by C. R. Jane
I sent up a silent prayer to a god that had forgotten me long ago that Caiden had taken Everly to his new place.
I drove up to the unit next to his, dimming the headlights as I parked. A spark of hope lit up inside of me when I saw that the lights inside of Caiden’s place were on.
I killed the engine and texted Kyle the address, telling him to call the police if I didn’t text him in ten minutes.
And then I got out the bat that I kept under the backseat of the truck and strode towards his place.
I peered through the front windows, trying to see any sign of Everly or Caiden. A shadow finally moved in the hallway, and I slipped out of sight when Caiden appeared, striding down the hall.
She had to be here.
I jogged to the back of the house, opposite of the direction Caiden had been headed, and I took out my pocketknife and began to fiddle with one of the larger windows.
Caiden and I had become pretty adept at breaking and entering early on in middle school, after our parents had tried to keep us in the house and away from Everly.
It had been awhile since I needed the skill, so it took a few minutes to pick the lock on the window.
I silently celebrated when a soft click sounded, signaling that I’d finally gotten it unlocked.
Here I come, little angel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Everly
I was wearing the fucking ring. Caiden had placed it on my finger, giving my ring finger a soft kiss as he’d done so. I was in shock, so I didn’t put up a fight.
And now I was wearing his fucking ring, trapped in what seemed like another dimension where up was down and crazy was sane.
“You look so beautiful, LyLy. Our wedding night is going to be so perfect.”
“Wedding night?” I whispered, and I watched in horror as his eyes lit up.
“Of course. As soon as possible,” he assured me proudly.
Fuck no. This had gone on long enough. I was tired and afraid. And really fucking tired of being tired and afraid.
I was fast for once, too fast for him to respond. My thumb scraped his nose and then gouged at his eye. He screamed, and I reveled in the sound, jumping up from the couch and aiming an elbow at the back of his bent over head.
With my legs together, all I could do was hop across the floor, but I did it, going as fast as I could like I was in the Olympics.
I’d almost made it out of the room when Caiden tackled me, sending sharp pain to every limb as we crashed to the floor. I struggled against him, my cheek scraping against the tile as he muttered curses at me.
“I didn’t want to do this, Everly. I hated doing it at the club. I hated watching Landry put his disgusting hands on you. But it was necessary then. Just like this will be necessary now. If I have to fuck you into submission, I will.”
My god, Caiden had been the one to drug me on Lane’s birthday. The depths of his manipulative darkness were so deep that I didn’t think it was possible to find the bottom of it.
Caiden had begun to pull at my clothes, and I started to cry as I tried to struggle under him to no avail.
I was praying for death when I heard a loud crack, and Caiden went limp on top of me.
I stilled, trembling, wondering what other monster was now in the room.
Caiden was rolled off of me with a thud, and then I was flipped over.
A cry of relief burst from my lips when I saw who it was.
It was my monster that was there, looking down at me in relief.
Jackson had come.
Jackson quickly untied me and gathered me in his arms. His touch was feather-light, yet fierce at the same time. I buried myself in my favorite place in that space between his head and shoulder and clung to him, hands in his hair, lips to his thundering pulse. I sank in as close as humanly possible, knowing, shivering from the thick blackness that still surrounded us.
“Don’t let go.”
“Never,” he swore, his mouth pressed to my ear. “I’m here; I will always be here, my love.” I pressed closer, comforted by his truth. Jackson held me close as he began to walk me out of the room. We stayed like that, desperately locked together, the entire walk out.
I finally opened my eyes and gasped in horror as I saw Caiden struggling towards us unsteadily, madness in his gaze. He was holding the gun.
“Jackson,” I gasped.
Jackson let me go and whirled around, a look of horror on his face as he stared at his brother. “Put the gun down, Caiden. You aren’t going to kill me.”
“I’ll do anything for her to be mine,” Caiden responded roughly. Jackson had hit him hard with the bat he’d brought, and it was obvious with the way he was limping that he’d been really injured.
“Caiden, please,” I whispered desperately.
He turned his focus on me. “Why can’t you look at me like that…touch me like that? Why can’t you love me like that?”
“I’m so sorry,” I responded, meaning it with everything in me.
Jackson chose that moment to lunge at Caiden while he was distracted, knocking him to the ground and grabbing Caiden’s wrist until he dropped the gun. They both scrambled for it, and I stood there watching the carnage in horror, not knowing what to do.
Jackson finally stood up, victorious, the gun in his hand, blood dripping from a cut on his cheek. He pointed the gun at Caiden, determination in his gaze.
I froze for a moment, the scene laid out before me like a tableau created by my worst nightmare.
No. Jackson can’t do this.
“Jackson, drop the gun,” I begged, my heart beating out of my chest as Jackson stood over his brother’s body, the gun trembling in his hand. “You can’t do it. You can’t kill him.”
“He deserves it,” Jackson said lifelessly.
“Perhaps, but you can’t be the one to make that decision. Please, just drop the gun and come here.”
