“I know, buddy,” I whisper. “I know.”
At the stairs of the jet, I turn back.
Milo’s still standing there, watching. My brother. My twin. The person who shares my blood, my history, my pain. The person who failed me for so long but is finally, finally trying to make it right.
I raise my hand. He raises his.
Then I climb the stairs, and don’t look back.
THE END
EPILOGUE
JASPER
SIX MONTHS AFTER THE FIRE
The sun rises over the ocean, turning the water gold and orange. I’m sitting on the beach, feet buried in white sand, watching Mara wade into the shallows. She’s wearing one of my shirts, which is oversized on her, hitting her at mid-thigh, and nothing else.
She looks happy.
“Come on! The water’s perfect!” she calls to me.
I shake my head, signing,“Coffee first. Then swimming.”
She laughs and dives under a wave, disappearing for a moment before surfacing further out.
I sip my coffee and watch her. This has become our routine—morning beach walk, swimming, then breakfast on the patio while the island wakes up around us.
So different from the chaos we left behind.
My phone buzzes with a text from Valen.
Valen:
Weekly check-in. Call when you can.
Me:
This afternoon.
The updates come regularly. Valen, Milo, and Kade have been working steadily, gathering evidence, building their case.
Mara emerges from the water, dripping and grinning. She drops onto the sand beside me, close enough that water drips onto my leg.
“You’re getting me wet.”
She doesn’t freeze this time, doesn’t make a big deal of it. She’s learned that I speak when I want to speak. That it’s a choice, not a struggle.
“That’s kind of the point.” She grins, flicking more water at me deliberately.
I could sign a response, could stay in the comfortable silence I lived in for years. But Dr. Reeves—my therapist, the one who specializes in selective mutism and trauma responses—said that using my voice when I feel safe is part of moving forward.
Part of honoring what Evie would have wanted.
“The water’s cold. You’re trying to torture me.”
“I’m trying to get you to have fun, totally different.”
