Chapter 10
One year later.
I stood on the porch of our country house.
Watching the sunset paint the Texas sky pink and orange.
A glass of sweet tea in my hand.
Life was good.
Better than I'd ever dared to dream.
Lily was thirteen now.
Her arm was fully healed.
She was back to riding.
She'd won three blue ribbons in the last six months.
She was taller than me now.
Smart.
Funny.
Brave.
She wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up.
Or a spy.
She was still negotiating with her dad on which one was cooler.
Noah was ten.
He was still terrible at baseball.
But he was the happiest kid on the team.
He'd discovered science last year.
He spent every weekend in the barn, blowing things up and making messes.
Daniel was his willing assistant.
The two of them were inseparable.
Daniel had become the most amazing father.
He was at every event.
Every meal.
Every bedtime story.
He'd quit the CIA.
Said he'd had enough of secrets and lies.
He ran the foundation with me now.
He traveled the country speaking to lawmakers.
Fighting for fertility fraud victims.
He was happy.
We were all happy.
Gerald had moved into the other guest house.
He was seeing a woman from town.
A librarian.
She was perfect for him.
Quiet.
Smart.
Made the best chocolate chip cookies west of the Mississippi.
Marcus was still our head of security.
But these days, his job mostly consisted of chasing the dogs off the furniture and breaking up water balloon fights between Noah and his friends.
Rita came out to visit once a month.
She'd become family.
The kids called her Aunt Rita.
She spoiled them rotten.
And me?
I was happy.
Truly, deeply happy.
I was running the foundation.
Raising my kids.
Laughing with my brother.
I was dating.
Nothing serious.
Just... having fun.
Learning what it was like to be a woman again.
Not a wife.
Not a victim.
Just Megan.
Smart.
Strong.
Independent.
I liked her.
A lot.
The front door opened.
Daniel walked out with two mugs of hot chocolate.
He handed one to me.
"Penny for your thoughts," he said.
I smiled.
"Just thinking about how far we've come," I said. "From that airport a year ago. From everything. Who would have thought we'd end up here?"
Daniel leaned against the porch rail.
Looked out over the pasture.
"I always knew," he said. "I always knew we'd be okay. We're Carters. We don't break. We bend. We fight. We survive. And then we win. It's in our blood."
We were quiet for a while.
Watching the sun go down.
"Do you ever think about him?" Daniel said. "Jack?"
I thought about it.
"Sometimes," I said. "Usually when the kids do something that reminds me of those days. But not in a sad way. More like... I look at them. At how happy they are. How normal. And I think about how close we came to losing all of this. To him. To the Morettis. To all of it. And I'm just grateful. Grateful we got out. Grateful we're all still here. Together."
Daniel nodded.
"He's still out there, you know," he said. "On that island. Drinking. Wasting away. Gerald gets reports every month. He's broke. His health is bad. He drinks himself to sleep every night. He has nothing. No friends. No family. No future. Just the memories of everything he lost. Everything he threw away."
I took a sip of my hot chocolate.
"Good," I said.
And I meant it.
Jack had made his choices.
He'd chosen greed.
Lies.
Violence.
He'd chosen to destroy everyone around him to get what he wanted.
And now he was alone.
With nothing but his regrets.
That was the worst punishment I could imagine.
Far worse than prison.
Lily and Noah came running out of the house.
Chasing Sunny and Max around the yard.
Laughing.
Screaming.
Full of life.
Full of joy.
They stopped when they saw us on the porch.
"Mom! Dad!" Noah yelled. "Come on! We're making s'mores! Gerald brought the good marshmallows! The giant ones!"
"Coming!" Daniel yelled back.
He looked at me.
Offered me his hand.
"Ready?" he said.
I took his hand.
Squeezed it.
"Ready," I said.
We walked down the porch steps.
Toward the fire pit.
Toward our family.
Toward our future.
I didn't know what the next year would bring.
Or the next ten.
There would be hard days, I knew.
Bad days.
Days when the past came back to haunt us.
Days when the memories were too heavy to carry.
But I also knew this.
Whatever came.
We'd face it together.
All of us.
The Carters.
We'd survived the lies.
The betrayal.
The kidnappings.
The shootings.
The trials.
We'd survived Jack Walker.
The Morettis.
Fertility clinics and corrupt judges and the worst the world could throw at us.
And we'd come out stronger.
Better.
Happier.
Because we had each other.
And in the end?
That was all that ever mattered.
Family.
Not the one you're born into.
Not the one you marry into.
The one you choose.
The one you fight for.
The one you love, no matter what.
The fire crackled.
The kids laughed.
Daniel squeezed my hand.
May you like
And for the first time in my life...
I was home.