It seemed like a lifetime passed, but Jackson finally dropped the gun and stumbled away from Caiden, falling to the ground in front of me and burying his head in my stomach as great, racking sobs erupted from his body from the horror of what had almost just happened.
I shivered, relief flooding my veins. It wasn’t just Caiden that would have been gone if Jackson had fired that gun, it was Jackson too. He never would have recovered from killing his brother.
Caiden lifted his head up with a groan, and his gaze met mine.
I froze because the gun was right by Caiden.
Caiden stared at me, and so many emotions flickered across his face that it was impossible to trace them.
I didn’t see it coming, couldn’t have seen it coming. By the time I recognized the resignation and abject sorrow in his gaze, it was too late.
Caiden picked up that gun, keeping his gaze on me the entire time. “I love you, Everly James. I’ll love you forever and ever. And maybe one day, you’ll meet me in the beyond, and you’ll finally love me too,” he whispered.
“Caiden, no!” I screamed, realizing what he was going to do.
But it was too late.
A single shot rang through the air as Caiden Parker put a bullet in his brain.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was raining when we buried him. The mud from the freshly dug grave sloshed on my black flats as I stood in front of his headstone. I attended the funeral by myself, in the back of the crowd, hidden from view under an umbrella.
Jackson had gone black the day his twin died, and he still wasn’t back.
I watched the funeral attendees gather around, all of them mourning the boy they thought they knew instead of the man he actually was.
“How terrible.”
“Such a loss.”
“He was so young.”
They whispered their comments, all ignoring the fact that Caiden had been a kidnapper. An attempted murderer…that he killed himself. They created their own stories for who he’d been, trying to give themselves relief, to make sense of the tragedy of it all.
Jackso
n’s parents stood by the grave, wrapped in their grief, his mother’s tears never-ending.
It was terrible.
I hovered in the back, knowing that my presence would be most unwelcome. I let all of these strangers have their moment, and I waited patiently for mine.
And finally, when all of the attendees had left to go to whatever lavish wake was waiting for them, I approached his grave.
I kneeled in front of it, the cold mud seeping into my thin black tights. I traced the letters on the stone with my hand, wanting to cry but unable to summon any more tears.
“I hope you’re able to forget me up there, that you find the peace I couldn’t give you,” I whispered to him. “I’m so fucking sorry I couldn’t be what you wanted.”
The tears I thought I’d cried out finally came then as I wept for the boy I once knew and the monster he’d become.
I had so much anger, so much disgust, but I let it go as I knelt in front of his grave.
The rain finally stopped at some point, and sunlight peeked through the previously thick, dark clouds.
And it felt like a sign.
I turned my face towards the sunlight, and I sent up my love to Caiden, hoping that wherever he was, he would feel it.
It wasn’t the love that he’d wanted, but it was all I had to give.
“Goodbye, Caiden,” I whispered to the heavens.
And then I picked myself up from the sodden ground, dropping Caiden’s diamond ring to the ground in front of his grave, leaving it behind with all my guilt and my fears, knowing they had no place in my future.
Jackson was waiting for me.
It was days before I saw blue in Jackson’s gaze. We were lying in his bed, my body wrapped around his, my soul asking him desperately to return to me.
And when he finally did, it was a beautiful thing.
He took my hand and brushed a kiss across my skin, and we wept together. He stretched towards me for a kiss, soft at first, and then deeper, his tongue sweeping against mine lazily, like we could do this every day, like we had forever in front of us.
And for the first time, I knew we did.
I didn’t know where we went from here, but I knew wherever it was, it would be together.
Because when we were together, no matter where together was, it was home.
Our journey to a happily ever after was not the stuff of fairy tales, but it was ours. And it was enough.
It was more than enough.
Our love wasn’t the stuff of fairy tales.
It was the stuff of legends.
EPILOGUE
I married him amongst the wildflowers in that field where we’d found our way back to each other.
It was just him and me, and the preacher, just like we’d talked about that day.
And I did run to him, as fast as I could, to where he was standing there with the blue sky behind him, the breeze blowing in his golden hair, a lifetime of happily ever after just a few words away.
Jackson was twenty and I was nineteen, and people said we were too young.
But we knew better.
We’d lived what had felt like a thousand years already, so there was no need to wait a second longer than necessary to start our new life together.
And what a beautiful life it turned out to be.
“You can now recite your vows, Jackson,” Reverend Calhoon said with a smile.
Jackson blinked, tears gathering in his eyes as he gazed down at me, more love than I could ever comprehend in their depths.
“I promise to never forget that you are my dream, the best thing that has ever happened to me, and will ever happen to me. I promise to always put you first, to remind you every day that you are loved. I promise to listen to you, to be there for you, to love you far beyond my last breath. I promise you, Everly James, that I will always do my best to make all the rest of your days happy ones. I love you, Everly. Always.”
A soft sob was in his words, and I promised myself I would remember his vows and keep them close to me…always.
