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Epilogue
Elise unhookedJohn Thomas from the car seat and got out of Ronan and Julia’s Audi Q8. The car was bigger than Ronan’s sedan, and she couldn’t help feeling like a kid piling out of the backseat.
It was just one more thing in a long string of things that had been stoking her dissatisfaction. It was a reality she’d only recently been able to face: she wasstuck.
The people around her had careers, they were getting married and having babies while Elise barely managed to finish her GEs at night school and hold down a retailjob.
It had been okay at first, even comforting. The trauma she’d experienced while being kept prisoner by Manifest would take a lifetime to heal, and it had been a full-time job managing her feelings in the two years since Ronan and his brothers had rescuedher.
But lately she’d been feeling like her time was up. At some point she would have to get on with her life, figure out what that even meant. Otherwise she’d forever be a prisoner to what had happened toher.
“Want me to get the diaper bag?” she askedJulia.
“I got it,” Julia said, pulling it out of the back of thecar.
Ronan carried John Thomas, his head lolling as he slept on Ronan’sshoulder.
“It was such a beautiful wedding,” Julia said. “Aiden and Miguel both looked sohandsome.”
"It was and they did,” Ronan said. “Although no one will ever be as beautiful on their wedding day as you were onours.”
“Why Ronan Murphy,” Julia said in a passing southern accent, “are you trying to get in mypants?”
“Well, I did hear weddings make peoplehorny.”
“Hello, I’m still here. I can hear you,” Elise said, heading for the gate as Nick and Alexa pulled up to thecurb.
Julia punched the code on the keypad and they entered the courtyard. They only got a few steps before Ronan stoppedcold.
A light glowed from inside the house amid a clattering and shuffling that sounded like someone tossing theplace.
“What the…” Ronan handed Julia the baby and started for thedoor.
Julia put a hand on his arm. “I’ll call thepolice.”
“Give me a second.” He looked at Nick. “Youcarrying?”
Nick shook hishead.
“Me neither,” Ronan said. “Guess we’re doing this the old-fashionedway.”
Nick looked at Alexa. “Stayhere.”
He and Ronan moved cautiously toward the front door while Elise hovered in the courtyard with Julia, John Thomas, and Alexa. Her pulse felt like it was on steroids, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead as the men got closer to thedoor.
It was something she’d learned to recognize —thank you, therapy— as a trauma response from her abduction, and she forced herself to breathe throughit.
You’re okay… everything is okay… you’resafe.
She repeated the words as Ronan flung open the kitchendoor.
He stood, frozen in the doorway for what felt like forever, before he spoke again. “What the fuck are you doinghere?”
He and Nick moved into the house, the rest of their conversation lost in a jumble of voices andexclamations.
Julia looked from Alexa to Elise and shrugged, then started for thedoor.
They filed inside, the sound of Ronan and Nick — and someone else, someone whose voice Elise didn’t recognize — growinglouder.
