by Willow Rose
"The doctors didn't think you'd make it," Julie said. "That's what they told Sune."
"Really?" I asked. "Guess I proved them wrong, huh?"
"You were gone for a very long time there, Rebekka," Sune said. "We were all terrified. You've been out for a week. They said you lost a lot of blood and that they weren't sure you'd come back to us. But it isn't over yet. The knife went through your kidneys and damaged both of them. You'll need a transplant as soon as possible, or you'll die."
"Oh," I said and looked down at the tubes and bandages.
Sune rubbed his hair distraughtly. "Yeah, well, apparently I’m a match, so…"
I stared at him, not sure I was hearing him right. "Say that again?"
He threw out his arms. "I'm giving you my kidney."
"Oh, Sune, you don't have to…"
He smiled, a tear escaping his eye. "Don't you get it? I want to. I have treated you awful, and it's the least I can do. Besides, you're the mother of my child. I need you to stick around. We all do."
I was crying now while looking into his eyes. I couldn't believe he would do this for me.
"I am not taking your kidney, Sune. I can't do it. There must be another way? Some other donor?" I asked, sobbing.
Julie tried to hug me, but the tubes got in her way. Instead, I held her hand in mine, and she put her forehead against mine.
"I love you, Mom."
"I love you too, sweetie."
She was crying now and not even trying to hold it back anymore. "I don't know what I would do if you hadn't come back. I was so scared."
"I would never leave you, baby. Never."
She looked deep into my eyes, then stroked my cheek gently. "So, please, take Sune's kidney, will you? For my sake. For all of us."
Sune grabbed my hand in his. "I know you hate me for what I have done, and we won't be together anymore; I’ve come to terms with that now, but at least let me save your life. We're lost without you, Rebekka."
77
I sat on the edge of the bed while putting on my clothes very carefully. The nurse who had been taking care of me for the entire two weeks I had been in the hospital after the transplant helped me get them on and supported me while I put them on properly.
I could still barely stand on my own, and they rolled in a wheelchair for me to sit in.
Sune poked his head in, flanked by all three children. "You ready to go?"
I nodded, and the nurse placed my bag in my lap. She smiled at me.
"Now, you keep yourself out of trouble, okay? I don't want to see you in here again except for your check-ups. If you have any pain or if you don't have urine, then let us know, okay?"
It had taken three days for the kidney to start working, and I had been so scared my body would reject it or that it simply didn't fit somehow. But the doctor had explained to me that it was normal. He said that a good transplant was one that worked well after a year and not two weeks. Meanwhile, they had put me on dialysis till it started working on its own. I would have to come back for check-ups two to three times a week, to begin with, then once a week, then once every two weeks. When they were finally satisfied that it worked well, the appointments would be reduced to once every three months, but that was a long way off. For now, I was going to have to accept help for a long while, and Sune and the kids had promised to take good care of me.
I hugged the nurse and thanked her for being so good to me, then let Sune push me in the chair toward the elevator. I couldn't wait to leave this place and get out in the fresh air and feel the sun on my face again.
"Were you going to leave without even saying goodbye?"
I turned my head and spotted Carol standing in the doorway of her room. She was holding her IV drip in her hand, rolling it behind her. She still had a huge bandage on her throat and was pale from the loss of blood. They had managed to stitch her back together again, but it had been a close call, they said.
"Of course not," I said and reached out my hand toward her. She bent down and hugged me.
"I am so sorry about Adeline," I said, my voice growing hoarse. "It wasn't fair."
Carol nodded, her eyes growing wet. "She was a good woman. I will miss her terribly."
"We should go now," Sune said from behind me as the elevator dinged its arrival. "William needs to get his nap."
I stared at my tired son, then chuckled. "He'll sleep in the car."
"See you at the trial," Carol said and waved at me as Sune rolled me into the elevator. "Maybe we can grab lunch?"
"Sounds awesome," I said, not looking forward to having to face Regina again in a courtroom, but also knowing it was necessary. She still claimed she was innocent and that she was being framed, but luckily, I don't think anyone believed her. She was, after all, found holding the knife that stabbed me and Carol and Adeline. Plus, they had also found her fingerprints on the knife that stabbed both Allan Cunningham and the sheriff, and they had found her hairs on Alexander Cunningham's clothes. She could cry innocence all she wanted, but I felt pretty convinced she'd go away for quite some time. It was still strange to me how she had wondered all her life if she was like her mother, if she too would turn into a murderer. It made me wonder about what you grew up knowing about yourself and if it was possible that you could somehow make those things come true, just by believing them about yourself. That how you saw yourself shaped you somehow.
