“Are you ready to go back to Florida?”
And every single time, my answer was the same.
No. Florida could wait.
Revenge could wait.
The men who hurt me could wait.
Marie and Sofie couldn’t.
Not while there was still a chance, hope, and while I was still waking up every morning wondering where they were.
Wondering if they were cold, hungry, scared or alive.
So, I kept searching.
Week after week.
Month after month.
Year after year.
I searched the morgue, missing persons reports, anywhere there was even the slightest chance of finding them.
I refused to stop or give up or to let them become people everyone else forgot.
But now they are dead.
The truth settles inside me like a blade driven straight through my heart.
The last piece of unfinished business is gone.
The last thing holding me here no longer exists.
I look down at my hands covered in blood.
All I see is Marie’s blood, Sofie’s blood, my blood and the blood of every girl who never made it home.
Something shifts inside me.
For years, I’ve carried my anger like a wildfire.
Chaotic.
Unpredictable.
Consuming everything in its path.
Now it condenses into something sharper, a weapon.
I slowly lift my head.
Tyler is still watching me, waiting.
He knows what’s coming.
I can see it in his eyes.
