“I hope you’re right,” I respond through the silent tears now freely falling down my cheeks.
“Exactly,” Mom replies with a reemergence of her beautiful smile. “You hope.”
I turn and pull her into my embrace, more grateful than ever to have someone like her in my life. My parents have faced unimaginable circumstances and difficulties that should have broken them completely to pieces, but they survived. The never gave up or lost hope.
And neither will I.
Pulling back from my mom, we sit in silence for some time as I gather my thoughts and regain control of my emotions. After a while I glance up at the fading daylight in the sky. “I should get back to the house. It’s almost time.”
Mom nods before carefully hopping down from the rock. I lower myself down after her, and we walk together on the path through the woods to our home.
When we arrive, I immediately take my place on the couch and turn on the TV even though the five o’clock news doesn’t start for another thirty minutes. The previous show and commercials finally fade into a graphic containing two words that cause my breath to hitch.
Breaking news.
Turning up the volume a few clicks, I sit forward on the couch as if being this much closer will help me hear the sound better.
“We start tonight with breaking news in the Lily Alistair investigation,” the female news anchor announces as the dramatic introductory background music begins to fade. “The local authorities issued a statement just moments ago.” She fumbles with a piece of paper in her hand as she begins to read from it. “In the case of the death of Derek Hughes, after thorough consideration of the evidence and review of the autopsy report, Lily Alistair has been cleared of all wrongdoing. Mr. Hughes was killed in a tragic case of self-defense during a domestic dispute.”
The woman continues to read the rest of the statement, but I’m not listening anymore. My mind is stuck on the four most amazing words in the entire world: cleared of all wrongdoing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mom step into the room from the hallway. She turns to look at the TV. “Any news?”
My hand flies to my mouth as I try to hold back the grin erupting on my face. It’s all the confirmation she needs. She hurries over to me as I stand to meet her, immediately taking her into my arms. “She’s going to be free,” I say with a mix of excitement and disbelief over Mom’s shoulder. “No charges will be filed. Lily and I can be together.”
“I’m so happy for you, Dante.” Mom squeezes me tighter before pulling back and grasping the sides of my face. She considers me thoughtfully for a moment just as the front door opens and Dad walks in. He’s working a towel over his face and neck but stops when he sees us.
“What’d I miss?” he asks hesitantly.
Mom points at the TV. “Lily’s a free woman.”
Dad works his way over to me, grasping my shoulder tightly. “Congratulations. This is great news.”
“I can’t believe it,” I reply before glancing back at the TV just to make sure I’m seeing and hearing this all correctly. The video has changed now. It’s no longer showing the news anchors in the studio. It’s a live feed of an empty podium with a cluster of microphones attached at the top of it.
And then Lily steps into the picture with a man in a gray suit next to her who says, “Lily’s going to make a brief statement. She will not be taking any questions.” He steps back from the podium and motions Lily toward the microphones.
She steps up to them with her head bowed and a piece of paper clutched in her hand. She places it on the podium in front of her before tipping her chin up to the camera, her gaze somehow directly finding mine through the lens over the TV broadcast.
“I’m deeply saddened by the loss of my good friend, Derek Hughes. My heart goes out to his family. I can never give back to them what I’ve inadvertently taken away, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life.” She pauses to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Her chest rises and falls in a deep breath before she continues. “In this time of mourning and recovery, I ask for your cooperation in respecting my privacy.” Her eyes leave the paper she’s reading as she looks into the camera again, and I swear she’s looking directly at me. “I need this time to let things calm down before life can get back to what it was before this all happened.” In the deliberate second of silence that follows, I know she’s talking to me. She’s sending me a message. “I hope my family and friends understand that I am forever grateful for their love and support, and I will reach out to them when I’m ready. Thank you.”
The TV speakers blare with the sound of reporters yelling questions toward the now empty podium as Lily and the man in the suit make their way out of view of the camera. The picture changes back to the news anchors at their desk, and they begin to discuss the statement Lily just made.
A statement that was really more of a message to me.
“She was talking to you,” Dad says with surprise.
“I know,” I reply with a grin, though it quickly fades with the conflicted feelings I have inside. “She’s free but afraid to call me or see me with all this attention on her. She wants us to wait.” I sigh heavily before looking between both of my parents, reminding myself of their own story and the months they spent apart before my mom was rescued and they were finally reunited. If they could make it through that harrowing time without even knowing whether they’d ever see each other again, I can get through this delay in having Lily back in my arms. “I can wait,” I acknowledge with decisiveness and determination. “I can do this.”
Mom pulls me into a hug before Dad wraps his arms around both of us. As my parents embrace me and show me their unwavering love and support, I breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in over a month, I’m looking forward to the future. I’m ready to leave the darkness behind and look to the clearer path ahead.
When Lily says go, I’ll be ready.
In the meantime, I’ll be waiting.