We reached the lobby and Sune pushed me out through the sliding doors, where I took in a deep breath of the warm moist Florida air that I had grown to love so dearly.
"It's funny, life," Sune said as he pushed me toward the car in the parking lot.
"What is?" I asked.
"It's kind of ironic that you were recently pushing me around, helping me with even the smallest things like going to the bathroom, and now I’ll be doing the same for you."
"I fail to see what's so funny about that," I said and looked up at him. He smiled.
"At least I know how it feels to be in your situation," he said.
"And I know how you feel," I said.
Sune smiled again. "Plus, I kind of like the feeling that you'll always carry a small part of me with you wherever you go for the rest of your life. You'll never get rid of me completely."
"Another example of life's cruel irony, I guess," I said and let him help me into the passenger seat of the car.
Epilogue
"Can someone get that?"
I was sitting in the living room in my wheelchair when the knock came on our door. I looked around. No one was there to open the door. Sune had left for Publix to buy groceries and taken William with him, while Julie and Tobias had taken their boogie boards down to the beach.
"Dang it," I said, then grabbed the wheels of my chair. I pulled them when there was another knock. I still wasn't very good at wheeling this thing since I had only been at it for three days. I wasn't sure I was ever going to get good at it. I had blisters on my fingers from trying, and to be honest, I was hoping to lose it soon. The hospital had believed it was best for me not to move around too much, so they had said at least a week in the chair, to make sure the scars from the operation would heal properly and not to risk ripping out the stitches from where the knife went through.
"I’m coming; I’m coming, geez," I said and fought to roll the chair across the tiles. I reached the door, finally, then panting tiredly, I reached for the handle and turned it. I opened the door, expecting it to be the mailman or a FedEx delivery guy wanting a signature, but it wasn't. What met me on the other side made me first think that I had to be dreaming.
"David? David Busck?"
David's handsome eyes stared at me. Was it possible that he was even dreamier than the last time I had seen him?
David was a journalist like me, and that wasn't the only thing we had in common. David and I had been stuck in a limestone mine some years back, and he had come to my town afterward and told me he cared deeply for me. I had almost fallen for him back then while Sune and I were apart for a lit
tle while, but then I decided to stay with Sune after he was shot.
"It's good to see you, Rebekka. It's been awhile."
"What on Earth…why are you here?" I asked. "In Florida of all places?"
"I was on a job here, actually all the way in North Carolina, doing a story about a group of ex-soldiers who have made this small community, living in the woods, struggling with their PTSD, completely cutting themselves off from society. I write for a psychology magazine now, and it was quite interesting, actually. Anyway, I was there and spent a couple of weeks living with these guys, and then when I came back to civilization, I heard about what happened to you. Your name was on the news up there with a picture and everything. I decided to track you down."
I wrinkled my forehead, then looked down at my wheelchair. I hadn't showered in two days, and my hair was greasy. I wasn't exactly the woman I used to be.
"I can't believe it," I said and let him hug me, even though I knew the smell couldn't be good. "How long are you here?"
He shrugged. "I don't know yet. As I was doing my story up north, I came upon another one that I might be looking into that is pretty close to here in Orlando. I thought I might stick around for a few weeks. See what the fuss about this state is all about."
I felt baffled and slightly puzzled as well. I hadn't forgotten about David, but I had pushed him out of my mind and thought I'd never see him again. Yet there he was, looking at me the same way he had back then.
"Okay, if I'm going to be perfectly honest," he continued, "I ran into your father before I left, and he told me that you and Sune had split up but that you were still staying here, at least for a little while. I was coming here anyway and was hoping I'd find you. Then this story was all over the news, and well…I got worried about you, and feared that you were all alone."
"Well, I’m not. Sune has been taking care of me. And the kids of course."
"But…? Please let there be a but?"
"But we're not together anymore," I said. "He's seeing someone else."
"And you?"
"I am mostly seeing the TV lately."
David smiled. "So, would that mean that…if I stayed in town, that maybe I could take you out to dinner sometimes?"
I looked down at the wheelchair, then decided it didn't matter. David had seen me at my worst when being stuck together in that mine. Besides, I was only attached to this thing for a short while. I was soon going to be back to myself, or a stitched-up version of me, at least.
I nodded with a smile.
"I would really like that."
