husband she's been telling me about. The ugly one that could never last in bed." William smirked as he stared at grandpa.

I covered my face with my hand, splitting my fingers open so I could still watch the scene play out.

"You must have the wrong ex-husband! John is perfect in bed, he can go all night long." Genevieve said as she narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to them.

"I'm so disgusted right now, but also, this is tea." Billie whispered.

"Of course he can last a long time with you, Genevieve, you're ugly! But it's when he begins thinking of Nana Justine that he finally gets his release." Nana smirked.

"Mama, there are children present—" Aunt Jennifer tried.

"I've had it with you, Justine! All you are is a bitter old bitch!" Genevieve screamed.

"A bitter bitch, maybe, but old? I don't think so." Nana chuckled as she swung her ponytail around.

"Don't talk to my wife that way, woman!" William jumped in, pointing a finger in her face.

"You better watch your tone when you speak to my lady, Wilson!" Grandpa yelled, slapping his finger away before getting into his face.

"I could say the same to you, Josh!" William growled. "You're very disrespectful to Justine, and the way you treat her, I can't imagine treating any lady!"

"Well, I can't imagine treating any lady like that myself, but Justine isn't a lady! She's a wild animal! An ugly one at that!" Grandpa spat.

"I may purr like a kitten when rubbed the right way, but I am no animal!" Nana yelled.

I hid my face behind Billie's back, trying to hide my laughter.

"I've about had it with you already, boy," William mumbled as he rolled up his sleeves. "I'm a man of many words, but I won't be using them today! I'd rather use my fists. Come on!" He wiggled his fingers at grandpa as he squatted a little, getting ready to fight.

"Alright now, that's enough of that!" Dad tried to get in between them, but Nana quickly pushed him back. "Don't make me get the belt on you, Joseph!" She warned him.

"Nana, don't you think—" Denny cut himself off as grandpa tackled William to the ground, and they began throwing slow punches at one another. I gasped loudly and covered my mouth with my hands as I watched them.

The room erupted into chaos as all my aunts and uncles rushed to get the kids out of the room and break up the fight between grandpa and William. All my aunts and uncles except for Uncle Jax, who simply continued licking the ice cream cone he had as he came to stand next to me.

He gave me a side hug before greeting Denny and Cora as well, and then he focused on his ice cream again. "They know damn well they're too old to be fighting like this. Somebody's gonna break a hip, and I hope it's not dad because he doesn't have any insurance."

"Get your bony little hands off of my husband!" Nana screeched as she pushed Genevieve away from the two men.

"Well, I, for one, care about my husband's health and I don't want him rolling around on the floor throwing punches with the Neanderthal you brought with you!" Genevieve shouted.

"If you can spell Neanderthal, I'll give you ten thousand dollars right now!" Nana let out a sarcastic laugh. "And why don't you just tell the truth and shame the devil? You just wanna break up the fight because you know my William is gonna kick his ass! John was always a weak one. He's fine running his mouth, but when it's time to actually put up his fists, he gets to sweating like a whore in church!"

"What the hell do you know about church?" Genevieve scoffed. "Don't you spend most of your time these days worshipping the devil? You look like hell, you might as well worship the creator of it."

"You know what I think, Genevieve?" Nana asked as she picked up a nearby pitcher of water. I backed up even more as I watched her. "I think you're a thirsty ass bitch, so drink up!" She yelled before tossing the water at her.

"Wow, Doe, your family is so much cooler than I thought." Hayes told Cora, smirking down at her.

"I'm sending this shit to world star." Kit said as she held her phone up, clearly recording.

Genevieve stood there shocked for a minute before she picked up a pitcher of lemonade.

"Now, Genevieve, don't you dare—"

She cut Nana off by throwing the lemonade on her, causing her to scream loudly.

"Oh, how the tables have turned." Genevieve chuckled.

"No, the tables have remained the same!" Nana screamed before taking her shoe off. "Bring your ass over here!" She yelled, holding her shoe up in the air as she began chasing after Genevieve.

I shook my head and rubbed my temples as I looked back at grandpa and William, who were still being pried apart.

"I'll kill you, you old bastard!" Grandpa yelled as he clawed the poor man's face.

***

It took a little over forty minutes to restore the peace, even with Cadence screaming through her bullhorn, which usually did the trick.

Nana and Genevieve sat on opposite sides of the room with towels wrapped around their shoulders. Grandpa and William glared at each other as they comforted their ladies.

The little kids had all been brought back into the room, giggling and whining because they missed the fight. Cadence had made all our friends stand strategically around the room to make sure that Nana and Genevieve couldn't get to each other again if one of them started a fight.

"If either of them makes a sudden movement, they are to be tackled to the ground and restrained immediately, no questions asked until the room is secure again!" She'd told them.

Dad and his siblings were now standing by the stairs again, all looking disheveled after the long battle.

