I nodded frantically. This was something we’d worked on extensively in therapy together—getting Jay to understand and believe that I hadn’t done what I’d done because I blamed him for bringing me to Neurovance, but because I hadn’t seen any other way to keep him from getting hurt.
I wasn’t sure he fully believed that he deserved to heal after everything that happened, especially considering the intense feelings of guilt I knew he harboured around Sebastian’s death, but his admitting this to me now was a huge step in the right direction.
“Milo… you’ve been saving me every day since I met you. Maybe before that, even. I may be a selfish bastard for bringing you here, and I know I’m not a perfect man… but I meant it when I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. So, if you’ll have me, I’d like to make it official.”
“Jay…” My cheeks were wet as he held the ring up to my finger, his copper eyes never straying from mine.
“Milo Murphy, will you be my husband?” he asked, and I was already blurting an enthusiasticyes!Before he even finished the question.
He smiled and slid the ring on my finger before getting to his feet and sweeping me up into his arms and kissing me silly.
There were cheers, whistles, and severalwhoot whoooots!When I pulled away from Jay’s kiss, we turned to find the entire Memory Therapy floor watching through my glass walls.
Several people had their phones out, and Skyler high-fived Grayson without even looking at him.
“I’ve got this month’s kiss cam in the bag,” she said, grinning triumphantly down at her phone. Greyson just laughed and shook his head, looking amused.
“Alright, everybody. Show’s over. Back to work,” Jay said, though his tone was light and he was smiling again.
I loved that he was finally smiling more often. It had taken a while and a boatload of therapy, but slowly, we were both healing from everything Luke had put us through.
He squeezed my hand gently, and my toes curled at the feeling of my new ring pressing between my fingers.
“Shall we, Mr. Reynolds?” he asked, and I beamed at him, my heart doing a little somersault in my chest at my new name.
“God, you have no idea how excited I am to lose the nameMurphy.”
Jay chuckled softly, brushing an affectionate kiss across my forehead. “I never minded Murphy… but what’s mine is yours, baby. If you want to be a Reynolds, then a Reynolds you shall be.”
He slid my bag off my shoulder and took it from me, before gesturing for me to lead the way out of the new NeuroWell building.
“Now, let’s go tell Seb the good news.” Jay hummed, sliding the keys to his N-car out of his pocket. His chili pepper keychain glinted as he pressed the button for the elevator, and I smiled up at him, feeling like the luckiest biotech nerd on the planet.
My N-car pulled up to the shiny new sister campus that Milo and I had been working on as a side project for the last five years.
After watching Sebastian’s memories and realizing that it had beenhimwho had made NOVA feel so human to me this whole time, I’d thrown myself into restoring her, hoping I could save as much of the learned behavior she’d acquired from him over the years as possible.
Once I’d managed to get her back online, she’d informed me that Sebastian had already left instructions for Daniel Donnovan—the lawyer who had pulled Milo out of that interrogation room all those years ago—on what to do when I inevitably contacted him.
Apparently, Seb had been working with Daniel in the background to find a loophole in Luke’s will, and Daniel assured me that after several years, countless books, and more cigars than his wife approved of, Daniel had been able to find enough of a mistake in the wording to challenge the will.
Sebastian had made it clear thateverythingwas to go to me, and after a few months of drawn-out legal bullshit, Neurovance was officially mine on paper.
Dr. Grey had the audacity to reach out after the press conference Milo and I had attended to announce the transfer of ownership, and I’d told him in no uncertain terms that if I ever saw him again, I would kill him.
He hasn’t contacted me since.
I still toyed with the idea sometimes of hunting him down and killing him anyway… but I wasn’t willing to risk the peace I’d found with Milo over murdering a high-profile government official for my own revenge.
If he’d been the one to torture Sebastian, I might have done it, but he hadn’t been. It had been Luke.
All of this hadbeen Luke.
There was a crowd of people and several members of the press already gathered at the entrance of the massive, red brick building, and I smiled at Mira, who was waving frantically at the car as we approached.
Milo’s mother was doing much better now. After we’d gotten in touch with Daniel, he’d helped us deal with the aftermath of the attack Luke had pitted against us at my father’s cabin.
We’d moved back into the city, and I’d had Mira reinstated into a facility that I knew for a fact wasn’t connected to Neurovance or Luke’s influence in any way. After several months of intensive therapy, Mira was back to her old self.
