LOGINWe bought a new house when we got back from the honeymoon. Not a penthouse. Not a mansion. Not anything that screamed "billionaire." A real house. A normal house. A house with a yard and a swing set and a kitchen where you could actually cook without a chef. Lily picked out her own room. Pink walls. Unicorn bedding. Far too many stuffed animals. Julian built her a bookcase. I painted a mural of a forest on her wall. She declared it "the best room ever." "She has your taste," Julian said. "Excuse me?" "The unicorn obsession. The pink. The drama." "I am not dramatic." "You threw a shoe at me when I said I didn't like your dress." "That was a logical reaction to an illogical statement." He laughed. "I love you." "I love you too." The moving process took three weeks. Boxes everywhere. Furniture to assemble. Pictures to hang. It was exhausting. It was chaotic. It was wonderful. Damian helped. Chloe helped. Even my mother helped, despite my protests. "You need to rest," I sai
We didn't go anywhere fancy for our honeymoon. No tropical islands. No European castles. No five-star resorts with private beaches and champagne on arrival. We went to the ocean. The same ocean we had run to when Victor was hunting us. The same beach where Lily had played. The same cottage with the blue shutters and the porch facing the water. It felt different now. Brighter. The sky was bluer. The water was clearer. The air smelled like salt and freedom. Lily stayed with Damian and Chloe. She had been nervous at first. "Will you come back?" she had asked. "Always," Julian had said. "We'll always come back." "Promise?" "Promise." She had hugged us and run off to play with Damian. Now it was just us. Julian and me. Alone for the first time in what felt like forever. "I don't know what to do with myself," I said, standing on the beach. The waves lapped at my feet. The sun was warm on my face. "Neither do I." Julian came up behind me. His arms wrapped around my waist. "But I
The wedding was small. Just family. Just friends. Just the people who had survived the nightmare together. The ceremony was held in the backyard of the safe house. The same backyard where Lily had played. The same backyard where we had hidden. The same backyard where we had finally stopped running. Lily was the flower girl. She wore a white dress with pink flowers on it. She threw petals everywhere. On the floor. On the guests. On the judge. Damian was the best man. He wore a gray suit that matched Julian's. He cried. He didn't try to hide it. Chloe was the maid of honor. She wore a blue dress that matched Lily's flowers. She also cried. My mother was there. She was healthy. She was happy. She had been cancer-free for six months. She walked me down the aisle because my father couldn't. I carried a small bouquet of wildflowers — the same kind Julian had brought me on our first date, what felt like a lifetime ago. Julian stood at the altar. He was wearing a gray suit. A blue ti
Elias's trial began six weeks later. The courthouse was the same one where Victor had been convicted. The same gray walls. The same hard benches. The same smell of fear and old paper. But this time, it was different. This time, we weren't afraid. Elias sat at the defense table in an orange jumpsuit. His hair was disheveled. His face was gaunt. Prison had not been kind to him. He looked nothing like the man in the photographs. He looked like a ghost. Damian testified first. He walked to the stand with his head high. His voice was steady. He looked at Elias as he spoke. "Elias is my brother," he said. "I loved him. I still love him. But love doesn't mean forgiveness. Love doesn't mean forgetting. Love doesn't mean pretending that the past didn't happen. He made choices. He chose Victor. He chose greed. He chose to betray his own blood. He chose to betray everyone who ever loved him." The jury listened. They took notes. They nodded. They looked at Elias with cold eyes. Chloe test
The stairs were invisible. I climbed them by memory. Twelve steps. A landing. Five more steps. The hallway. I had walked this path so many times that I could do it blindfolded. But this was different. This was real darkness. The kind that swallowed everything. Lily's room was at the end of the hall. I felt the wall. The doorframe. The door. My hands were shaking. "Lily!" "Mommy!" Her voice was small. Scared. The kind of scared that made my heart break. I found her in the dark. She was under the bed, hiding, crying. Her unicorn was clutched to her chest like a shield. "It's okay, baby. I'm here." "What's happening?" "I don't know. But we're going to be okay. We're always okay." A noise downstairs. Glass breaking. The sound of something shattering against the floor. Then another noise. Footsteps. Heavy. Deliberate. The footsteps of someone who wanted to be heard. Julian's voice. "Elara! Stay up there!" "What's happening?" "Stay up there!" The footsteps were closer now. Com
The first sign was a letter. Delivered to the safe house. Slipped under the front door in the middle of the night. No envelope. No stamp. No return address. Just a piece of paper folded in half. "Did you really think you could destroy me? — E" The handwriting was Elias's. Sharp. Angry. Desperate. The letters slanted to the right, as if he had been writing fast, as if he couldn't get the words out quickly enough. The paper was creased. It looked like he had crumpled it and then smoothed it out again. Julian read the letter. Then he handed it to me. Then to Damian. "He knows where we are," Damian said. "He's always known. He just didn't have a reason to act. Now he does." "How did he find us?" "I don't know. Maybe Victor told him. Maybe he has his own sources. Maybe he's been watching us all along." We read the letter again. The words burned into my brain. "Did you really think you could destroy me?" "Yes," I said. "Yes, we did." The second sign was a phone call. Damian's