"Okay...On to the next announcement." Aunt Juliette sighed.

"Right," Dad smiled. "Dahlia, do you remember a while back when I told you things would be changing around here soon?" He asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Well, I meant it! I feel bad that I've missed out on so much of you guys' lives. I still feel like I just haven't been there enough for you guys. I've worked so hard to have the career that I wanted and I love my job and I love graphic design, but working at the office that I work at now has taken so much of my time throughout the years. So...I quit my job a few weeks ago."

Me and my siblings gasped loudly.

"Aw hell, y'all finna go broke." Caden shook his head.

"You quit your job with a baby on the way?!" Jules asked quickly. "You're bold, Mr. Doe! I gotta respect it! But...You're a little crazy, though."

"I'm never getting my own car, am I?" Cora sighed as she shook her head.

"That's okay. You're welcome to ride in mine any time." Hayes smirked as he wrapped an arm around her and I quickly went to stand in the middle of them. He stared down at me blankly and I sent him a fake smile.

"I'd rather give her Angelou than let her ride anywhere with you." I told him.

"Angelou?" He raised a brow.

"My car," I told him as if he was stupid. "Named after Maya."

"Who?"

"Maya the—What do you mean who?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Never heard of her." He shrugged.

"Never—I know you fucking lying—"

"He is," Cora smirked, shoving me out of the way. "She happens to be one of his favorite writers, for your information. He's smarter than you think, you know."

I just rolled my eyes and stood beside Billie again.

"Guys, I know that me quitting my job after years of working there comes as a shock, but I think I did the right thing. And it's not like I quit just to quit, without a single plan!" Dad chuckled. "I quit because I wanted to start my own business."

We all gasped once again. "Really? That's cool, dad!" Denny grinned.

"Thank you," Dad smiled proudly. "I'm still gonna be working with graphic design, but this way I get to make my own hours and hopefully be around the house more. Starting a business is a lot of hard work, so I expect to still be extremely busy, but at least I'll be around for the important stuff, you know?"

"I couldn't do this all alone, though. That's why your aunts and uncles are here. This isn't just my business! It's also their's!" He told us.

"Really?!" Cora asked excitedly.

Uncle Jep nodded. "Really. We've all been planning this for a while now, and after a while of talking we decided that it'd be a good idea to start a family business!" He winked. "We all invested in it, and we've all got a job to do."

"See, Joseph and I both have degrees in animation and graphic design, and Jax has a degree in digital arts and fine arts. We're gonna be the ones working on some pretty exciting designs for some pretty exciting companies, but we can't talk much about that yet." He said.

"Jax is also gonna be handling customer service, communication and negotiation, and a bit of networking. Juliette and Jennifer are the ones who invested the majority of the money that we've invested in this business. Juliette has a degree in fashion design, journalism, and photography so she'll be handling pretty much anything that has anything to do with any of that. She's also gonna be handling the marketing and sales side of things, and she's gonna be networking like crazy too. She has over a million Instagram followers, so obviously—"

"You know you don't even follow me back, right?" Cora narrowed her eyes at her. "I mean, I totally get it and all, you've got a lot of followers, but like, you followed an account dedicated to posting the same exact picture everything, so I just feel like—"

"I'll follow you back later!" Aunt Juliette smiled brightly at her, but Cora just rolled her eyes. She's been saying that for ages.

"Anyway," Uncle Jep drawled. "And Jennifer is like a math whiz or something. She's an accountant, she'll be handling our finance. Then we have Jasmine, who'll be acting as a secretary, receptionist, and an assistant. She's great at organizing things, collecting data, all that Jazz. We've all got some very important jobs to do, and it'll be a lot of work, but things are looking good!"

"Now, because we're going into business together, we needed to be closer to one another," Aunt Jasmine said. "So we've all gotten houses that are at least less than thirty minutes away and—"

"Wait...Wait! You guys are all, like...Down here now?" My eyes widened. "Like...You guys are gonna be near us?"

"Yep! We all needed to be in close proximity so—"

I tuned her out as I turned to look at Cora and then Denny. They both looked just as terrified as I did.

Yes, I love my family so much, but no I can't believe they're all all of a sudden gonna be in our area. That means I'm gonna have to see them more often and...

"We're gonna be at the same school!" Rori yanked me over toward Cora and wrapped an arm around both of our shoulders as Uriah ruffled our hair. "Can't wait!" He smirked.

"Now I can come over and play with you more, Dahlia!" Blaise grabbed my hand, making me look down at her. She and Penny were standing there with bright smiles that weren't fooling me for a second. Sure, these kids could be cute, but they could also be pretty damn insufferable.

Blaise is the one I almost broke my neck for back at the 2016 barbecue! All because she's been taking gymnastics since she was two and feels the need to brag about how good she is at it every time she opens her mouth.

