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As we step through the doors, my heart skyrockets with nerves, and my legs feel like they are going to vanish from under me. I’m not nervous about seeing Brian, but I am nervous about watching him die.
My mum stays behind me as I approach the bed with the frail man lying almost lifeless. His skin is ashen, and his chest rises and falls slowly, a groan leaving his dry, cracked lips every so often.
The beep of a heart monitor fills the room, and when I nudge his bed and his eyes flutter open, the beep picks up as I lower my face mask.
“P-Pat-ty.”
I sneer at him. “I’ve come to watch you die, Brian. I’ve come to watch you drift off to hell where your brother Terence is. Where Vik is. And where Julie is.”
At hearing me say Julie’s name, his eyes flare a little.
“I wish you had seen it, Brian. The moment I killed your wife.” The beeping increases. “I wish you had seen her face when my knife went through her chest and sunk into her heart. I would have liked to watchyourface as you watched me take away your precious, vile wife. To see the life go out of her eyes.” My lip curls as I glare at him. “That’s why I’m here. To watch the life go out of your eyes, Brian, and then I’m going to fucking dance on your grave.”
Brian makes a gargled noise, his hand flying to his chest as his face contorts in pain. The heart monitor is going crazy now, and I grin, knowing it’s because of me. If Brian thought he was going to have a relaxing death, drifting off into nothingness, then he was extremely fucking wrong. I may not be able to plunge a knife into his heart today, but my words do that all on their own as the heart monitor stops beeping and starts blaring in a long-pitched alarm.
I lean in closer, watching Brian’s eyes flutter open and lock onto me right before they turn black, and the light behind them goes out forever.
Epilogue
Rhys
Ten Months Later
“This is turning me on so bad right now.” Simon’s declaration sends us into hysterics as he grins mischievously while stomping his feet into the wide barrel of grapes.
“You wanna lick them off my toes, Sy?” I giggle, and he leans forward, tugging me closer and nearly making me fall over in the slush.
“You know I do, Cherry.”
“Weirdly, I’d like to watch that,” Marcus admits from beside the barrel, watching as me, Simon, and Shaun crush the grapes with our feet.
“Weirdly, I’d have to agree with Caveman.” Tyler chuckles, and Marcus rolls his eyes while Garrett uses my camera to snap some photos.
“Are we doing it right, Gabriella?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at Shaun’s grinning mama, who is sitting in a wheelchair, watching on.
“Si.” She calls as Shaun’s dad holds an umbrella up to shield her from the hot sun.
She told us it’s an old tradition that her family used to do when couples fell in love. She wanted to make a new tradition, to crush the first grapes of the season in celebration of continued love. So it looks like we will be doing this every year, which is fine by me.
We graduated from school a few months ago, with a big celebration at the start of December, and as my school peers were getting wasted at the local pub, I was getting railed by my five guys.
What better way to celebrate? Am I right?
Simon has settled in well on the Bossier’s vineyard. He even has muscles now, just like he told Shaun’s dad he’d get if he worked on their farm. He’s actually taken a keen interest in the running of it, and somehow managed to get Shaun excited about it, too. They’ve been working with Shaun’s dad to come up with a new marketing campaign, but honestly, they haven’t had to try hard. With the virus sending Australia and the world into numerous lockdowns, people have been extra needy for wine. Especially locally.
The other thing Simon has been doing a lot of is cooking. Gabriella has taught him some recipes handed down in her family, and he cooks up feasts for us all regularly, helping to take any pressure off Gabriella or her carers to prepare meals.
It’s been great to see Shaun start to embrace his family business. He’s actually a really good salesman, using his charm to make business deals and gain new clients. Having Simon here with him has helped a lot. Shaun no longer feels like he has to take over the business, but now he wants to, and it’s stirred a fire in his belly.
Even during the lockdowns, he worked hard, networking online, having business meetings and dressing in suits to impress the clients over zoom calls. Of course, the fun part for me is taking the suit off when he’s done. Aaaaand there may have been a few times I walked into his little office, which has been set up off the side of the man cave, completely naked while he was on a video call.
It's ok, though. The clients couldn’t see me, but my sexy Casanova sure could. Did he spank me when he finished his meetings? Yes, he did, and I took it like a good girl.
Garrett started studying Psychology, and because of the virus, his classes are online for now, which means I get to keep him because he doesn’t have to travel to the city for classes. Marcus is taking a gap year, having no idea what the hell he wants to do with his future, so he’s been spending his days working at Maccas. And Ty has been building his personal training, offering services to the residents at Redfield Lake, which has taken off.
As for me, I’m taking my photography to the next level with online studies and selling some of my work on a website my new foster sister helped me create.
We introduced Ty to our families after graduation. Well, mine already knew, and Simon’s haven’t spoken to him since he walked out, so it was just Marcus’, Garrett’s and Shaun’s families. Oh, and our friends, who were more accepting than I thought they’d be, but man, did Lexi and Tillie have a lot of questions about their old PE teacher.
