Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
As I made my way toward my car, she called, “Where are you going?”
Without stopping, without looking back, I murmured only to myself, “I’m going to kill them. All of them.”
Epilogue
Wylder
“Where are we?” Livy (Emily James) opened her tired eyes as the small plane landed, coasting up to the shore.
It took months to plan her death, months to plan the death of Alex Obermeier. That meant months apart.
Months of not being with her at her doctor’s visits.
Months of not hearing the heartbeat of my child.
Months of the most torturous patience.
Then we spent another month apart as we were moved to multiple temporary locations (separately) while it was determined if anyone was following us … suspecting we were still alive.
At seven-and-a-half months pregnant, we were transported to the same airport to be reunited and then put on a sea plane for the final leg of our journey to a new life. With a doctor who would stay with us until the birth of the baby, we took an hour flight to an island off the coast of Livy-would-never-know. And that was where we were to live out the rest of our lives.
“It’s home.” I unfastened her seat belt and kissed her belly while I was in the vicinity.
“It’s an island.”
I chuckled, taking her hand to guide her off the small plane as the doctor grabbed her bag and followed us along with Jericho. “Good observation, Mrs. James.”
“What island?” She slipped on her sunglasses as our feet hit sand.
“Our island.”
“What does that mean?”
I took her hand and led her toward the two ATVs that had been delivered a few weeks earlier along with all of our new belongings. “It means I bought an island for us. It’s small. No one else lives here. All of our supplies will be delivered once a week. And we’ll never have to do stupid shit like work or wait in traffic.”
“Can I be president of our island?” She climbed into the passenger seat of the first ATV.
I leaned in and kissed her slowly for a few seconds before pulling away and smiling. “No. Our island doesn’t have a president. It has a queen.”
“We’re a monarchy.” She grinned.
I helped the pilot and the doctor with the bags, tossing them in the back of the second ATV.
“Up.” I nodded to the seat for Jericho to hop up there as the doctor climbed into the driver’s seat and grinned at Jericho and his reluctance. Hope Faber (previously Gemma Blair) was weeks away from finishing her fellowship to become an OBGYN when her father was killed by Abe, and she was shot and left for dead.
After years of rehabilitation, she fully recovered, all while taking on a new identity far away from friends and family who all assumed she did in fact die. Jackson sent her to bring his grandchild safely into the world.
It was a ten-minute drive to the only structure on the island, our house.
“Eddie … it’s stunning …” She leaned forward, head swiveling in every direction as we pulled to the small drive of our small two-bedroom bungalow on the beach. The island was tiny, so basically everything was on the beach.
Referring to me as Eddie, my new name, surprised me. I assumed I’d always be her Wylder.
Before I got the ATV in Park, she jumped out and ran to the side of the house and straight to the beach. “The waves! Oh my gosh! I can surf these babies!”
“I’ve got this.” Hope giggled as she pulled out the bags. We had very little with us, most everything else had been delivered earlier.
Jericho followed me to the beach as Livy kicked off her sandals and lifted her sun dress, running to the water. “No surfing with my baby still inside of you.”
She ignored me, wading farther out until it reached her belly, soaking the bottom of her dress. “I’m going to surf for the rest of my life.” She turned and gave me the first real smile I’d seen on her face since the day I carried her away from her father, sobbing and crying, “It’s not fair.”
It wasn’t fair.
It was life.
“And you…” she drudged through the water back to the beach “…will hunt and fish.”
“Oh, I will, huh?” I grinned, sliding my arms around her.
“You bought me an island,” she whispered, shaking her head as the first real sparkle of life came back to her brown eyes.
“I bought you an island. It seemed like the only fair thing to do since you won’t be president.” I pecked her lips. “Let’s go inside. I’m starving and you should be too.”
*
Wylder James came two weeks early, weighing in at six pounds, eight ounces and one hundred percent perfect.
I didn’t know how to be a dad. Livy said fathers have two jobs: to love and protect.
That I could do.
I wasn’t sure any father had ever loved their son the way I loved Wylder. And I knew it the second he first looked at me.