Page 109 of Beautiful Lies

“I love you,” he said. “So fucking much.”

“I love you, too.”

Connor had heard me say those words hundreds of times, but tonight it looked like he believed the words.

Epilogue

Connor

Our life doesn’t fit in a box and we can’t wrap it up in a neat little bow. All we can do is embrace each day as it comes. Recognize it as a gift and be grateful for each new sunrise and sunset. As we put the miles behind us, we keep our gazes fixed forward, not in the rear-view mirror. Our past doesn’t define us, but it helped shape us into who we are today—better, stronger versions of ourselves. It was never about the destination. It’s the journey that matters. And I want to take every step, every leap of faith with this girl who stole my heart so many years ago and never gave it back. I pull over onto the shoulder of the road and cut the engine, patting the dash of the ’69 Mustang Shelby I bought from Tate a few months ago. Turns out he’d been saving it for me. I handed Ava the keys for her twenty-fifth birthday and she immediately started planning our road trip to California. I’d deleted her spreadsheet and told her we were just going where the road took us. No itinerary, no agenda, just us and the open road. We both needed the vacation. Life has been hectic. Busy, but good. Ava started her new job in January. She threw herself into it a hundred percent, like I knew she would, and she says she’s glad we gave her a push. The new job is more difficult and the hours are longer, but she says it’s more fulfilling.

A few months ago, I testified against Ronan Shaughnessy. It brought me closure. It gave me peace. He’s in a federal prison where he belongs. And my mother? I wish I could say that it all worked out, that removing Shaughnessy from her life would have forced her to realize everything she’d given up for that man. But it hadn’t worked out that way. She took off and we don’t know where she is. I know it hit Keira hard, but we’ve all tried to be there for her, to make up for her parents’ absence.

“I feel sorry for the man in the moon,” Ava says, looking up at the desert sky reeling with stars.

“He must be lonely.”

“And jealous.”

“They’re going to kill us,” she says, holding up her left hand to inspect the infinity symbol tattooed on her ring finger, identical to the one on mine. Ink is for life. Rings can be pawned, she’d reasoned, and I’d loved it that she wanted a symbol of forever. “But how fun was that?”

I laugh, envisioning our wedding ceremony at the Elvis chapel in Vegas. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. “If you want a big white wedding, we can do that when we get back.”

“I don’t. Eden’s wedding was great, but ours was perfect. It was just so… us.”

I smile in agreement as she climbs over the gearbox and straddles me, her arms wrapping around my neck, head tipped back, exposing the column of her neck. From the moon, we wouldn’t even be specks of dust, but from here we’re everything. The sun and the moon and the stars and all the planets.

“I love you to the stars and back,” she says, bringing her eyes to meet mine.

“I’ll love you until we’re old and gray and even long after that when our bodies decay… my soul will find yours… always.”

“Topper,” she mutters. I laugh, and she joins in, the sound of our joy echoing in the night air.

And in that moment, we are perfect, and we are whole.

The End