Page 119 of Lost in the Moonlight

Mom’s arms around me tightened, and her joy all but leaked into me. It filled me with hope that I could truly be the princess after the credits rolled, after the bad guys were banished.

“Take a walk with me?” Mom asked.

I nodded, and we headed out the back door. For some reason, I made my way to the cemetery gate, and Mom joined me. She wrapped her arm through mine as we walked amongst the quiet of the tombstones.

“We’ve earned this, Willow. I want you to live every moment from this day forward with only peace and happiness accompanying you.”

“Same, Mom. I want the same for you.” And to prove to her and myself I was embracing this new life, I told her about Lincoln’s mom sending a scientist from the lab in California to us. “The doctor will be here this week.”

“How do you feel about it?” she asked, eyes searching mine.

“Relieved.”

“Really?” She seemed surprised.

“Knowing won’t change what I have with Lincoln, but it prepares us. And I won’t have the weight of the unknown hovering over me.”

She tipped her head into mine and then let go, spinning around to eyeball the graveyard.

“I’ll never understand your fascination with this place.”

I took in the ornate carvings, the statues, the sweet words embedded in marble and granite. I still believed these people needed to be remembered, still hoped my dad’s grave was visited by someone occasionally, and I’d still come here and celebrate these people who’d come before us, but I also wanted to look for the future and the new beginnings rather than the past.

Aaron was still out there. Who knew where? But he had far more important things to worry about than getting revenge on me. And I couldn’t live, waiting for his shadow to block the sun.

“Let’s go home and plan a huge dinner to celebrate closing this chapter of our lives and starting a new one,” I said.

“I love that idea.”

When we slipped back inside the house, Lincoln wasn’t in the sunny kitchen anymore, but Hector was still there. He rosefrom the table with a goofy grin on his face. “Don’t you both look beautiful. Happy.”

“We are,” Mom said. “Because of you. Because of Lincoln. Because we finally get to live our lives.”

He pulled us both into a hug. “I love you both.”

Happy tears filled my eyes. For me. For Mom. For him. I squeezed them to me. We had more people in our lives who could be targeted as we stepped away from the Marshals, more people who could be hurt, but I believed Lincoln when he said he’d protect us. I believed now that we could protect them together, so I wouldn’t let worry sneak in.

“We’re family,” Hector said gruffly. “We already were, but Shay agrees. We’ll be like the damn Brady bunch, except with only two kids instead of six.”

“Maybe we’ll have six grandkids,” Mom teased.

And the thought lodged itself inside me like a beautiful dream you want to keep after waking. I tried not to get my hopes up. Tried not to think about having a family with Lincoln—babies with his blue eyes and wavy locks. Cupcake drives and parent-teacher association meetings. The thought of kids had always been an impossibility. But it dangled in front of me now as something I might just be able to have. A reality shimmering around the corner.

I’d let the doctors test me, and we’d deal with the results together.

I’d forget about Aaron and the Viceroys.

I’d do what we all were yearning to do. Live in the now. Live fully. Live with joy and love and hope, banishing the darkness.

Chapter Thirty-six

Lincoln

LOVE DON’T DIE

Performed by The Fray

The happiness that drifted around thelarge wooden table I’d bought in hopes of having just these kinds of moments at it kept pushing light through Sienna’s shimmering figure every time she appeared. I wasn’t letting her in, which was frustrating her. But I wanted nothing more than to concentrate on the family sitting before me. It was different than the one I’d imagined, but it was all the more perfect because Willow was there, and it was her family. Just thinking about the times my family would be there too made the smile already on my face grow.

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