Page 101 of When The Noise Stops

"Nobody," Maggie said, too brightly.

"Church people."

She stepped inside. The lock turned.

We walked back to the RV. Knox sat in the passenger seat, unmoving.

Charlotte spoke as soon as we pulled off.

"This will hold until she changes her mind. But it's a head start."

Knox didn't answer.

I watched the house shrink in the side mirror and thought of Gabby. She would probably need some kind of counseling. Then I thought about how girls and women learned to survive in the strangest fucking ways.

I sighed.

Epilogue

Lila — Three Months Later

Three months later. The day after we left Maggie's house, I signed myself and Gabby up for proper therapy. Three months later, I still had issues.

Apparently, therapy wasn't a switch you could flip.

I was still going to meetings.

I had good days. I had bad days. I had days when I woke up, went to the bakery, made four hundred cupcakes, came home, fucked my boyfriend, and slept eight straight hours like a mentally stable adult.

Then I had days when a car backfired and I had to sit in my walk-in freezer for fifteen minutes reminding myself that I was thirty-three years old, Archie was still in prison, and nobody was shooting at me.

Progress wasn't a straight line. It wasn't even a crooked one.

Reese got probation.

That pissed everybody off more than it pissed me.

Tiny wanted to find him.

Hawk offered to help.

Ronny hadn't left and was thinking about moving to Florida again to protect me.

Knox just looked at me and said, "If he comes near you again, shoot him."

Reese hadn't bothered me since.

That was good enough for now.

Gabby was officially living with Knox.

There had been lawyers, paperwork, hearings, and too much legal language to get her where she needed to be. Justice was indeed blind.

Maggie still had rights to her daughter.

But Knox could finally be what he'd already been since Gabby was a baby.

Her father.