Page 132 of It Must Be Fate

“Twentyminutes.”

Riot makes a disgusted sound and turns towards his best friend. “Come on, Juno, let’s go check out the pond.” He stalks off, the rest of the children following dutifully behind him.

“Be careful!” Six calls after them.

Tristan grabs Nera’s hand. “Alone at last. We’ve got unfinished business with the forest, don’t we, baby?”

He drags her away without a backwards glance.

Thayer glances up at me with a suggestive look on her face. I have her in my arms before she’s even uttered a word.

“Soccer pitch?” she asks, wagging her eyebrows.

“Football,” I correct in a throaty whisper, before claiming her lips with mine. “But, fuck yes.”

I hear Six turn towards Phoenix. “And you? Where do you want to go?”

A contented rumble rolls up his chest as his hands find her waist. “Wherever you want. I’ve only ever wanted to be wherever you are.”

As the four of us walk off in different directions, I can’t help but think about the closing of one door and the opening of another. All of our children, together, starting where it all began for us, about to make their mark on the very same world we inhabited for years.

A new generation begins.

***

Epilogue / Twenty-four years after graduation

Chapter Thirty-Two

Phoenix

The room is so small, I could cross it from one wall to the other in three steps. The darkness stings my eyes, forcing them to readjust to the poorly lit space. The only light streams in from the room’s single window, its three other walls unfenestrated and made up of dirty, cheap panels that emit a suffocatingly cheap smell of dust mites.

Not for the first time, I ask myself why I’m even here. I know the answer, but there’s something therapeutic in keeping the question on a loop when the answer is only mildly satisfying.

The reality is, I’m here because my wife wants me here.

And what my wife asks me to do, I do, no questions asked.

That doesn’t mean I’m particularly happy about it.

The woman in question is standing in front of the lone window, bathed in its harsh light, arms crossed as she takes in the scene before her.

I walk up until I’m standing just behind her, the warmth of my body sending a small shiver coursing down the length of her spine.

With difficulty, I rip my gaze away from Six’s nape where I’d been admiring the soft elegance of her neck, and look up, my gaze following hers through the window.

My jaw twitches when I see the boy sitting opposite the two cops.

He’s nowhere near a boy. He’s a fully grown man, his size, obvious attitude, and the reason he’s sitting in that room on the other side of the glass evidence of the fact that there’s nothing childlike about him.

“Look at him, Six.”

Her arms tighten across her chest. It’s not often that she digs her heels in and becomes stubborn as a mule, but clearly this is one of those times.

I bite back a sigh.

I’d rather she stubbornly ask me to buy her a mansion on the Amalfi Coast than take this on.

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