EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

ASA

This time, we enter as a family. No longer unsure, everyone is at ease with the knowledge that…we’re all aligned with the same goal.

Destroy the societies trying to take us over.

Much like our parents had done, we gather in the basement at Freidenberg manor. Not exactly knowing how Maxi would respond to Wyatt’s death, I’d been avoiding him. I think Arianna didn’t want to hear anything resembling glee in her brother’s voice, so she didn’t want to come, either. But we’re here now and, as we enter the makeshift living room in a stone-walled alcove, he eyes both of us with some feeling behind his dark eyes.

Hurrying over, he grabs his sister in a tight embrace and mutters, “I’m so sorry, Ari.” She hasn’t let go of my hand and gives me her smiling eyes over his shoulder. Most surprisingly, when he breaks his hug with her, he wraps himself around me for a moment. And I let him.

Then I ease in his hold. “Thanks, Maxi,” I tell him. It’s true that I gave my heart away, only to be crushed once again by the person dying and leaving me. Just as I always knew it would.

But, this time, I have my wife’s love and my child to fill the Wyatt-shaped hole left in the rubble of my soul. And it was worth it to love him for the time we had.

“Come in, have a seat,” Livia says.

Pulling my wife closer to me, we sit on the small sofa next to Cal and Veracity, who give us solemn nods.

“Well, you all know everything we do now,” I say as Arianna places her hand in mine. “Anyone have something else to add?”

Everyone turns to look at Cal and Veracity. Cal nods and says, “Yeah. My informants tell me that—” Stopping suddenly, he closes his mouth and looks at the ground. That’s highly unusual.

“Tell you what?” Livia prods him.

When he lifts his head, his green eyes latch onto mine, then Arianna’s. “The girl who was delivered to Strauss wasn’t just any bride. Her name is Astrid, the star. And, well, Ace?”

My heart pounds hard in my chest, and I swallow past the lump growing in my throat. Cal has always been straightforward. The fact he’s resistant to say something makes the panic squeeze my lungs. “What? Just fucking tell me.”

Licking his lips, he continues. “Her name is Astrid Barrington. She’s Wyatt’s little sister.”

Tears form in my eyes and Arianna’s gasp cuts through the tense air. I pull her closer to me and press my lips against the top of her head. “So maybe that was why…” For weeks, I’d been searching for the reason he’d done what he did. Why he begged for me to end his life.

Veracity gathers the room’s attention. “We think that Strauss knew who she was, and this is his play against the societies. To hold the last Barrington hostage.”

Livia pipes up with a heavy sigh, leaning back against her chair. “And what? Impregnate her?”

Cal’s eyes meet my face. “Yes. Therefore, making the first Strauss-Barrington child with the last Barrington.”

Max clears his throat. “Well, I guess it’s a smart play. For him. What do we do?”

Wyatt was working for the societies. Clavius, Cal said. He knew in the end that what he did was wrong, and it wasn’t what he wanted any longer. Maybe his last hope was gone with Strauss getting his sister and realizing that she was being trafficked. My love for the man who gave me confidence and believed in me doesn’t cloud my vision. As the five members of my new family turn to look at me, I make my decision with resolve.

“We let him.”