Chapter Forty-Seven
EPILOGUE
I'm sitting on the patio of Betty's Burgers with Colleen and Claudia. The spring sun warms my shoulders, and Amadeus lounges at my feet, already bigger than I ever imagined he'd get.
"Can I pet him?" Claudia asks, her voice lighter than I've heard it in months.
"He'd be offended if you didn't."
She crouches down, and Amadeus immediately rolls onto his back, tail thumping the concrete. She laughs and scratches his belly.
Colleen watches her niece with tears in her eyes. She catches me looking and mouths,Thank you.
I shake my head.Don't.
But she does this every time.
"So how's Julian?" Colleen asks, sipping her iced tea.
"Good. Really good, actually." I steal a fry from Claudia's plate. "His hand's totally healed. He's been playing three nights a week at The Blue Note, and he picked up a wedding gig next month."
"That's wonderful."
"And the charges?" Claudia looks up from Amadeus, her expression cautious. She always gets quiet when Daniel comes up.
"All dropped." Relief floods through me every time I say it. "Self-defense. The judge was really understanding, especially after everything came out about Daniel. We got community service for the break-in, but that's it. Forty hours each."
"That's nothing," Colleen says.
"Raine didn't get anything," I add. "We never mentioned him, and the cops had no idea he was there."
Claudia smirks. "Your techie friend sounds like a genius."
"He's something, all right."
She goes back to petting Amadeus, and I study her. She looks so much healthier now—color in her cheeks, her hair shiny and pulled into a ponytail.
Turns out Daniel had taken her because she'd been planning to tell her aunt everything about their relationship, despite having promised him—sworn to him—that she would never breathe a word to anyone. He knew exactly how old she was. He knew she was only fifteen. He knew perfectly well that he might be facing statutory rape charges if the truth came out, that he'd become the local town scandal, the subject of endless gossip and whispered conversations.
A man like Daniel, with his carefully constructed reputation and his need for control, would never stand for that kind of exposure. He couldn't allow it. So he'd taken her, hidden her away, tried to make her disappear rather than face the consequences of what he'd done.
At least he didn't murder her—that's what I keep telling myself, though the thought brings little comfort. If Daniel were still alive, and things had continued the way they were going, if no one had found her, if she'd stayed hidden away in thatbasement apartment for weeks or months longer… I can't help but think what he might have done eventually.
The way his mind worked, the way he justified everything to himself, the way he saw people as possessions to be controlled rather than human beings with their own agency. He may have eventually killed her—it wouldn't have been much of a leap. Not for someone like Daniel. Not for a man who could look a fifteen-year-old girl in the eye and convince himself he had the right to take everything from her.
I shake my head at the thought. “How's school?" I ask Claudia.
"Weird." She shrugs. "Everyone stares. I'm, like, famous now. The girl who got kidnapped and survived."
"That must be hard."
"Sometimes." She meets my eyes. "But also… I don't hate it? Is that bad?"
"Not at all."
Colleen squeezes her hand. "You're allowed to feel however you feel, sweetheart."
Claudia nods, then grins. "Plus, this guy in my English class asked me out."
