"Is it done?" she asks.
"The past is dead," I confirm.
I pull her into my arms right there on the sidewalk, under the streetlamp. I kiss her. It is a slow, deep kiss. A kiss of liberation.
The ghost of my father is gone. The voice in my head is silenced.
There is only the city. There is only the future.
There is only us.
CHAPTER 34
THE LEGACY
POV: IVY
Pain is a color.
It starts as a pale, washed-out violet at the base of my spine, tightening like a corset lace. Then, it deepens. It bleeds into indigo, then into a bruising, violent purple that wraps around my hips and squeezes until I can't breathe.
I grip the edge of the marble counter in the master bathroom.
"Breathe," I whisper to myself.Inhale for four. Exhale for four.
It’s too early. I’m thirty-six weeks. The nursery is ready—a fortress of soft gray velvet and hand-painted murals of forests I created when Silas finally unlocked the studio door—butIam not ready.
Another wave hits me. This one isn't purple. It’s black.
I gasp, dropping the hairbrush I was holding. It clatters onto the floor.
"Ivy?"
Silas’s voice comes from the bedroom. He sounds alert. He always sounds alert, even at 6 AM on a Sunday.
I try to answer, but the contraction steals my voice. I double over, clutching my stomach.
Silas is there in a second.
He doesn't ask what’s wrong. He sees it. He sees the sweat on my forehead, the way my knuckles are white against the marble, the puddle of clear fluid spreading on the floor between my feet.
My water broke.
"Okay," he says. His voice is calm, but I can feel the tension radiating off him like heat from a furnace. "It’s time."
He doesn't panic. He doesn't yell for the guards. He scoops me up into his arms.
"I can walk," I protest weakly.
"Not today," he says.
He carries me out of the bedroom, down the hall to the medical wing. The penthouse is quiet. The morning light is filtering through the curtains, soft and golden. It feels too peaceful for the violence happening inside my body.
"Dr. Aris!" Silas bellows.
The door to the medical suite flies open. Aris and the night nurse, Elena, are there instantly. They have been living in the staff quarters for two months, waiting for this moment.
Silas lays me on the bed. The sheets are sterile, white, crisp.
