Page 43 of Honest Neglect

“Are you?” she murmured. She reached down to skim her fingers over the spot where Mark had forced on the zip ties, and I winced.

“Sorry, I know how much that hurts,” she remarked, pulling down her sleeves to show me the marks from the ties that had been left on her skin. I brought her wrist to my lips and planted a kiss against the red marks on her arms, wishing I could have done more to prevent them.

“It won’t be long till those are healed up,” I murmured, and she looked up at me, her eyes wide, as though she had just realized something.

“Is it...does that mean it’s really over?” she whispered to me, and I nodded.

“It’s over, baby,” I promised her. “It’s really over.”

She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her head into my neck, holding on to me for dear life. After all we had been through, all we had endured, we were finally here, at the other side of it. When I first met her, I could never have imagined everything we would have to go through to come out the other side, but now it seemed obvious. To be with her, I had to put her past behind us, and now I had, I was so glad to have stuck with it.

She kissed me on the lips and slipped her hand into mine.

“We should get out of here,” she told me. “I don’t want to be near this place any longer than I have to be. It gives me the serious creeps.”

“Agreed,” I replied, and she led me out of the forest. It was still dark, but the flashlights of the men Leroy had brought with him cut through the blackness around us, lighting up the trees and marking out our route back to the road again.

I knew we weren’t far from Leroy and Grace’s place, but that was all I was aware of. My mind had been racing when Mark had forced me into his car, as I tried to work out if there was a way for me to dive out and escape—I had been so focused on the road right in front of me, I hadn’t been able to get a feel for everything going on beyond that.

Mark was locked in a cop car by the time we reached the side of the road again, Frank leaning against it with a big-ass grin on his face. I could only imagine how validating this had all been for him, the proof he’d needed that he’d done the right thing by refusing the bribes and influence from the McCarthys over the years. All the rest of the cops in that department were going to be facing charges or at least professional reprimands, while Frank sailed out on top.

“We got him,” Frank told me as he slapped his hand down on my shoulder with a grin so wide it looked as though his face could barely contain it. I chuckled, nodding.

“We did,” I agreed, firing a look to Mark in the back of the car. He looked utterly defeated, all the fight forced out of him. He knew there was no way he could stand up against the enormity of the charges against him. I wondered if it had been worth it, all he had done to protect his son, or if he was starting to regret what he’d forced himself through for Tony’s sake.

“We’re handing it over to the feds,” Frank explained. “They’re going to handle it from here on out. Seems like the McCarthys were involved in some white-collar crime too, and they haven’t done such a good job at hiding it. There’s a whole paper trail they’ve left behind, and the FBI has already started looking into it.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally out of our hands now. We just had to get out of here and leave this to them, and all of it would be dealt with. I was so relived I could hardly think straight.

“Let me drive you back down to Diane’s place,” Leroy offered. “I’m sure she’s worried about the two of you.”

“You don’t want to get back to Grace?” I asked. He grinned at the sound of her name.

“She’d want me to make sure you were okay,” he murmured. “That’s what she’d be most worried about.”

Lily squeezed my hand and gave me a hopeful look, and I knew I couldn’t deny her.

“Sure,” I agreed, and we climbed into the car and headed back to Diane’s.

I stared out of the window as Lily rested her head on my shoulder, the slow rise and fall of her breath soothing me. I was so glad she seemed to be doing better. I hoped this would be the end of it for her, though I was sure she would have to testify against Tony and perhaps his father when the time came. But she was strong enough for that—she had come this far and survived this much, and I knew she could take on whatever else they threw her way.

After an hour or so, we arrived at Diane’s place—Lily’s mom was already standing in the door by the time we pulled up, and Lily sprang out of the back seat and rushed over to her to give her a huge hug. They held each other there for a moment, Silver snuffling about at their legs, and I smiled as I watched them.

This was the life I wanted for Lily. A life of freedom and relief from everything Tony and his sick father had done to her. And as she held her mother in the doorway to her childhood home, the first rays of the morning sun just starting to rise above the house, I finally believed I could actually give it to her.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Lily

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AS WE APPROACHED THE prison, Warren glanced over at me again.

“You sure you want to do this?” he asked me softly. I nodded. I had already made my mind up, and nothing was going to convince me otherwise.

“I’m sure,” I replied as Warren pulled the car to a halt and I stepped out. I could feel my legs trembling underneath me, but for the first time, it wasn’t because I was scared of seeing Tony. No, it was because I was excited about finally laying into him and telling him how badly he had hurt me without worrying about how he might strike back given the chance.

He was behind bars right now, had been moved to a more high-security prison as he awaited his trial for the murder of the poor girl who had been found buried out in the middle of nowhere to try and frame Warren. Her name was Alana White, and she had been a victim to his monstrous mind games, eventually turning into another kind of victim. Marcy had come forward and made herself known to the police and had agreed to testify against him with the information she had managed to pick up during their time together. It all added up; everything we had on them was coming together to finally take them down.