"Cora, we're gonna have to hang out, like, all the time!" Kendall clapped as she ran over to Cora.

We both sent each other looks.

I think I'm gonna have a heart attack.

***

We talked about the exciting new business plan for about an hour before we all crowded into the kitchen and fixed plates of the nice food dad and Josephine had cooked.

"Children eat first!" He'd told us quickly.

We all said fuck them kids and fixed our plates first anyway.

We spent about an hour eating and talking to the family before Kit and Bea stood up.

"We gotta dip, cause we got a date." Kit had said as she and Bea tried to leave quickly.

I gasped and shot up off the couch, running to stand in front of them. "Holy fuck, really? Like a date date?" I grinned.

"Let's not make a huge deal—"

"Are you two officially dating now? Where's the date gonna be? Who planned it? Did you plan it? Oh my god, it's literally Wednesday and you guys are going out on a date! Fuck, fuck, fuck, don't cry, Dahlia, DO. NOT. CRY." I fanned myself quickly and bit my lip, trying to calm myself down.

"Yo, chill," Kit snickered. "Look, we're not girlfriends or some shit, we're just doing a little bit more than fucking. Alright? Nothing major."

Her words went in one ear and out the other as I jumped around in circles, scream-singing love songs in my head.

"My god, you're embarrassing." Cora rolled her eyes as she stood beside them. "And get out of the way. Hayes and I are going out too."

Well, that stopped me.

"What? No way—"

"Dad already said I could as long as I'm back before ten. So, out of the way." She shood me.

The four of them all left the house and I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. Hopefully, they'll be safe.

I sighed as I decided to go into the kitchen and get a plate of dessert. I'm still full from the real food we had, but dad made chocolate fudge brownies and if I don't grab one soon, I'm pretty sure Caden's gonna eat them all.

I stopped in my tracks as soon as I stepped into the kitchen, a large grin coming onto my face as I saw Ori and Denny kissing. Denny was leaning against the counter and Ori had a hand resting on Denny's side—This shit is so disgusting and cute at the same time, I could die.

"If you're not gonna join in, you need to quit watching." Ori mumbled after pulling away for a few seconds.

"Ew." Denny and I said at the same time.

I walked out of the kitchen and back into into the living room quickly. I smiled softly as I spotted Cadence and Gigi practically cuddling on the couch.

Gigi is going back to Italy in two days and we're all dreading it. I'm really gonna miss him! But I'm sure the next few months will fly by and he'll be back before we know it!

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and took it out. It was a text from Billie.

Bilboa:

Can you come up to your room real quick?

I liked the message and started heading up there, wondering what she wanted and why she had snuck off to my room.

I wondered briefly if I'd left anything embarrassing out the last time I was in there before we'd gone on our vacation.

I opened the door and stepped in quickly, praying that I hadn't.

"Bil—"

I grunted as the door was closed and I was pushed up against it quickly. Billie's hands rested on my cheeks as she tilted her head, her tongue finding mine.

I melted into the kiss immediately and let out a small moan as I wrapped my arms around her neck, a small smile forming on my face as her hands traveled down to rest on my waist.

She broke the kiss after a few minutes and I rested my head against the wall, smiling up at her.

"Hi." I muttered shyly.

"Hi." She grinned.

"Did you ask me to come up here just so you could do that?"

"No, I called you up here because I wanted to talk about that cheetah print thong you must've left on your bed when you were packing for the trip, which you never told me you had, by the way." She smirked as she pulled the underwear out of her pocket. I sighed and squeezed my eyes closed as she laughed.

I god damn knew it.

"The kiss was just cause...You're all beautiful and stuff, and you're my girlfriend, which is nice." She was blushing when I opened my eyes and now it was my turn to smirk.

"Why're you acting all shy, Billie?" I wiggled my brows.

"Shut up."

"You're in love," I scream sang. "With me!"

"I literally wanna throat punch you, but okay." She rolled her eyes before grabbing my hand and then pulling me out of the room again.

"Wait, did you put my thong back—"

"Nope," She chuckled. "Still in my pocket."

When we got downstairs, I noticed that the living room had cleared out a little bit, and the people still there seemed to be exhausted. I was just about to go over and talk to my dad when I heard the doorbell ring.

I let go of Billie's hand and practically skipped over to the door. When I opened it, my eyebrows shot up.

"I swear, I've done literally nothing wrong and Billie hasn't either! She's innocent!" I yelled, holding my hands up in surrender.

The policeman standing there sent me a weird look. "Um...Okay?" He shrugged. "I went over to the house down the street since that was the address I was given, but nobody was there so I asked around and was told to come here. Is Joseph Doe here?"

"If my dad goes to jail this family will fall apart." I warned him.

"What's the problem?" Dad asked, coming to stand next to me.

The officer sighed and sent him and me a sympathetic smile. "Well, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just come right out and say it...Valerie Doe is dead. She was murdered."