Page 189 of Endgame
I’m going to fix this.
As much as it hurts. As crushing as it is to my soul, to my psyche.
I’m going to fix everything.
Starting now.
33
EVERETT
What the fuck?
What. The. Fuck.
The question plays on repeat as I stalk Aurora across the main floor. Every step is a word. A beat of a drum.
Lotus’s daughter is here?
She’s my fucking wife?
For years, I haven’t let myself go this far in my head. Haven’t let myself imagine what I would say to Lotus’s child if I ever found them.
I haven’t, because I never believed they survived.
No one did. The police and the crew we’d hired canvassed the area and came up empty. They concluded that an animal must’ve gotten to them before us.
After that, I stopped searching for them.
But now, when Aurora put my sister’s face up next to hers, I saw the resemblance. It was there, in the nuances. A similarity only a closer inspection could reveal.
Whoever her parents were, though, makes no difference to me.
She’s mine.
And she’s trying to get away from me.
She’s rushing toward the garage with my album pressed to her side, running faster than ever. The hem of her nightgown dances around her slender ankles.
I won’t run. There’s no need. I’ll be on her soon.
Nothing could ever keep us apart. Not even death.
I do lengthen my stride though. Each step eats up the space between us.
Between me and Aurora. Me and?—
Fuck.
We’ll have to get her tested. Compare her DNA to the hair on Lotus’s hairbrush that I’ve been keeping in my safe in case I ever needed evidence. To prove what, and how? I never knew, until now.
If Aurora and Lotus are a match, there’d be no hiding Winston’s crime. I’d have him tested next. No one could deny what he’d done to Lotus.
I’ve always believed what was written in Lotus’s diary. I’m not the one who needs proof or convincing. The jury, however, will need more than my word.
Destroying a man as strong as Winston requires hard evidence.
Evidence I’m going to get if it’s the last thing I do.