30
I can see my breath billowing in front of me with each heave of my chest in the cold air as we move, but that doesn’t deter me. Brandon and I have unloaded sheet after sheet of drywall from the flatbed truck, determined not to stop until the final materials are unloaded and inside the house.
“You doing okay back there?” Brandon calls out behind him as he navigates the awkwardly large piece of drywall through the open front door.
“I’m good,” I reply, loving the burn in my arm muscles as I bring the back end of the drywall through the door. We set it carefully against the wall in the open floorboard space that will become this house’s living room before heading back outside into the cold to repeat the process all over again.
It takes four more trips, but we finally empty the flatbed truck and send it on its way before calling it a night. Brandon encourages the few other volunteers still around to head home before he joins me in the partially finished kitchen that has served as our break room on this project.
I toss him a cold bottle of water from the cooler on the floor before returning my attention to my own bottle in my hand, gulping down the rest of the refreshing liquid to renew my parched body.
“Good job today,” Brandon compliments between drinks of his water.
I nod in acknowledgement and lean back against the exposed wood that will eventually become the kitchen counter. “It’s been a productive day.”
“Hell, it’s been a productive couple weeks really,” Brandon counters.
Internally I’m smiling to myself, knowing exactly what’s brought on this recent motivation in my life. I may not have Lily by my side when I wake up each morning, but just knowing that will be my reality someday soon is enough to keep me going. It fuels me more than ever to do better each day, to embrace life and look forward to the next day.
I have a lot to look forward to, and it feels like it’s just around the corner.
I’ll wait as long as it takes.
Brandon finishes off his bottle of water with a heavy
sigh before grabbing the phone from his pocket. He slides his finger across it and checks the screen before tucking it back away. “I better get going. I need to wash up before this date tonight.”
Even though I should be jealous of Brandon’s uncomplicated and thriving relationship with his girlfriend, I feel nothing but happiness for the guy. I’ve been in that place before with Lily. I’m just waiting for the chance to go back there again. “Don’t stay out too late. We have another full day of work ahead of us tomorrow.”
“I thought I was the project coordinator here,” he scolds with an amused grin on his face.
I follow him out of the house and part ways with him in the front yard as we walk to our cars.
“I’ll catch you tomorrow, Dante,” he calls out with a small wave before climbing in his car.
I nod and wave back to him, but my eyes are drawn to something further up the road past the only other two houses on this dead-end street. Something red. Something I’d recognize from a mile away.
Lily’s car.
I pretend to get settled in my car and wait for Brandon to drive away before opening my door and bolting into a run down the road. When I’m within feet of Lily’s little red hatchback, the driver’s-side door opens and the most beautiful person in the world emerges from it.
The other half of my forever.
She runs to me. She connects with me.
I will never let her go again.
We embrace each other with passion and pain and every desperate feeling emerging to the surface between us. She’s sobbing into my shoulder, gripping on to me like I’m the only thing that can possibly keep her feet on the ground. I hold her back just as tightly, releasing my own tears at finally being reunited with this lost piece of my heart.
“I missed you,” I whisper in her ear, and even though my words only make her sob harder, I continue to say everything that I’ve waited weeks to tell her. “I love you, Lily Alistair. I know you’re hurting and I know this has been hard, but I’m here for you now, every step of the way.”
“I love you, Dante Marini,” she whispers back, though she can barely get through the words before releasing another wave of tears. “I never stopped loving you.”
Though I could stay like this with Lily in my arms forever, I finally decide to pull back from our embrace to gauge her face. Despite the wetness of her cheeks and redness of her eyes, her vibrant smile somehow manages to shine through.
I wipe away her tears with each of my thumbs and press my lips softly to hers. “Tell me what I can do for you,” I implore.
“I just need you. Lots of you.”
“I’m all yours.” I kiss her softly again, but when I pull back this time, her smile has faded.
“I don’t know where we’ll go or how we’ll do this,” she says with concern. “I’ve been living with Jodi these past couple weeks since the investigation wrapped up while I waited for the media coverage to stop. I couldn’t bring myself to go back to my place. My belongings are already in storage and the landlord let me out of my lease. There are too many memories there. I can’t handle it, Dante.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Pulling her gently against my chest with her ear hovering near my heart, I quickly realize I’m going to have to play the card available in my back pocket a lot sooner than I intended. “Live with me,” I offer to her.
Lily looks up at me in disbelief. “What? Live with you where?”
“My family’s house. Come live with us in the woods.”
A skeptical look crosses Lily’s face. “What do your parents think about that?”
“It was their idea,” I reply with a grin before my expression turns more serious. “Come stay with me. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll help you heal. I want to be there for you. There’s no better place to hide from the world than at my house.”
Fresh tears spill down Lily’s cheeks as she nods. “Yes. I’ll come live with you.”
