Page 142 of The Road to Ruined

"And I want police to find this man,"my mom says."Someone knows who he is or was and where he is now. I want him caught."

"We're healing as best we can,"my sister says."We celebrated her birthday together last year and buried a little box of memories at Teagan's favorite beach. But we want him caught so he can't do this to another family."

The baby starts to cry, and Austin passes her back to Blakely.

"I hope for all of your sakes that day comes,"the interviewer says."And do you want to introduce your little one?"

"Yes,"Blakely says."This is my daughter, Evelyn—she's eight months old. Evelyn was Teagan's middle name, so we named her after her."

"Aww, Teagan, that's so nice."

"Yeah, it is," I say, tears streaming down my face. "It's really nice."

The interviewer thanks them all for being there, wishes them well, and the credits roll.

I've come full circle now—from true crime junkie to true crime victim. I wonder how often these shows have gotten it wrong the way they did with me.

"Are you okay, angel?" Luca asks.

"I'm fine."

"You're sobbing, baby. Are you sure?" He gets up and crosses the room to me, wrapping me in a hug. "It's okay. You're a mystery now—you're immortal. It was pretty cool, actually."

"No, I know. I really am okay. It was nice to see them—and they seem happy like I said. The baby is cute, too."

"Do you miss them more now?" River asks.

I shake my head. "No. I don't really miss them. I miss the idea of them—if things could have been different. But I have a family who loves me. I'm happy."

"Well, what do you want to do today?" Declan asks. "Do you want to go out? We can do whatever you want—if you just want to be alone, that's okay, too."

"Can we all go out on the boat?" I ask. "And bring a lot of alcohol?"

"Of course," he says.

"You and Riv can show us thosebackstrokesyou've been working on," Luca says.

We all go to our rooms to change and get packed before piling into the SUV and driving down to the docks. After we find a place to drop anchor for the day and relax, I finally get Declan alone, cornering him beside the beer cooler.

"Declan?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Sebastian watched it?"

"Probably," he says. "I'd be surprised if he didn't, wouldn't you?"

"And the book…it was just sitting there? You haven't seen him?"

"No, honey, I haven't. I would tell you if I did—I promise. It looks like he found us, though."

"Do you think we'll ever see him again?"

"I don't know, baby. It'd be nice."

"Yeah, it would."

He opens a beer and hands it to me. "What else do you need, kitten?" he asks.

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