Epilogue

Georgia - Three Years Later

" H ow are you feeling there, Georgie?" Ian asks, his voice soft and full of emotion as he rubs his thumb softly across my knuckles as we make the short drive back to Crane Manor.

I can't answer him, so instead, I give him a sad, small smile.

The grief in my heart is too big, and forcing words out means I'll dissolve into another puddle of tears.

We just got done burying my father.

Auden is quiet in the back seat. Her black dress makes her look so pale, almost like the night Lydia tried to take her from us.

It's been a long three years since that horrible, fateful night.

Ian and I spent months traveling back and forth between Crane Manor and my apartment in California as we tried to work through our issues. I wasn't ready to uproot my entire life, especially when Ian and I had so many secrets and lies to navigate through together.

So, he would fly to California and stay with us whenever he was able to take some time off from the hospital.

When he brought up the idea of going to therapy together as a family, I brushed off the idea quickly. I didn't need someone to psychoanalyze us. I already do enough of that myself, but at the end of the day, Ian talked me into it.

And I'm so glad he did.

Therapy ended up saving us, and it definitely saved Auden.

She had nightmares for months after what happened with Lydia. I can't count the amount of times she woke up screaming in the dead of night, shaking and unable to vocalize what she was feeling.

Ian and I both agreed she needed to speak to someone. Maybe we could help her before any lasting negative damage impacted the rest of her life.

Maybe her ghosts wouldn't haunt her the way mine did if we got her help early on.

We had countless sessions, together as a family and individually, the summer after the lake incident. Most of them ended in tears. But those messy sessions helped us navigate our new family dynamic. I had a hard time letting go of my single-parent role, while Ian had a harder time adjusting to the fact that he was a father to a child he never got to know.

Auden, being as young as she was, loved the idea of having both a mom and a dad. Her sessions were mostly her telling the therapist about the nightmares she had until she finally stopped having them all together.

That was a very happy day in our household.

Auden finished out the school year in California before we finally decided that Crane was where home was.

My father got really sick six months after Auden and I officially moved into Crane. Multiple hospital visits and invasive tests later, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

He spent the last couple years in and out of the hospital while also soaking up every moment he could, being such an amazing grandpa to Auden.

Ian's father stepped up as well. It's almost as if he's trying to be the best grandfather, and grandmother, to Auden. He bakes with her nonstop, and I can't count the amount of times Ian and I have woken up to a full breakfast-in-bed spread made by them.

Ian and his father started going to therapy together, and their relationship is stronger than ever now.

Before my father met his end, he asked us for one favor: for us to get married while he could still walk me down the aisle.

I don't think it was the way Ian wanted to propose, but it made it even more special.

We got married under the willow tree just a few weeks ago. We both agreed that we wanted a small, intimate ceremony, and Auden suggested that we get married at the willow tree so that both of her grandmothers and the aunt she looks so much like could watch from Heaven.

I glance back at Auden and smile, the first real smile I've managed to muster up all day.

"Hey," I say. She looks over at me, tears brimming in her eyes. "I love you."

Her lower lip wobbles as she says, "Me too."

Ian looks over at me as he parks the car in front of Crane Manor. "I love both of you, too. In case you forgot about that when you were reminding each other," he tells us, a sly smile tugging on his lips.

"Oh, Dad," Auden groans as she unbuckles her seat belt. She wraps her arms around the headrest behind him and gives him an awkward hug. "I love you, too," she coos. "Just in case you forgot."

"Eight years old and still so sassy." Ian laughs. "Just like that mother of yours."

"Hey! Leave me out of this!" I joke, a face-splitting grin sneaking across my lips as I watch the two of them. Who knew I could love two people this much.

"What would Papa want us to do?" Auden suddenly asks.

Ian and I raise our eyebrows at each other in confusion.

"Papa would want us to have an ice cream party while we watch baseball and scary movies," she says. "Then he would totally want us to have a family sleepover."

Ian laughs loudly, startling both Auden and myself. "That sounds like something Link would absolutely approve of on a day like today."

L ater that night, Ian and I are in the kitchen cleaning up after our ice cream and pizza party while Auden is sound asleep on the couch in the living room.

"That daughter of yours sure knows how to throw down her pizza," Ian says as he opens both empty pizza boxes.

"You mean your daughter," I joke back. "She eats more than both you and Irene used to eat when we had sleepovers. I was always forced to sneak down in the middle of the night to snag a bowl of cereal for myself because I was always left hungry after you two fell into a food coma."