“Everly,” the reverend prodded with a soft smile after I continued to stand there, just staring at Jackson and wondering how it was possible to feel this much love for one person.
I cleared my throat, knowing that no matter what I did, my words were going to be threaded with tears.
“Jackson. My heartbreak prince,” I started, eliciting a small laugh from Jackson’s beautiful mouth. “I vow to stand by you no matter where life takes us. To find you in the darkness and always bring you home. I promise to be true to you and never forget that our love is one that I’ve fought almost my whole life to get to keep. You are my beginning and my end. My daylight in a life once filled with only night. I’ll love you, Jackson Parker. Always.”
Jackson went pro his junior year at Rutherford, and I followed him to New York City, where he was the starting quarterback for the New York Giants his rookie year. They allowed me to take my classes online, since Jackson was such a big deal. I changed my major to English Literature, realizing that the last thing I wanted was to spend the next ten years in school.
I wanted to write.
And write I did.
The first book I published was our love story.
Jackson, my golden prince, did his best to fill all my days with happiness, just like he’d promised.
But sometimes, despite our best efforts to forget, something would remind us of Caiden and we would both cry over the beautiful brown-eyed boy that we couldn’t save.
And sometimes, in dreams, I would meet Caiden in sweet conversations, reminiscent of our childhood and the boy I’d thought I knew…and it wouldn’t hurt.
The years took their sweet time erasing the memory of Caiden.
And maybe that was okay.
Maybe we were supposed to remember the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Just so we never forgot to treasure what we had right now.
Days filled with so much joy and love that they seemed like a dream.
And as Jackson stroked my rounded stomach, whispering to the little girl we’d be having in two short months, I smiled, wondering how the girl from the wrong side of the tracks had ended up with the prince after all.
Like I said, it was a beautiful life.
THE END
EPILOGUE - JACKSON’S POV
I cried like a little kid when I saw her walking towards me, looking like my own personal angel that I didn’t deserve, but would do anything to keep.
She was dressed in a white lacy gown, and I swore there was a heavenly light following her every step. The wildflowers blew gently in the light wind and for a moment I thought about that day that I’d brought her here, and fully gave her all of my heart.
She’d taken a piece of it the moment that I’d seen her as that little girl, but there in that field, she took the rest.
And I never wanted it back.
A lifetime wouldn’t be long enough for this kind of love. She was every dream I’d ever had, every wish I’d ever made, and she held my happiness in her hands.
Everly started running halfway up our makeshift aisle, the wind whipping at the train of her dress. Her steps were hitched, a constant reminder of the accident, but I didn’t want to die of regret every time I saw it now. Instead I just was grateful, and I considered myself the luckiest man in the world that after everything I’d done, she was still willingly running towards me.
She stopped in front of me, her breath coming out in small gasps, a huge smile on her face, tears gathering in her eyes as we just stared at each other.
I was lost in her eyes, lost in her love, lost in her…
And I never wanted to be found.
I heard Reverend Calhoon’s chuckle from behind me. For a moment, I’d forgotten that he was there.
It was just the three of us there, standing in that field where my dreams were about to be made a million times over.
Eager to get started and have her in the only way I didn’t yet, I grabbed Everly’s hand,
and turned us so that we were standing directly in front of the Reverend.
He began speaking, but I was only faintly aware of the words coming out of his mouth. I was too caught up looking at her again. And the crazy thing was, she was looking right back.
“You can now recite your vows, Jackson,” Reverend Calhoon said, and I blinked, my chest feeling like it was going to explode because it was only in my wildest dreams that I ever thought I’d get this chance.
Everly didn’t know this, and I’d tell her at some point, but I’d started writing my vows almost the moment I met her, scribbling away in a little notebook as a kid, dreaming about the girl I thought I’d never have. They’d changed over the years of course, my love shifting and changing until it could become the living, breathing thing that it was today. But I’d known she was perfect from the moment I’d met her.
I gazed down at her, thinking I’d never seen a more beautiful sight than I was seeing right now.
“I promise to never forget that you are my dream, the best thing that has ever happened to me, and will ever happen to me. I promise to always put you first, to remind you every day that you are loved. I promise to listen to you, to be there for you, to love you far beyond my last breath. I promise you, Everly James, that I will always do my best to make all the rest of your days happy ones. I love you, Everly. Always.”
My words were barely legible when I finished, tears thick in my voice, but I knew she’d understood them. She always understood me, even when the rest of the world didn’t.
“Everly,” the Reverend prodded with an indulgent smile after we’d just continued staring at each other with goofy looks on our faces. Well, my look was probably goofy. Hers…was perfect.
She inhaled before beginning to speak.
“Jackson. My heartbreak prince,” she began, and I couldn’t help but laugh, because of course she would put that stupid nickname in our vows. “I vow to stand by you no matter where life takes us. To find you in the darkness and always bring you home. I promise to be true to you and never forget that our love is one that I’ve fought almost my whole life to get to keep. You are my beginning and my end. My daylight in a life once filled with only night. I’ll love you, Jackson Parker. Always.”
