“My side hurts.”
He nods, still stroking my hair. “I bet it does. You’ve got two broken ribs. No internal damage, though, thank God.”
“Gabe?”
“He’s never going to see freedom again, Peaches. You made headline news. You’re some kind of famous, Emma. Last I heard, two more girls came forward with stories like yours. He’s too beaten up to be arrested, but as soon as he is well enough, the cops are charging him with two counts of rape and one count of attempted murder.”
I try to let those words sink in. It takes a minute before they do, and a sob escapes. Tristan is back beside me in a second flat. “What hurts?”
“Nothing,” I lie. My side feels like it’s splitting open. “Is it really over?”
Tristan nods, softly smiling. “It’s over, Emma. You don’t have to run anymore.”
EPILOGUE
Tristan
The best part about all of this is being able to take care of my girl. Marley is on a chair in my room reading a magazine and Mateo is sitting on the floor, playing Xbox. And Emma, she’s laid up in my bed, my favorite spot for her to be.
It’s been a few weeks, and she’s healing all right, but she’s still taking a healthy dose of painkillers. I think her mom has concluded that I’m a good enough nurse to allow Emma to be out of her sight. Now she lets her spend the weekends at my place, which is just fine by me.
“You’re so good to me,” she says as I adjust her pillows.
I wink. “I could get a pair of scrubs. We could play doctor.”
Marley doesn’t look up from her magazine as she flips the page and says, “TMI.”
“Like you wouldn’t do the same thing, Scott.”
“Play doctor with Emma?” Marley does look up this time, grinning.
Mateo groans. “My dick cannot handle the thought of you making out with Emma, Beauty. Stop giving me false hope.”
I glare at Mateo, who stops firing his fingers on the button of the remote long enough to smile. “As if you aren’t entertained by the thought. You’re not a priest, bro.”
“You know what thought entertains me?”
“No,” Mateo says, “but I’m sure you’re about to tell us.”
“The thought of Gabe in prison, being someone’s bitch on the daily.”
Emma smiles.
Mateo nods. “Yep. Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.”
The cottage wasn’t in the same jurisdiction, so no matter what connections the asshole’s stepfather had in the police force, those didn’t help him when he was charged in a different county.
Emma somehow blames herself for the other girls, and I try to reason with her, to tell her that it’s not her fault. One of the crimes happened months before Emma’s rape, and the other girl was attacked just before Gabe came looking for Emma in Stonefall. I pointed out that she probably saved it from happening even more in the future, but she’s still struggling.
Baby steps, I told her. Take each day as it comes, and we will get through it. So that’s what we’re doing—Emma, Mat, Marley, and I. Trying to get on with our lives. Trying not to let the past define us, the future scare us, and trying to make the present beautiful.
Marley and Mateo take off a little after lunch. Emma’s watching some chick flick on my TV. I grab the Carter’s box that I bought—what seems like so long ago now—and head back to the bedroom.
“Hey, Peaches.”
“Hi,” she says, shuffling over so I can sit beside her.
“I want to talk to you about something.” She looks worried until I give her my best smile. “Nothing scary,” I assure her.
She directs the remote control to the TV and shuts it off, turning her body as best she can to face me.
I give her the box.
“I got this for you a while back,” I tell her. “I haven’t had a chance to give it to you.”
She smiles and takes the box from my hand.
“I’m not proposing—yet,” I say. “I just want to let you know, because if I were popping the question it wouldn’t be on a Sunday afternoon with you all stuck in bed in my cramped apartment. You deserve better than that.”
She laughs. “Okay. Can I open it?”
“Please.”
I watch as she carefully unties the ribbon and removes the lid. She peeks inside and sees the bracelet with the dragon with amethyst eyes.
“Tristan,” she says, “it’s lovely.”
“Like you.” I take the bracelet from her and flip it over. “Read the inscription.”
She holds it up to read the words engraved along the dragon’s back. “You give me strength even though you’re my greatest weakness,” she says. “Tristan, that’s so beautiful.”
“I don’t remember a life before you, Em. I don’t want to.”
