Page 9 of Delilah
I type in the card number and the robotic female voice reads me back a balance so large that the voice begins to fumble over itself, the programming not even designed to go that high.
A tear drips off my chin and lands on the card as I hang up, and something I can only describe as relief fills my bones. Even in death, my father found a way to take care of me, just like he always promised he would.
Inside the envelope, I find a checkbook connected to the same bank account, and I know, in this very moment, there are two very important things I have to do.
The first is simple: write a check to Travis and Justin, to thank them for taking me in when I had nothing. I sign my name and place the check on top of Travis’ pillow before stuffing the picture frames and envelope into my suitcase. My entire world is now the belongings in my suitcase and the memories encased in broken picture frames.
I leave the hotel through a side door to avoid my uncles in case they’re still lingering in the lobby, and with my last three percent charge on my phone, I look up the location of the nearest diner that serves all-day breakfast.
“Me again,” I say quietly to the empty cemetery where my parents are always willing to listen to me, even if no one else is. “I came here to snitch on Dad,” I quip, looking at mymother’s name etched into the marble headstone.I sit on top of my suitcase to avoid the cold ground. “He used to hide stashes of candy for me all over the house. He made me promise I wouldn’t tell you, but I think you suspected after I spent one too many nights bouncing off the walls from a sugar rush.”
I dig around the takeout bag and place one Styrofoam container on my father’s grave, one on my mother’s grave, and one on my lap.
I take a deep breath and slowly open the container. Inside, three fluffy, perfectly round pancakes sit steaming as condensation gathers in the corners of the box. A sinister shiver crawls up my spine and I find my earlier shred of bravery lost to the wind as I stare down at them.
Tears well up in my eyes and spill over almost instantly. I glance at my father’s side of the headstone as I spread butter and syrup over the cakes. “I didn’t want to eat them ever again because it felt like I was moving on and I wasn’t ready for that.”
“I just…I wanted you to know that I get it now. I’ve always been confused and lost, wondering why you left me. But I’m not lost anymore, Dad. I’m going to make the world believe in me the same way you did. I promise. So…that’s why I’m here. To share my breakfast with you.”
With one last whimper, I swallow the fear gathered in my throat and get my first taste of pancakes.
And closure.
Epilogue
Four Years Later
“So…what do you think?” I exclaim gleefully as I spin in a circle. My satin wedding gownwhooshesas I come to a stop. “We didn’t have a big wedding either, just a little courthouse ceremony. We’re going to dinner and then in the morning, we’re leaving for our honeymoon. We’re headed for New Zealand.”
I thumb at my new wedding band on my ring finger. It’s simple. A silver band with small diamonds all the way around. Garrett and I didn’t have an engagement. After almost four years together, we just woke up one morning and decided to get married. That’s our style. Spontaneous. I’ve faced too much loss and tragedy to be anything but someone who lives every moment as if it’s my last.
In the past four years, I got the patent for the generator I designed. I’ve been able to donate hundreds of them to women’s shelters, libraries, food banks, and community centers all over the country.
I’m good at making things work…building machines, understanding software. I’m not so good at running a business, so Garrett takes care of that side of things for me. Together, and with the help of the money my father left me, we started our own orphanage on the same grounds as the old one. It’s nowhere near the one I knew when I was a child, and it doesn’t have the glitz and the glam that Christian Reeves would have given it, butit’s a home. A home for kids that deserve second chances like I got to have.
Though it broke my heart to keep the Reeves name off the side of the building, I eventually realized that it was the best decision from a business standpoint. We settled on my middle name and called it Delilah’s Place.
Today, there are ten children there. It’s max capacity for now, but there are already plans in place to renovate the old compound and make more space.
I never intended to move back to Meridian City, or even to the East Coast, but when Garrett and I were ready to leave Kansas, my heart begged me to come back.
My new husband has always been patient with my grief. He’s always understood that a part of me will never move on from losing my parents as traumatically as I did. He’s the first person who saw what was in my heart, and has never looked at me as the twice-orphaned child of a serial killer. He’s only ever seen Caroline. He’s only ever seenme.
Despite our happiness together, Garrett and I decided to remain childless. The thought of my children growing up without parents sends me into a dangerous spiral that takes weeks to get out of.
Our happily ever after only requires each other, and that’s more than enough for me.
I take a deep breath and run my fingers along the marble headstone. “I’m happy. I promise,” I whisper. “I love you.”
I rapidly blink away my tears so I don’t smudge my makeup before dinner. I turn to Garrett, who gives me a small smile of understanding as he waits patiently, leaning against thecar. I hold my hand out for him. He takes it and kisses my wedding ring.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Actually…” Garrett glances towards the headstones. “Can I say something to them?”
I stare at him in confusion for a second. He’s never asked to speak to my parents before. Not once.
“Um…yeah, sure.”
