“Let’s go home. You guys probably want to rest.” He focuses his stare on me. “Unless you have other plans?”
“I want to go to the beach.” Zachary leans back so our gazes meet. “I’d like to go there with Emmaline,” I say, remembering her face begging to see the ocean. Zachary might be immune to it all, but I’ve just discovered I have a baby girl. I want to do something with her before we’re separated again for God knows how long.
And hug her really tight while I can, because the future is undecided.
Zachary palms my head, tilting it back, and rubs his thumb over my cheeks. “Everything will be all right. I promise you.” He places a soft kiss on my forehead, murmuring over my skin. “Let’s go to the beach then. We’ll do whatever you want today, love. Because there is always tomorrow.” His voice is hard, leaving no argument there, and I soak up his confidence, hoping he is right.
Whatever Zachary promises always comes true.
So, I hope to God he is right this time.
And as we walk to the car, I try to ignore the sensation washing over me, alerting me to danger as if I’m being watched, an instinct I honed back in prison.
It’s only fear.
Fear and nothing else.
Or at least I do my best to believe that, because the alternative is too scary.
Zachary
“I was surprised when you called,” Eudard says as we sit by a round table outside one of the coffee shops decorated in fucking pink roses. Not my favorite scene, but it faces the beach opposite us, where I see Emmaline running in the water, her laughter filling the air with Phoenix smiling next to her and keeping a watchful eye on her.
To my fucking surprise, even Patience is having a good time, lounging on a towel and enjoying the sun it seems. Who would have thought? I’m starting to think my daughter’s perky personality is rubbing off on her, as she sure as fuck didn’t display this kind of behavior back when I was a kid.
My heart warms though, seeing all my girls happy and carefree for the time being, so I’m happy Phoenix decided on this outing. As long as it soothes all of them, I’m good with that.
“The last time you visited the island was what… four years ago?”
Wrapping my hand around my mug, I lift it to my mouth. “Yeah, right after Angelica died.” This place was the only solace I had in this world where no one asked me stupid questions or went out of their way to deliver their condolences.
Eudard rests his back on the chair and studies me for a few moments while twirling his pack of cigarettes on the table back and forth, before finally asking, “Are you going to share with me what’s going on, or should I make my own assumptions based on the information I have?”
“How much do you know?” I fire my own question, wondering if his connections have told him anything.
My friendship with Eudard is… unique; that’s probably the only word that can properly describe it.
I barely remember my time here as a boy, but when we met each other again in college, we sort of clicked. He was brooding, quiet, and should I say sinister? In a way that made people back off, and I fucking loved that.
At least there was one person who didn’t need me to be their friend due to my family name, because Eudard’s family is one of the founding families of his town. So, he is rich as fuck plus has power.
With him, I always felt on equal ground, and in such, no one ever poked their nose in our lives, and I suspected there were a lot of secrets in his.
Compared to me, he was always… reserved and haunted, restless, as if anticipating a fight.
However, there are some lines our friendship never crossed.
Like sharing our deepest secrets, for example.
“Enough to assure you if he ever shows up on my doorstep, he’s a dead man.” He winks at me before lighting up a cigarette and taking a greedy pull. “Your baby girl is safe.” He exhales the smoke, surrounding us with it. “She has her mother’s eyes.”
Of course, I should have expected that; nothing goes unnoticed by the Madman.
Instead of replying to this though, I say, “Then you understand my worry.”
He puts his elbows on the table, sliding an ashtray closer to him as he taps the cigarette on it, and then exhales again. “I was actually thinking about it. Have you looked into your childhood?”
The cup with my coffee pauses midway to my mouth, and my brow rises. “Childhood?”
“Don’t ask how I know the details. I’m not gonna tell.”
A laugh slips past my lips, finding his words hilarious, considering I know what he does anyway.
They might have their secrets, but it doesn’t make me a stupid idiot, and besides, his secrets actually allow me to trust him with my child.
“A childhood is always a defining moment in anyone’s life, but more so the villain’s,” he continues, finishing his cigarette and focusing his stare on me. “So, I think you have to dig in that direction. You might uncover secrets you aren’t ready for.”
“Yeah, I thought about it after they mentioned the unsub might be a woman.” One of the reasons last night I ordered Zeke to find everything there is in my past and investigate, after ripping him a new one for the information of Emmaline’s adoption slipping out.
Although, I suspected the unsub was at the party and heard my conversation with Dad, which resulted in the change of his plans. After all, he achieved victory without blood that he is afraid of so much.
But if he or she got the invitation to the party in the first place, it means we have to be connected somehow in the past.
“Any clues?”
I open my mouth to reply, and that’s when my phone rings. I answer quickly, seeing Zeke’s name flashing on the display. “You better have something good for me.” Because I’m fucking fed up feeling like a helpless coward around this unsub.
But when you have something to lose, you don’t always have the luxury of being brave.
Silence greets me from the other end, and then Zeke says, “Zach, I sent something to your email just now. Check it. Man… it’s horrible.”
Eudard must have heard him, because he shifts his chair closer as I hang up on Zeke and tap my email, reading the information he sent me.
And that information destroys the world as I knew it and truths I’ve believed in for so long.
Phoenix
“I’m going to build a castle, Phoenix,” Emmaline announces, grabbing the toys Eudard bought her for this very reason, and runs a few feet away from us, dropping onto the wet sand while crossing her legs. She hums some tune to the music in her head while the light breeze is flapping her hair back.
I make sure she chooses a safe place. I wouldn’t want a wave to come and crush her or, God forbid, take her away. I sit next to Patience on the blanket who sighs in pleasure while flipping another page in her book.
The woman came prepared for this beach trip. In her bag, she has a hat, sunglasses, and even cream for her skin, because, according to her, at her age, you gotta be careful.
“She is a handful,” I say, rolling my shoulders back and stretching my legs in front of me, enjoying this short reprieve from the earlier activities. Although, I welcome the ache if it means playing with my daughter.
“For sure,” Patience replies, and I glance at her as she puts her book aside, leaning on her hands while keeping an eye on the child. “She reminds me of Zachary at this age. He couldn’t sit down, always needed to run around the mansion, doing things. The only time I could rest was when he was asleep.” She chuckles, and I smile, imagining a dark-haired boy in the past who gave her a hard time. “Miss Katherine, bless her soul, never forbade him anything and allowed him the freedom of expression. They had a special bond, those two.” She wipes away a tear sliding down her cheek. “My heart still grieves for her.”