Ian wraps his arms around me as I'm at the sink cleaning the last of the plates. "I guess I should have known Auden was mine when she devoured her whole plate of eggs and bacon that first morning after you came back. Especially when she asked for seconds."

His husky laugh vibrates through my entire body, making me melt against him. He starts nipping playfully at my ear.

"You keep doing that, and we won't make it to this family-friendly sleepover," I whisper, shutting the sink off as I turn in his arms so I can face him.

"Is it time to go to bed yet?" Auden yells from the living room, forcing Ian and I to jump apart. We both look at each other and smile sheepishly.

"Raincheck for tomorrow?" he asks as he steps back into my arms and kisses me softly on my lips. Those eyes of his make me feel weak in my knees as I shake my head yes.

"Definitely yes," I say between kisses.

His lips smile against mine. "Maybe we can discuss giving Auden a sibling?"

My eyes fly open. I stare into his eyes, those galaxies threatening to undo me every time I remember he's mine.

That this is really my life.

"Are you sure?" I ask hesitantly. "It's not something we've talked about before."

He shrugs. "I'm not opposed to the idea," he says. "In fact, I think it's a great idea. I wasn't around for the newborn stages for Auden, and I think you'd be insanely sexy with a big ol' bump."

He wags his eyebrows at me, breaking whatever tension we taut between us as I laugh loudly in response. "Please don't ever refer to me as big, ever again!" I smile and wrap my arms around his neck. "But yes, I'm open to discussing it. It might be nice for her to grow up with a friend in this house—the way I had you and Irene."

I kiss him on the cheek, just a peck. "Plus, imagine all the fun we'll have trying?" I smirk at him.

"Jesus, woman," he groans. "Do you know how difficult it's going to be not to sneak you out of bed tonight so we can start practicing? It'll be impossible. Truly. How will I resist you when you flash that smile at me?"

I kiss him on the nose before I pull away from him. "You'll behave because our daughter will be asleep between us. Now let's go to sleep."

The three of us head upstairs and squeeze together in the queen-size bed in the same room that Ian and I have shared since the first day Auden and I came back to Crane Manor over three years ago now.

I'm not ready to inhabit my parents' room yet. That'll be something I have to take on eventually, but not tonight.

"I love you, Mom," Auden says softly as she snuggles up to me. "I love you, too, Dad."

I lift my head and smile at Ian, just as he does the same thing. We both laugh silently as we stare at each other.

"It's very cold in here," Auden says, following it up with an exaggerated shiver.

I sit up to grab the blanket at the end of the bed to drape over her when my breath catches in my throat.

"Dad?" I choke out.

Ian sits up instantly and lets out a strangled gasp. I know without looking at him that he sees them, too.

My parents are standing, hand in hand, at the end of our bed, smiling at us.

My mother's ghost doesn't look the way I remember it. She's beautiful. Just like the last time I saw her before she drank the lemonade that was meant for me.

Her dark hair is in soft curls that cascade down her back. Her white dress isn't covered in her own blood any longer. It looks just as I remembered it when she was alive. Like a princess in her pretty white dress.

Her eyes are twinkling with unshed tears as she stares down at me before she steps forward and places her hand against my cheek.

I let out a broken sob when I feel her palm against my skin.

"Mama?" I say.

"Hello, sweetheart," she responds with a smile.

"How—why do you look so different now?"

She brushes my tears away with soft fingers. "You saw me as a monster because you truly believed I was the one who tried to hurt you. You know the truth now, so you don't see me as a monster any longer."

I sob loudly against her palm.

"I must go now, sweetheart. But your father and I"—she pulls her hand away and steps back to stand next to my father's ghost—"wanted to tell you how much we love you and how proud of you we are. You may not see us again, but never forget we are always watching over you."

"Take care of my girls, Ian," my father says, fondness shining clear in his voice. "I love you, Bug."

"I love you, too," I whisper, refusing to break my gaze as I stare back and forth at my parents before they slowly fade away, hand in hand.

Ian reaches over and grabs my hand in his own, squeezing tightly as I turn to him. Tears brim in his eyes as he stares into mine.

"I told you so," Auden says. Ian and I turn our gazes toward her.

I clear my throat and wipe my face with my free hand. "Told us what?"

Auden smiles that sly smile of hers, the same one that's playing on her father's lips. "I told you she was the good ghost."

THE END