THE END
Afterword
Dear Reader,
Thank you for purchasing It Ends Here (Rebekka Franck #10). A big part of this story is inspired by real events. A girl named Mary Bell killed two boys in England back in 1968 together with her friend. She was later convicted of these murders and served 12 years in prison. When she was released, she gained court-ordered protection of her identity so she could start a new life, but it was revealed who she was later on and her daughter learned the truth about her mother in 1998 when the house was besieged by the media. After that, it was ruled by a judge that the press was banned from writing anything that could reveal her identity. The judge then said: "We don't want to visit the sins of the mother on the child." I found that to be an interesting statement, which grew to be the foundation of this book.
I then combined her story with the story of an author who had also been convicted of a murder when she was a child, and her identity was exposed when they suddenly made the movie called Heavenly Creatures about her. She had changed her name and moved to another part of the world, but it still caught up with her, which I also found to be very interesting.
If you want to know more, you can read about both stories here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bell
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12296872.mary-bells-daughter-learns-the-awful-truth-court-move-to-protect-identity/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/12/crimebooks.features11
Now, the town of Webster does exist and is a small town here in Florida. The Farmer's Market also exists and is actually worthy of a visit, especially on cattle-auction days. The restaurant has a great atmosphere and serves typical southern country-style food. Some of the other places I have written about exist as well, like the Circle K outside of town and the stores, but I have also taken the artistic liberty to move some things around in the town, and none of the characters in this book are based on living characters from this town.
As always, I want to thank you for supporting me and remind you to leave a review if you can. It means so much to me.
Take care,
Willow
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About the Author
The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 50 novels. She writes Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Horror, Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.
Willow's books are fast-paced, nail-biting page-turners with twists you won't see coming.
Several of her books have reached the Kindle top 20 of ALL books in the US, UK, and Canada.
She has sold more than three million books.
Willow lives on Florida's Space Coast with her husband and two daughters. When she is not writing or reading, you will find her surfing and watch the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
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Books by the Author
Mystery/Horror Novels:
What Hurts the Host (7th Street Crew #1) - Grab your copy today
You Can Run (7th Street Crew #2) - Grab your copy today
You Can’t Hide (7th Street Crew #3) - Grab your copy today
Carefull Little Eyes (7th Street Crew #4) - Grab your copy today
Hit the Road Jack (Jack Ryder #1) - Grab your copy today
Slip Out the Back Jack (Jack Ryder #2) - Grab your copy today
The House that Jack Built (Jack Ryder #3) - Grab your copy today
Black Jack (Jack Ryder #4) - Grab your copy today
Girl next door (Jack Ryder #5) - Grab your copy today
Her final word (Jack Ryder #6) - Coming out November 2018
One, Two... He is Coming for You (Rebekka Franck #1) - Grab your copy today
Three, Four ... Better Lock your Door (Rebekka Franck #2) - Grab your copy today
Five, Six ... Grab your Crucifix (Rebekka Franck #3) - Grab your copy today
Seven, Eight... Gonna Stay up Late (Rebekka Franck #4) - Grab your copy today
Nine, Ten... Never Sleep Again (Rebe
kka Franck #5) -Grab your copy today
Eleven, Twelve... Dig and Delve (Rebekka Franck #6) - Grab your copy today
Thirteen, Fourteen... Little Boy Unseen (Rebekka Franck #7) - Grab your copy today
Better not cry (Rebekka Franck #8) - Grab your copy today
Ten little Girls (Rebekka Franck #9) - Grab your copy today
It Ends Here (Rebekka Franck #10) - Grab your copy today
Edwina - Grab your copy today
To Hell in A Handbasket - Grab your copy today
Umbrella Man - Grab your copy today
Black Bird Fly - Grab your copy today
Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) - Grab your copy today
Miss Polly had a Dolly (Emma Frost #2)- Grab your copy today
Run, Run, as Fast as you Can (Emma Frost #3) - Grab your copy today
Cross your Heart and Hope to Die (Emma Frost #4) - Grab your copy today
Peek A Boo I See You (Emma Frost #5) - Grab your copy today
Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Emma Frost #6) - Grab your copy today
Easy as One Two Three (Emma Frost #7) - Grab your copy today
There's No Place like Home (Emma Frost #8) - Grab your copy today
Slenderman (Emma Frost #9) - Grab your copy today
Where the Wild Roses Grow (Emma Frost #10) - Grab your copy today
Waltzing Mathilda (Emma Frost #11) - Grab your copy today
Drip Drop Dead (Emma Frost #12) - Grab your copy today
