Epilogue

ALYSSA

"Iwant highlights."

"You can't have them."

"Why not?"

"Because you're pregnant, you moron, and because I don't feel like dealing with your crazy husband and his shit; he's already been up my ass on account of you."

"Me? What the hell did I do?"

"Oh, let's see. You got me to come over here late at night and sneak you out to go joyriding because you were bored." I waved that off. "That was weeks ago."

"Yeah, well, you almost got that poor guard fired."

"It's not my fault he didn't look in the backseat. Everybody knows you're supposed to check the backseat. At least now they've boosted security."

"What about last week when the doctor told you to lay off the salt, and you asked me to bring you junk food? Your husband damn near stroked out. You're such a pain in the ass."

"He worries about every damn thing, don't pay him no mind."

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one fielding threats just for breathing."

"Whatever, what's in the bag?"

"Doritos, and you can't have any." She grabbed the bag and put it up high on a shelf way out of reach. I wish the people around here would stop treating me like I'm an invalid. I've been walking on eggshells ever since the doctor said the word pregnant.

Garrett, who was already being a pain in the ass, upped the ante into crazy land. If I sneeze, he calls the doctor, and that quack comes running. If I have to put up with another four months of this shit, somebody's gonna get it.

"Well, what do you plan to do to my hair?"

"I'm not cutting it again that's for sure. Did you ever realize how obsessed with you your husband is? I barely took a few inches off the ends of your hair, and he bitched at me for a week. And you." She bumped my shoulder, "It was all your idea, and you just sat there and acted like it was mine."

"Why the hell would I sit through one of his lectures when you can take the heat? Isn't that what sisters are supposed to do?"

"Yes, big sisters, you're older than me remember."

"Only by a few months, stop whining." Could you believe it?

Mitzie came back from England a different person. I guess Garrett's meddling ass made her see a therapist over there who straightened her head out, and now I'm her new best friend, while the very mention of her mother can send her into a rage.

At first, I thought it was all an act, but then she went to my mother and apologized and she even apologized to Dad and the boys as well. Then she pestered my ass for days until I gave in and gave her the time of day. And she's been on my ass like a barnacle ever since.

We'd gone to pay Helen a visit at her request because she said she wanted to see the woman who gave birth to her one last time. That was something to see. I've never seen anyone, except for Garrett, take down someone with words without raising their voice.

She accused Helen of ruining her life, of taking her away from the father who loved her to try to steal mine and everything else in between. Helen was stuck on the fact that we came there together and were no longer at each other's throats, but she really lost her shit when Mitzie called Mom Aunt Gigi. I didn't say shit because I had nothing to say to that hag. Looking good and feeling good was my revenge.

I think this pregnancy is making me stupid or soft, one or the other. We've had many dinners here at the house with the whole family, and even the boys have been coming around. The wives have already accepted her, and I guess that has a lot to do with the fact that I have forgiven her.

Plus, Garrett is obsessed with his cretin having all the family he or she could have for some reason, so he likes having family time with everyone as often as he blinks. He thinks he's slick, that I don't know what he's doing.

He wants all these people around so that when he has to go away on business, I have keepers on hand. I'm still not talking to Dad, though, even though he keeps groveling. Mom and I are cool again, especially after I had a few sessions with that nut Garrett sicced me with.

She's helped me to understand a lot of what Mom was going through, which is way more horrific than I ever thought. I have a lot of retroactive sympathy for her and wish I'd been a better kid and not so angry at the world while her mind was working against her.

None of that made me look kindly on my father, though, because as far as I'm concerned, there is no excuse for cheating. "Ow! Why'd you tug my hair?"

"I've been talking to you for the last five minutes, and you're just sitting there gazing into space."

"What were you saying?"

"I asked if you're talking to your Dad yet."

"No, and stop badgering me about it."

"What a shame. I didn't take you for an inconsiderate person."

"How am I being inconsiderate?"

"Don't you find it inconsiderate to hold someone responsible for something they didn't do?"

"What are you talking about, didn't do? You were there; he was married to your mother for fifteen years."

"Yeah, but it's not like he wanted to. She schemed that whole thing."

"It doesn't matter. While my mother was suffering, he was out screwing someone else."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What do you mean what I'm talking about? I'm talking about Corbin and Helen."

"Your father never slept with Helen."

"Maybe after the wedding, at least that's what he's told my mother, but I don't know if I believe him."

"Wait, you mean you don't know."

"Don't know what?"

"Wait, does your Dad still think he slept with her that night?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"Helen told me years ago. She slipped your Dad something at an office party or something like that, or they were away on a business trip. It was years ago, so I'm not too clear, but anyway, she got into his bed, and when he woke up, she convinced him that they'd done the deed. You mean he never said anything?"

"I don't think he knows. Why did she tell you this?"

