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I was at the one place I’d been spending nearly all of my time, a place I’d grown to love—Forrest’s home.
He wasn’t home, but I wasn’t alone.
As she’d promised, Avalon had gotten the gang together, and I’d finally learned why she’d called them that. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I’d just assumed I’d be meeting four or five women.
I was wrong.
So wrong.
They were all here, and there were thirteen of them. Thirteen!
Tarryn, Mallory, Lily, Liv, Avalon, Sawyer, Ellery, Hanna, Maren, Maxie, Sophie, Brynn, and Lamise.
Given the life I’d lived for so long, I had been slightly overwhelmed when everyone first started showing up.
But now?
It had been hours since they arrived, and I was thrilled to have met such a wonderful group of women. They all seemed so lovely.
To top it off, I still couldn’t believe I’d met Lily Mack. Admittedly, I was a bit star-struck. She was right there, close enough to touch.
But even better than being able to meet her, there was something else that I liked about her being part of the group.
Lily’s presence put me at even more ease, because the thing that had been such a source of contention for me in Birch Creek—my wealth, which didn’t even come close to matching Lily’s—didn’t seem like it would be a problem here. I didn’t think Lily would be spending her time with this group of women if they had been unkind to her in any way.
Maybe it was all out of the respect for the men they were with.
Maybe it was just who these women were.
Or, perhaps it was something else, something that went much deeper.
With the exception of Maxie and Brynn, who knew each other for years prior to meeting their Harper Security Ops guy and Avalon and Maren, who knew each other as kids, the rest of these women had never met one another. After sitting here for the last several hours being regaled with tales of everything all these women had been through, it was entirely possible they’d managed to bond over similar experiences.
Sure, the men working together made the connections possible, but it was these women who were holding this group together.
I loved it for them.
And I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t hope to become a part of the gang.
“Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about my situation,” I declared, looking around the room at each of them after Lamise had told the final tale. God, her story had broken my heart.
Truth be told, there was something in every story I’d heard that had made me want to cry for them—death, betrayal, miscommunication, stalkers, and sacrifice. It was all so heartbreaking.
“You really don’t need to feel bad,” Ellery insisted. “Trust me, we all understand where you are right now.”
“Yes, we’ve all been there,” Brynn added.
“I wish I would have known the extent of it all a couple of months ago. I might not have wasted so much time,” I told them.
“With Forrest?” Lily asked.
I nodded. “I feel like a fool. We could have been together all this time.”
Maren didn’t hesitate to jump in. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Daisy. I kept myself away from Magnus for years. Many, many years.”
“I did the same with Jesse,” Sawyer chimed in. “We all make mistakes.”
I shook my head slowly, still feeling the disbelief, and said, “I just can’t get over how crazy it is to think you all have been through something so traumatizing and have come out the other side. Based on everything I’m seeing, I don’t think it’d be wrong to assume you’re all happier than ever.”