She smiles and reaches out to touch the side of my face. “I was so determined not to love you,” she says. “Imagine all I would have missed.”
“You fell under my spell,” I tease, slipping the bracelet on her wrist.
She nods. “I was enchanted by your charms.”
“I’m glad I could enchant you, Emma Fletcher. I plan to do so for a long, long time. You taught me that even in the darkest times, there’s hope, and you set me free.”
“Me too,” she says. “Hey, Tristan?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe we should try putting real pushpins on my maps. The world is a big place. I want to see it with you.”
I brush her hair behind her ear. “I thought the world and all its depravity terrified you.”
She shrugs. “Used to. Not so much anymore.”
I frame her face in my hands and softly kiss her. “Time to retire those sneakers, huh? You don’t have to run anymore.”
Emma smiles. “You’re wrong,” she says simply. “There are dreams to chase after and I’m fearless.”
I kiss her again. “You are that. You’re pretty much like the hero of your own story.”
“Every hero needs a good sidekick, Tristan,” she teases.
“I’ll take the job,” I tell her. “The pay sucks, but the perks are worth it.”
She starts to laugh and I’m mesmerized by the sound. I laugh too and in that moment, I know Emma and I are going to be just fine.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have so much gratitude for so many people, a few paragraphs of thanks hardly seems like enough, but I’ll do my best.
To my family. My husband. My offspring. I love you. I know you all think I’m crazy but you love me anyway, and that’s what counts. Thank you, Jay: the fact that you can recall entire story lines I spew at four in the morning when I wake up with a tornado of ideas in my head, yet you can’t remember to stop for milk on the way home is something that will fascinate me always. I don’t need the milk . . . just hang on to those ideas for me.
Dani, Trent, and Rylee. Thank you for choosing me as your mom. The three of you make me want to be better every single day. You can do anything you put your mind to. I hope you all realize the fact that you’re reading an acknowledgment in a book—a legitimate book—is proof of that. I will always be your biggest cheerleader.
To my parents, my mom and my dad, for gifting me with a passion for words and making me believe that nothing is impossible. Dad, I have your creativity, and Mom, I have your heart. I miss you both terribly and think of you every single day.
To my agent, John Silbersack. I still can’t believe you happened to me. Thank you for taking a chance on me and for being such an uplifting and positive force in my life. Your wisdom, and your constant encouragement, is not only appreciated but it’s treasured.
To Micki Nuding at Simon and Schuster. Thank you for loving Emma and Tristan as much as I do, and for giving me the opportunity to share them with the world. To the rest of the team at Simon and Schuster, Melissa B
endixen, and Marla Daniels, thank you. You have made my first experience with editors absolutely amazing.
To my writing soul mates and best friends. Monica Sanz, Rebecca Sky, and Erin Latimer. Monica, I’m pretty sure you’ve read this book as many times as I have. Thank you. You three were with me for this entire journey, from the first word to the last, and were my biggest supporters as all the puzzle pieces began to fit together. We laugh together, we cry together, we celebrate in successes together, and I cannot imagine my life without the three of you in it. I am so blessed to know you.
To Wattpad and their entire team. Thank you for giving me a voice, a platform, and most of all confidence in my writing. I am forever grateful.
And perhaps my biggest thank-you goes to you, dear reader. Without you, I’d be lost. Thank you for choosing to spend some of your time in my world. It means everything to me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
L.D. Crichton is the author of the only official fan fictions for both One Direction and Emblem3, commissioned by Sony Music Entertainment and Faculty Management Group. Crichton has over 7.5 million combined reads on Wattpad and her work has been featured in Publisher’s Weekly, the Daily Dot, Marketing magazine, Just Jared, VentureBeat, and Contently. She lives in Alberta, Canada.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR: Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/L-D-Crichton
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Pocket Star Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Leah Crichton
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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition March 2017
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Cover photographs: (road) RooM the Agency Mobile/Alamy Stock Photo; (woman) Stephan Karg/Alamy Stock Photo
ISBN 978-1-5011-5231-3
The Enchantment of Emma Fletcher Page 25
