Page 132 of Lethal Weakness

“I should go see my parents.”

“I think you’ll feel better if you did.”

“But then what? We just start over?”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

“What do you want?” She asks hesitantly.

“I want whatever will make you happy.”

“You make me happy,” she whispers.

“Good, because you’re stuck with me.”

“That’s not a bad problem to have,” she says softly.

My thumb traces her cheek lightly. “We can stay, you know? If you’re happy here with Kay. There are playgrounds. Schools.”

“You would want that? After everything you went through here?”

“The neighborhood has changed over the decades. What happened back then doesn’t define this place now. But I had good memories here, too, and I think Avery would do well here.”

“You really mean that?”

I nod. “We can make a home here. New memories. Good memories.”

“Do you think Kay will mind?”

“Aunt Kay has already started buying princess bedroom furniture; I almost guarantee it.”

Suddenly Linden smiles. Her head tips back and her joy illuminates from within, filling all of the hollowness I saw inside of her earlier, and filling my lungs with air now that I know she’s okay.

There will still be rough days, and I’m sure she and Avery will have to work through all of the trauma they’ve experienced… But they’re strong enough to get through it, and I’ll be beside them every step of the way.

“I know that Avery won’t ever be my daughter biologically.” Linden’s gaze drops to my face. “But I will treat her like she’s my own. I will take care of you both, and help you raise her. As far as I’m concerned, she’s mine. You both are, and have always been. No one will ever know otherwise.”

“A fresh start?”

“Yeah. And maybe a name change.”

“You want us to change our last name to O’Connor?” She giggles, and then goes serious when I nod. “This doesn’t sound like a marriage proposal.”

“It’s not… This is way more than that. I want to erase the name Scott from your life completely.”

“Like new identities?”

“Not new, not exactly. The same intelligence that they used to make me a Ghost can fix your paper trail. I can build off of a life that never involved Turner Scott. As if you were never married at all, and he was never on the birth certificate.”

“I don’t know, this sounds crazy when you’re saying it out loud.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” She’ll never be able to fathom the lengths I’d go to ease her burdens.

Her cheek lies heavily in my palm. “Can I have time to think about it?”

“I just need to know before I quit Project Obsidian.”

Chapter Forty-Five