Chapter 10
A year later.
I was sitting on the back porch of my parents’ house.
William was playing on a blanket in the grass.
He was fifteen months old now.
Walking.
Talking.
Into everything.
He had my eyes.
My mother’s smile.
And absolutely nothing of Daniel.
Thank God.
My phone buzzed on the table beside me.
It was Arthur.
“Olivia,” he said. “You’ll want to hear this. Daniel was found dead in his cell last night.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Heart attack,” Arthur said. “He was thirty-four. No warning. They found him this morning. He’s gone, Olivia. Really gone.”
I didn’t say anything for a long time.
I just watched William chase a butterfly across the grass.
Gone.
Daniel was gone.
Forever.
“Olivia? You still there?”
“I’m here,” I said. “I just… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” Arthur said. “It’s over. All of it. No more appeals. No more court dates. No more possibility he could ever get out. It’s done.”
“Thank you, Arthur.”
“Anytime. Call me if you need anything.”
He hung up.
I set the phone down.
William fell down in the grass.
He looked at me.
Bottom lip sticking out.
I stood.
Walked over.
Picked him up.
Kissed his scraped knee.
“All better,” I said.
He laid his head on my shoulder.
Sucked his thumb.
And I held him.
Tight.
For a long time.
I thought about the night in the dining room.
The fear.
The pain.
The moment I’d thought my baby and I were going to die.
I thought about the hospital.
The DNA test.
Vanessa.
The warehouse.
The trial.
All of it.
Every terrible moment.
Every sleepless night.
Every tear.
And I realized something.
I wouldn’t change any of it.
Not one second.
Because all of it had led me here.
To this moment.
To this beautiful, perfect boy in my arms.
To the woman I’d become.
Stronger.
Braver.
Less naive.
But still capable of love.
Still capable of hope.
Still capable of seeing the good in people.
I’d learned that monsters existed, yes.
But I’d also learned that good people existed too.
My parents.
Arthur.
Detective Alvarez.
Vanessa, in her own way.
Even Eleanor.
People who’d stood by me.
Fought for me.
Helped me when I couldn’t help myself.
“Mommy,” William mumbled into my shoulder.
I kissed the top of his head.
“I love you, baby,” I said. “More than anything in the whole world.”
He pulled back.
Looked at me.
“Wuv oo,” he said.
And then he wiggled to get down.
I set him on his feet.
He ran off toward the swing set my father had built him.
Laughing.
Loud.
Happy.
Free.
My mother came out onto the porch with two glasses of iced tea.
She handed me one.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Daniel’s dead.”
She was quiet for a minute.
Then she sat beside me.
“How do you feel?”
I watched William swing higher and higher.
My father pushing him from behind.
Both of them laughing.
“I feel…” I started.
I searched for the right word.
Sad? No.
Happy? No.
Relieved? Closer.
But not quite.
“I feel free,” I said finally. “Like I can finally breathe. Like the last little piece of him is gone. And it’s just… us. Now. Forever.”
My mother put her arm around me.
We sat in silence for a long time.
Watching the boys play.
The sun was setting.
Painting the sky pink and orange.
Somewhere, a bird sang.
Life was good.
Not perfect.
Not always easy.
But good.
Really, really good.
I took a sip of iced tea.
Smiled.
And for the first time in my life, I knew exactly who I was.
I was Olivia Steel.
Mother.
Daughter.
May you like
Survivor.
And my story was only just beginning.
