Page 97 of It Destroys Me

“I’m touched by this, but?—”

“It’s done.” I’d already resigned my position. There might be a new Skull King by now. Or maybe they were fighting among themselves because everyone wanted the job. It wasn’t my problem, so I didn’t care about their politics.

She was quiet for a long time, just staring at me wordlessly.

“I’m ready to move on with my life, sweetheart.” I felt the sincerity in my chest as I said those words. Felt the cage door open and the dove fly free. I’d tried so hard not to change my life, but change was what I’d needed the entire time.

She remained quiet, just staring at me. “What will you do now?”

“Take it easy. But eventually, I’ll probably start a new business.”

“Don’t you own a couple restaurants?”

“Their sole purpose is to wash my money. I’d like to do something that has purpose.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe we can run our own art gallery.”

“We?” she asked, a smile moving on to her lips.

“Yes,” I said. “We.”

Affection moved into her gaze as she stared at me across the table, the love swirling in her eyes like clouds. A lot of women had looked at me in particular ways, but they’d never looked at me the way she did, not even Shayla. “So, if you’re on vacation for a while…maybe we should take a trip.”

“Where would you like to go?”

“Somewhere warm…near the ocean…with a bed.”

I smirked. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go, sweetheart.”

Epilogue I

Astrid

One Year Later

I looked at the headstones under which my parents were laid to rest, my mother on the bottom, my father on top, and then I placed the two bouquets of flowers in the stone vases. They were close to an oak tree, so there was shade on that beautiful, warm day.

There were days when the loss didn’t bother me. And there were others when it brought me to tears.

Today, it was somewhere in between.

I’d lived with Theo for the past year, and there had been more joy in that one year than I’d known my entire life. Even on my best day with Bolton, it didn’t come close to what we had, the peace that we’d built together.

Theo hadn’t asked me to marry him, but I wasn’t in a rush. Whenever he was ready, he would ask.

And I would say yes.

“I know you both would love him.” They would love him despite his past. Love him despite the blood on his hands. Because he was a reformed man, a man who had walked away from everything for me. “And I think he would love you too.”

When I came home, Theo wasn’t around, so I assumed he was still at the office.

I texted him. You think you’ll be at work late tonight? I loved that I could text him whenever I wanted and always got an answer. Occasionally, he didn’t respond quickly because he was in a meeting, but that was an hour's delay at the most. And he never seemed annoyed by my questions, like he was more than happy to answer them.

Leaving now, actually.

Oh, okay. See you then.