Author's Note: Here we are…the end of the Jasper and Bella's story! Hope you enjoyed it and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Big thanks to my beta AgoodWITCH for her awesome work! Hope you all had a great 2011 and may 2012 be even better! Love to all and thanks for everything!

Epilogue

I walked in to find Lizzy and Abby packing up the books in the library, most of the old tomes put aside as they discussed a small book that they held between one another. I snuck up behind them laughing as I looked over their shoulder making them both jump in surprise.

"Daddy! Don't scare us like that," my sixteen year old Abigail said as she held her hand over her chest in a very Bella-like posture.

Beside her, her big sister Lizzy just chuckled as she held the book out in front of her with a raised eyebrow. "Look what we found hidden amongst the stacks. Why did you hold onto it for so long? Mom and Dad have been divorced for almost twenty years now, and from your inscription, it didn't look like you were so happy to have gotten it in the first place."

I smiled as I took the book from her, flipping one more page to show her the newer inscription written on the back side of the page which Bella had presented to me on our wedding day. I too had a similar confusion when I first opened the book until Bella showed me the new inscription she had added to the pages, turning it from a bitter memory to one of the most meaningful ever.

Abby started to read it out loud when the soft warm voice of Bella filled the room from behind me, speaking over Abby as she quoted the words she had written so long ago by heart. Behind her, Cooper was standing holding our first grandson, Jaden, a name chose to honor both Edward and myself. Beside them was Cooper's wife Grace and my youngest son, Tristan. They all smiled as Bella moved toward me, with her arms wrapped around my middle and resting her ear over my heart as she completed her quote.

"Blessings come to those who wait and the best roads always bring you back to where your heart is with extra blessings along the way. I marry you today in the manner fate always intended, the two pieces of my heart by my side while my future stands before me, ready to make me his forever. You were always where I was supposed to be, Jasper Whitlock, and you are where I will always stay. –Forever yours, Bella Swan-Whitlock December 24, 2013."

I kissed her forehead and savored the moment before ordering everyone out of the room to continue packing. We had spent almost half of our lives in this house after we were married, but as life often doesn't run the way you expect, neither did the world of business. I was still another ten years from retirement, so when opportunities dried up in our area and prospects looked better out west, Bella and I made the painstaking decision to pack up Cullen Inc and move it to Seattle where business trip costs would be cut by ¾ and life would make much more sense. Carlisle and Esme shocked everyone by leaving Cullen Inc totally and completely within the ownership of Bella and me when they retired nearly ten years ago. Since then they'd traveled the globe, but they stayed in contact and were behind our decision 100 percent. Over the years, it had become a family business as well, Cooper stepping into my shoes and moving up the ranks just like any other employee while Lizzy had only recently graduated college and started working in HR in the position Bella had taken when she first started at Cullen two decades ago. So the one benefit is that we didn't have to leave our family when we moved, because they were all coming with us, as was over half of our loyal staff. I would have loved to bring them all, but that just wasn't possible, as many had lives here that they just couldn't leave. We understood and did our best to leave them with a generous severance package and a load of great references.

The other issue was Edward. Things were never easy with him, but in time, he developed a somewhat easy nature with us all. He got some help and healed a lot of the damage he had done with his kids, though there were some wounds that no amount of work or amends could ever heal. He even eventually managed to fall in love again, and get married, but the look in his eye every time he was around Bella wasn't lost on me. He hadn't been lying all of those years ago when he had said she was the love of his life, but he had thrown that chance away long ago and now I was the lucky one to have her by my side. Edward was unhappy we were 'stealing his kids away' even if they were fully grown adults now, but the businessman in him agreed we were making the right choice. He was given an open invitation to come visit anytime he could, along with his new wife, Tanya. I often wondered what life was like for them, but never dared to ask. Their business was their own, just as mine and Bella's was ours.

We both sighed as we stood in the library I had worked hard to build for Bella, her own personal refuge in the hectic day to day that was our life.

"I'm going to miss this place so much, Jasper," she whispered with her face buried in my chest.

I sighed resting my cheek on top of her head. "Me too, but when you really look at it, this place is just brick, mortar, and wood…what really makes it our home is coming with us…you, me, our family…that's what makes this place great and we'll have all of that in Seattle as well."

Bella shifted to look up at me, her eyes twinkling as she pushed a tuft of her hair behind her ear. She'd been graying for quite some time, but always insisted on keeping it that beautiful reddish brown color it had been on the first day I'd met her. I reached up and traced a finger down her cheek before capturing her chin with it and tipping her face up to mine.

The kiss was sweet as it always was, but interrupted all too soon by a giggle in the doorway before we heard Jaden yell, "Ewww, Grammy and Papa are kissing again! Someone else come get them!"

We broke apart laughing before turning to take the book our girls had discovered, carefully packing it amongst Bella's other literary treasures. Bella taped the box closed before turning back to me with watery eyes.

"Time to start down a new path, Mr. Whitlock."

I smiled as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, leading her toward the door to find the rest of our family and get back to work. I squeezed her a little to my side and kissed her temple before mumbling against her hair. "As long as it's with you, Mrs. Whitlock, I'll go down any path you put before me."

We left the library, closing the heavy door with a loud thud, thus closing another chapter in our long and happy life.