Page 182 of Claiming Pretty

EPILOGUE 2

Many, many years later…

The ache of time had settled in my bones long before Ty’s final days arrived, but nothing could have prepared me for the way it would feel to lose him.

Everything about the world felt muted. The beeping of the machines faded into a dull hum; the nurses’ chatter outside the door was muffled and unimportant; even the recorded piano music—Ava’s Lullaby—was just a faint melody that couldn’t reach me.

All I could hear was the silence between us. A silence filled with the knowledge of what was coming.

His hand, fragile and cold, slipped out from beneath the pale-blue blanket. I hadn’t realized he was awake until his fingers brushed mine, pulling me from my thoughts.

I forced a smile, weak and tired, as I raised his hand to my lips and kissed it.

His faded tattoos blurred against his wrinkled skin, a stark reminder of the years he’d sacrificed for me and of the life we’d built together.

If only I could go back. Do it all over again, from the very beginning. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I just wantedmore.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” I whispered, pressing my lips against his hand, holding it to my cheek as if I could anchor him here. “Mhaor, I don’t want to be free.”

He smiled faintly, his eyes distant, already halfway gone. His pinky traced the trembling line of my lips.

“Don’t cry,” he murmured. “I have one last gift for you.”

My brow furrowed, confused. My eyes darted to the bedside table, searching for something—a box, a flower, a note—but there was nothing.

When I turned back to him, Ty wasn’t looking at me anymore. His gaze fixed just over my shoulder, his smile softening into something deeper, something I hadn’t seen in years.

Then a voice—so familiar even as age had roughened it—spoke from behind me. “Hello, brother. Did you miss me?”

My breath hitched. My heart thundered in my chest as I gripped Ty’s hand tighter.

No.

It couldn’t be true.

“Take care of her for me,” Ty whispered to him, his voice so light, it felt like it was carried away with the rising dawn.

I froze, unable to turn, unable to look. The silence behind me grew heavy, like the weight of a sunrise waiting to break over the horizon.

He was there. I could feel it in the shift of the air, the quiet heat at my back.

My shadow had returned.

Tears filled my eyes as Ty’s smile turned back to me, his strength fading fast. He brushed a strand of my gray-streaked hair behind my ear, his touch achingly tender.

I shook my head, words caught in my throat. Nothing I could say would be enough. Nothing could capture what he meant to me, what he’d always meant.

His hand slipped from my cheek, and I caught it, holding it against my chest as if I could keep him tethered to this world.

“It’smyturn to watch over you from the shadows,” Ty said, his voice barely more than a breath.

My sob escaped before I could stop it, raw and broken.

“I love youmore, hummingbird.”

And then he was gone.

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