Chapter 29
Vanessa died three weeks later.
Alone.
In her cell.
No one came to claim her body.
Her mother was already gone—Margaret Reed had died of a heart attack six months after her visit to the Carter house. Her brother Marcus was still in prison, serving his own sentence, and had disowned her completely.
The state buried her in an unmarked grave in the prison cemetery.
No headstone.
No name.
No one to mourn.
No one to remember.
Just dirt and grass and silence.
Michael didn’t go to the funeral.
He didn’t tell the children she was dead until a week later. They took the news with the quiet indifference of people who had already buried the monster a long time ago.
“Good riddance,” Ethan said.
“Now she can’t hurt anyone else ever again,” Lily said.
Sarah and David were too young to understand. They just nodded and went back to playing.
That night, Michael dreamed of her for the last time.
She was young again. Beautiful. Standing in the doorway of his old living room, the hanger raised high, her face twisted with rage.
But this time, Michael didn’t flinch.
He didn’t run.
He didn’t call for help.
He just stood there, tall and strong, and looked her in the eye.
And slowly, very slowly, she began to fade.
The hanger dissolved.
Her beauty melted away.
Her rage turned to confusion. Then fear. Then nothing.
She became transparent. A wisp of smoke. A memory.
And then she was gone.
Michael woke up smiling.
The sun was rising.
The birds were singing.
Somewhere in the house, a baby was crying.
He rolled over and kissed his sleeping wife.
He got out of bed and walked down the hall to check on his children.
Ethan was home from college, sprawled across his bed, snoring softly.
Lily was curled up with a book open on her chest, already awake, lost in a story.
Sarah and David were sleeping in each other’s arms, a tangle of blankets and limbs.
Michael stood in the hallway for a long time, watching them.
Thanking God.
Thanking fate.
Thanking whatever had brought him through the fire and out the other side.
He went downstairs and made coffee.
He stepped out onto the porch and breathed in the fresh morning air.
The world was new.
May you like
The day was full of promise.
And Vanessa Reed was finally, truly gone.
