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"We should get married as soon as possible." She murmured.

"What?" Matt kissed her shoulder, and his eyes jumped to mine.

"Why not? There's nothing holding us back, is there?" She mumbled before falling asleep.

But we couldn't join her in her slumber. Marrying her and lying to her felt like a whole other layer of betrayal. However, it could make it harder for her to leave us. Or make it easier for her to hate us.

"I think you're right. At least until we figure everything out, we should go to Florida." Ryan eased up from next to Matt to add. "The stakes have just gotten even higher."

"Wow, that's a great house. Isn't it, Charles?" My mother called out to my dad.

They were sounding so much better. It gave me hope for us. Even though they weren't murderers, not technically. Their killings happened under duty, and they didn't have to be running from the police in addition to running from their demons. So, I guess there wasn't much for me to hope for there. But it was the closest I'd come to having anything in common with them. How sad was that?

"Yeah. Yeah. It's a great house." My dad's white head of hair popped up at the bottom of the screen.

"How's that lovely lady of yours? I hope they catch those bastards soon." My mom scowled. "She must be having a hell of a time, although I'm sure that house is keeping her busy."

To tell my parents that the police found the kidnappers dead, or not to tell them, that was the question.

"I'm hoping to take her up to Florida to meet you guys soon, maybe spend a few months?" I said, even though I hadn't brought it up to Lily yet.

"Well, of course. But a few months? Didn't you just move in? If I were you, I wouldn't leave that place for a long time. Is it because it's too close to the memories for Lily?" Mom asked.

"No, it's just..." I moved the phone away from my face, in case she picked up on the fact that I was hiding something.

Lucky for me, Lily popped her head in. "Oops, sorry." She began to back away when she saw I was on a call.

"Where are you going?" I mouth. "Come in."

"Eric? Where did you go?" My mom's voice echoed.

I pulled Lily into my lap and held the phone up in front of her, happy to take the attention off me for a bit. "Oh, hi." Lily smiled, flustered.

"Hi, darling! Charles, look! It's Eric's Lily." My mom squealed.

"It's so nice to finally meet you. I can't thank you enough for what you did. You guys saved my life." Lily's eyes welled up at the screen.

"Well, darling. I think I can just about say the same thing. That you saved our lives as well," my dad remarked.

Well, damn, this was sweeter than I expected. My heart swelled at the interaction.

"It's an honor to meet you both. I can't believe it's taken us this long." Lily cleared her throat.

"Well, I can't wait to meet you in person! Eric says you guys are coming up here soon?" My mom let the cat out of the bag.

My face twisted in an uncomfortable smile when Lily turned to look at me with furrowed brows. "I said I was thinking about it, Mom."

"I'd love that," Lily revealed.

"Wait, you would?" I gasped. Thank fuck.

"Yeah, and we can talk about the wedding." Lily's smile was brighter than the sun.

"You're getting married?!" My mom screamed at the phone. "Eric, why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Oh, no. Did I overstep? That wasn't what you were talking about?" Lily put her hand over the phone's speaker to ask.

"I was getting to it," I reassured her and kissed her to remove the confusion from her eyes.

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