Our lips meet again, shy and hesitant at first before quickly building into a fierce exchange of love and emotion. It’s impossible to hold back my elation over Lily’s acceptance of my offer, so I show her every bit of it through this wild kiss between us.
I feel like I’m on top of the fucking world.
When we finally pull back from each other, Lily’s face is still tear-stained but the happiness and relief in her expression has to be a mirror image to my own. I take her hands in mine and pull them to my chest, warming them with my touch and wishing I could do so much more to show her how much I want to make up for not being able to help her until now.
“Can I come with you today?” she asks hesitantly.
“Absolutely.”
She breathes a sigh of relief, her exhale clearly visible in the chill of the early winter air around us. “I just need to grab some things from Jodi’s apartment. I’ll leave my car with her. I won’t need it.”
“You quit working at the tavern?”
She nods. “I’m ready for the next chapter in my life. I need to leave my old job and house behind.”
“And your cell phone,” I add, hoping this won’t upset her. “We’ll get you a burner phone so you can communicate within the family.”
She smiles at what I’ve said, which is confusing given that I’ve just told her she has to give up her cell phone. “I like how you said ‘family.’”
“You’ll be part of our family. I know you’ve been missing out on that since your dad died, but with us I can assure you you’ll be cared for and loved. My parents live a simple and secluded life, but that only makes them love the people in their lives more. They want to embrace you as part of the family.”
I’ve made the tears start spilling from Lily’s eyes again, but they’re accompanied by a grin of excitement and happiness that assures me these are the happiest kind of tears.
Lily glances to the side at her car. “I don’t know that I can wait another second. Let’s go now.”
“Okay,” I reply with a laugh. “I’ll follow you to Jodi’s, then?”
Lily nods and kisses me briefly before maneuvering her way around the front of her car to the driver’s side. “I’ll see you there.”
When she hops inside, I turn around and run back down the street to my car. After getting on the road to follow Lily and calling my parents to tell them what’s going on, I find myself still trying to comprehend how significantly life is about to change.
The woman I love is moving in with me.
She’s mine. She’s safe. We’re together.
This is where my life truly begins.
It takes a good hour to get to Jodi’s apartment and pack Lily’s things into my car. We had no choice but to tell Jodi that Lily was coming to live with me even though I’d prefer that no one knew, but we didn’t want her to worry about where Lily disappeared to. It turns out Jodi was thrilled to know we were back together and that Lily was going to live with me. She wouldn’t ruin that for us. She assured us she’d never tell anyone where Lily went.
After Lily’s tearful goodbye with Jodi, we get on the road in my car to do something I never thought in a million years would happen.
I bring my girlfriend home.
It’s almost like we’re back to the way it was as we drive, though I know the truth is so much has changed. Classic rock plays softly in the background as Lily leans her head back against the headrest and stares out the window at the endless line of trees passing by. Our hands are connected across the center console, that simple touch doing all the communicating we need between us as we otherwise drive in silence.
By the time we’re on the dirt roads, Lily sits up in her seat and looks out the windshield intently. I can tell she knows we’re getting close. We haven’t seen other cars or houses for miles.
As I make the final turn into our long driveway, my heart begins to race. This is it. We’re bringing someone new into our family, letting her fully in on our secluded lives. She’s proven to us the lengths she’d go to in order to protect us and our secrets. It’s our tur
n to trust her and reciprocate her loyalty with all the love and support we can give her.
When the small brown house with the pointed roof and white shutters finally comes into view, I say the words that I almost need to hear out loud just to believe they are real. “We’re home.”
Lily looks at me and smiles as a stray tear falls down her cheek. “I like the sound of that.”
By the time we’re parked, my parents are already emerging from the front door, Dad’s arm wrapped around Mom’s shoulder as they approach the car. I hurry out of the vehicle to get Lily’s door and offer her a hand to help her up.
Mom beams a smile at Lily before pulling her into a hug. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Thank you for having me,” Lily says over Mom’s shoulder with a smile to my dad. He grins back at her with an acknowledging nod.
When Mom and Lily pull back from each other, Mom glances at the house behind her. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”
Lily shakes her head in disagreement. “It’s perfect. It’s just what I need right now.” She turns to me and takes my hand in hers. “You’re exactly what I need.”
Feelings wash over me that I simply can’t ignore. I don’t care that my parents are standing right here within feet of us. I pull Lily to my chest and unite our lips, tasting her and loving her with my mouth until we pull back almost gasping for breath.
With an embarrassed glance to my parents, I expect to see some kind of disapproval or shock on their faces, but I only see happiness there. They understand what I’m going through. They recognize passion and true love because they’ve been there. It’s what’s kept them together through the darkest times and what keeps them going to this day.
Placing my hand on the small of Lily’s back, I encourage her toward the front door. “Welcome to the Marini family.”
Beyond Resistance (The Ransom Series) Page 23
