“Thank You, Jesus,” Esme whispers as she steps onto the small, black stage. I take my place by her side, where I will reside forevermore.
“Glory and honor to Him,” I add. Esme smiles up at me.
Sam approaches with a copy of the book, and I take it because Esme’s hands are still shaking. I turn to Chapter One, which is written from Esme’s perspective.
She stares down at the words before clearing her throat.
I understand how important these words are to her. She told me once that they were the first words she thought when she awoke from her coma two years ago. She never understood what they meant until we found each other again, and she learned the truth of the night we were attacked.
Esme glances up at me one more time for reassurance, and I smile at my wife. The woman I knew I wanted to choose from the moment I saw her drinking a mimosa and glaring at the sand and the sun as if they were Enemy Number One. God whispered, “That’s her,” and when her heart stopped on that deck in Bora Bora, while I rested my head on her still chest after crawling to her, I begged God to let me join her on the other side. I ripped my necklace from my neck and folded it into her hands as I lost consciousness. And for a brief moment, God answered my prayer in the most unique way. A way that led me to believe in quantum entanglement, because who’s to say God didn’t create us that way? In a way I’ll never utter to another being. Shedoesn’t remember our souls touching as we looked upon our beaten and bruised bodies, the medics who saved us both, but I do.
“If death soldered our souls, I’d die a thousand times over.”
Bonus Epilogue
Esme • June
“Esme.” I pause at the sound of my name as I step outside to carry a bag of trash out of Main Street Coffee. Most everyone has left the book signing, but I stuck around with Noah, Sam, Ethan, Ashton, and Branda to help clean up. I look around, but I don’t see anyone. I hear a branch snap, and I twist toward the direction of the sound. I notice the dark silhouette of a person against the backdrop of the woods. I instinctively take a few steps back toward the door, a nervous hum running through my veins, but when the shadow steps into the dim streetlight, it’s only Bryan.
I let out a shaky breath. “Hi, Bryan. How are you? I haven’t seen you around in a while.” Months, really. Though I didn’t realize it until this moment.
His lips twitch upward, and at that small show of expression, I fully take him in. He’s standing straighter than I’m used to seeing. His shoulders are squared, and he’s cut that mid-sized beard of his that always gave me an ick. To top off the weird factor, he’s wearing a full-fledged black suit. He looks the mosthandsome I’ve ever seen him, but also—creepy. Who emerges from the woods in a suit like that?
He continues to stalk closer, and I find myself pressing my side against the wooden building. Splinters poke at my bare arm.
“I hear congratulations are in order.” He nods at the wedding band on my finger.
I clasp my hands together and fiddle with the ring as I respond. “Thank you. I, uh, hope it’s not weird for you.”
Bryan once told me the real reason he bailed on our wedding, and while I don’t have any qualms over my decision, I also don’t want to make him uncomfortable. He is the one still stuck with the memories, not me.But Ashton would tell you to get over it. Noah, too.Some things never change, though. Like kindness and consideration for others. That’s a piece of me I’d like to keep.
“No, not at all. He was never a part of the plan. It killed me to see you making out with him back here earlier when the two of you snuck away from the crowd.” Bryan’s voice is steady and painted with the color of annoyance, but I am on high alert.He was spying on us?
I drop my hands to the side as a coolness trickles over my body despite the humid heat. “Plan?”
Bryan shakes his head, coming to a stop directly in front of me. He’s still not tall. He still gives off the vibe of a squirmy rat. But there’s an aura of crazed confidence around him. And a smidge of blood at his brow line.
“I was tasked with an assignment, and while I succeeded—against my will, might I add—my partner failed and managed to get himself killed. So, imagine my surprise and utter delight when you showed up back in this town after Bora Bora. I just had to find a way to get around my boss, which didn’t go as planned.”
“What do you mean? What are you going on about?”
Bryan’s snakish smile grows. “From the onset, when I was assigned to you, I didn’t expect to fall in love with you. But I did. You’re beautiful and poised and full of grace. There’s a reason they chose you.” Bryan pauses, looking thoughtful as he continues to walk my way. “I didn’t want to leave you at the altar, Esme, but my boss was…punishing me… for getting my emotions tied up in the assignment. But he’s gone now, and though it’s taken months for me to get rid of him and you went and married yourself off to the man who wasn’t a part of my plans, it can happen now. I am free to have you. We can finally be together. I won’t be taken away this time.”
I can’t stop staring at the blood on his eyebrow or, as he leans closer, his bloodshot eyes.
I reach for the door, a million alarm bells ringing in my ears.
Byran grabs my wrist and yanks me toward him. My freeze response activates as he says, “I’m saving you, Esme. You were supposed to be a sacrifice in Bora Bora, and while I owe much to the man who rescued you, his job is done. You are mine now. I will rise to my boss’s former position, and you will be safe. They can’t use you if you’re mine. You can forget that other man ever existed and come back to me.”
Sacrifice. One Love. Saving me.
Memories of a pentagram with a heart in the middle resurface. Noah said it was all real, but he didn’t know about the branding tattoo. While I’m unwillingly pressed against Bryan, I use the moment to look at his neck, but nothing is there. “Do–do you have a tattoo?” I ask, my voice shaking and breaking.
Bryan chuckles, his hands splaying across the small of my back and pressing me tighter against him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I don’t know anything that’s going on, but I know I don’t want to stick around to find out. He smells like bleach, and I need to find Noah.
A thousand Bora Bora suns.