"She was drunk. She told me the whole thing. Your Dad confessed to your Mom, but when they decided to work things out, Helen threatened you and your Mom. Even at the house, he never slept in the same room as her. You never realized that they had connecting rooms?"

"I did, but… I need to throw up." I'd barely made it to the bathroom when I heard Garrett's voice. I wanted to hurry up and get back out there because she wasn't lying; he'd torment her if he knew I got sick listening to her.

"Where's my wife?"

"She went to the restroom." I tried to keep the sounds of retching as quiet as I could, but he still heard me all the same. I felt him enter the room and kneel beside me to hold my hair and rub my back.

"Is Junior being a pain again?" I didn't have the strength to nod my head. All I wanted was to lay on the cold floor and pass out. He disappeared and came back with a wet cloth in one hand and an ice-cold ginger ale on the other.

After he cleaned me up, I guzzled it down like water and felt better almost immediately. "Why were you looking for me?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. Two things, come with me." He helped me up and I followed him back into the salon he'd had built on the top floor of the house.

"Look at this." He showed me his phone, and at first, I couldn't understand what I was looking at. A group of Indigenous people in loin cloth, tanned to perfection, just sitting around smiling for the camera.

‘Who… Is that?"

"That's Lacey."

"Who is that toothless man next to her?"

"That's the tribal chief, her husband."

"Is she…?"

"Yes, she's pregnant." I fell down the rabbit hole.

I just turned my head and looked at him. "She's pregnant for that old man?"

"Yup, she's wife number eleven."

"Did he…?"

"No, he didn't molest her; it was her choice. I guess she couldn't go five years without intercourse, so she chose the next best thing. As his wife she has a certain amount of power, though it's not much since he's already got so many wives and grown children."

"What about Denny? Is he dead yet?"

"Geez, I thought the kid would make you nicer. No, to answer your question. He seems to have turned over a new leaf. He's been teaching the kids and helping build huts. I guess the beatings he got for being an ass set him straight."

"You said there was something else."

"Yeah, Natalie disappeared."

"What do you mean disappeared?"

"She checked out of that facility and just… poof, gone with the wind."

NATALIE

"Little girl, are you lost?"

"No, are you?" How rude?

"Who are you here with?" She crooked her finger at me until I lowered my face to hers. She slapped me. I covered my cheek with my hand in shock.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

"Oh, you only hit kids who can't hit back. That was for Andrew." She hit me again, then brought her other hand from behind her back.

"Do you know what this is? It's a dog hunter. I had this one modified, so its reach is much longer." She flicked the whip in the air, and I turned to run. I felt the sting across my back and yelped in pain.

There were two others like her standing behind me and apart from each other as if the three of them were surrounding me. One looked Asian, and the other was pale with the longest jet-black hair I'd ever seen on a child that young.

I turned from them to run back the other way, but the Asian one flicked her whip, and it wrapped around my neck, yanking me back. The three of them attacked together, front and back, until my body was on fire with pain.

I cried out, but no one was around. The driver who had brought me here just leaned against the car with his arms and legs crossed as if he were watching a show. "Do something. Didn't my father hire you to protect me?"

"I've never met your father."

"What?" Have I really gone crazy?

The first little girl walked over to him, "Are you sure, Uncle Gabe? We could just send her with the others."

"No, too many high-profile women there at once will raise questions. Besides, that place is going to be overcrowded soon. I have the perfect place for her."

What were they talking about? What place? I opened my mouth to ask, but he walked over to me and stuck something in my arm, and my knees gave out. He lifted me and took me back to the car, and another car pulled in behind us.

The little girls got into that car and that was the last I saw of them. I tried to speak, to ask him what was going on and where he planned to take me, but I couldn't speak. My eyes were open, I could see, I could hear, but I couldn't move or speak.

I felt a lone tear roll down my cheek as I closed my eyes and fell into darkness.

LYON

"Mengele, what da… what are you doing in L.A."

"I came to see Ryder and Elena."

"Who told you you could leave the island?"

"Daddy, guess what."

Fuck this shit! I hung up the phone because what the fuck.

"Mancini, get your ass in here." He came sauntering in like he was listening at the door.

"You bellowed."

"Did you tell my kid she could leave the island?"

"Didn't you?"

"Is that what she told you?"

"Not exactly. You know she won't come right out and lie, but she heavily implied that you gave the okay. Said she wanted to see Ryder and Elena."

"Who flew her out? Who's missing?"

"All the women are here, but Tyler is gone."

"Really?" Of all the people I would expect to fall for her shit, he's the last.

"Guess who else is in L.A."

"Who?"

"Russo."

"That fuck! What are the two of them up to now?"

Marcus came in the room looking like he had all day or some shit. That's his usual look when he's not acting like a crazy person because his woman is giving him fits. "Just got a call from Garrett that Natalie woman is missing."

Fucking Mengele.