Part Three Epilogue
SCARLETT
Just like that they burned, consumed by the blazing flames of their own wretched inferno.
They say when sinners die, their souls are sent to purgatory to be condemned and banished to hell. But what happens when it was the devil himself who roamed the earth? Does he go home or is he condemned to spend his eternity in limbo? If the sinners themselves have been exiled from their own hell, then where do they go?
They created their own inferno on Earth, to rule as its king and queen of this immoral underworld, and now they have nowhere to run. If that isn’t their destined fate, I don’t know what is.
Bright lights illuminate the sky above me, my head weighted down by invisible bricks threatening to crush it. My eyes, like open wounds, burning as they blink, trying to focus on the sight before me. Wooden ceilings and walls, dim lights hung above me, the sterile smell of alcohol and cleaning supplies overwhelming my senses. God, I can’t be in the hospital again.
I sit up slightly in the small twin-sized bed I’m lying in, my head threatening to break off if I sit up any further. I hear hushed voices come from outside the door to my right, getting louder and louder as they approach it. With droopy, aching eyes I look at my surroundings and they’re not like anything I’ve seen before. This is a real cabin, like the shacks you see in movies and on TV. Wooden beams hanging across the ceilings, plaid blankets draped along the couches and bed, portraits of hunters and animals hung up against the walls.
“What are we supposed to do with the bodies?” a voice that sounds like Alek’s asks, interrupting my inspection of the room I’m in.
“Nothing, my father will take care of it.” Bass is now the one who speaks.
“How did it get this bad? I mean this shit is fucking intense. Servite Manor is completely burned to ash, four people were killed today. How will they just sweep that away?” I recognize Beckett’s accent as the voices stop right before my door.
Four people were killed. Flashbacks threaten to come flooding back to me. Wesley. My mother. Marchesi. My father. Visions of watching the life drain from my father’s eyes as he lay there before me with a bullet to his neck. He went there because of me, because I asked Alek for help, and he knew the only other adult that would help was my father.
Suddenly the door to my room opens, creaking quietly as Ace walks in, the look of torment in his eyes dissipates as he sees me conscious and staring back at him. He waltzes over to me, his bruises, and cuts visible all over his gorgeous face and shirtless torso, his arm bandaged with gauze from our fall after the explosion. My heart aches to see him this way.
“Ace,” I mutter breathlessly, my throat dry, his name sounding more like a croak coming out from me. He rushes over to my side, taking my hand in his as he slowly brings another to wipe away a stray tear I didn’t even feel escape me.
“Shh, don’t force it, baby. You inhaled a lot of smoke. We knew you wouldn’t want to go to the hospital again, so we brought you back to the safe house I was staying at with Maxwell.”
The mention of my father takes me back to the fire at Servite Manor. I’m an orphan now. I mean I always was, not knowing who my father was, not having a mother who gave a shit about me. But now they’re really gone, and I’m not sure how that makes me feel. My heart aches for Maxwell and how he was punished for something he had no control over. How he left this wretched place only to come back and lose the war against it. And although she deserves none of it, my heart can’t help but yearn not for my mother, but for the young girl who felt the only way to make someone love her was to betray them in such a heinous way. To trust a monster. My heart aches for the young girl she once was before she became the sinner she died as.
“What are we going to do now, Ace?” I ask, a small smile appearing on his beautiful face. God, even with all the cuts and bruises, with his eyes black and purple, with his blue irises bulging and red rimmed, he’s still the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. A fallen angel who felt the wrath of the devils around him. An innocent soul consumed by the horrors of the world he was raised in. But in reality, the tables were turned. He believed I was his salvation, that I came to his world to be his redemption. When all along it was he who saved me. It was he who made me realize I am worthy of being with someone like him. The sins of our fathers, the mistakes of our mothers, they don’t condemn us, they redeem us. We are better than them, better than all that they were. And in the end, I finally see that now.
I’m not paying for their sins, I’m atoning them. This is what it was all for, all the suffering, the sacrifices, the betrayals. It was so I could come to this conclusion on my own. This is my epiphany.
Ace watches me with adoration in his eyes as I come to this realization. I know he sees it too, the true meaning of what we are. A pair of lovers who crossed their destined paths to repair the wrongs that were done to them and redeem those who wronged them. Two lovers who followed their destined fates. An angel and a devil. A sinner and a saint. Good vs evil, right vs wrong. Two worlds colliding, a heaven and a hell. To the culmination of redemption.
I was his salvation, but he became my savior.
I sit up, reaching a hand to him, cupping his beaten face in my palm. “You were the only thing that mattered. As I watched it all crumble before me, as I watched it all burn before me. You were the only thing I couldn’t lose.”
“You’ll never lose me, baby, because I fucking…”
“Stop!” I shout, bringing my finger to his lips. His eyebrows crease between his forehead, his mouth curving down into a sorrowful scowl. “Don’t say it. I want to be the one to say it first. Because it’s true. I fucking love you, Ace Servite. More than I ever thought possible, more than I ever imagined I could love another. You are the calm to my chaos, the only craving that satiates my hunger. You are everything I could have ever dreamed of and the only one I’ll ever love.”
His lips attack mine in a ravenous kiss, fueled by love, anger, lust, need, all his thoughts and emotions channeled into one numbingly, mind-altering kiss.
“Always, baby,” he says, releasing my lips for a moment to speak. “From the first moment you stepped foot in my world, I was a goner. From that moment on you owned me, my heart, my soul, my entire being. There was no other way this could end. I would have never stopped, no matter the consequences, no matter the obstacles I had to overcome, it was always going to be for you. For this love that I feel and never want to lose.”
I close the space between us, my tongue tangling with his as his hands move to grip my neck. The force of his calloused hands on my raw skin burns yet no more than the ache to be close to him. I need this, I could never survive without it, without him. I pull back, taking his bottom lip in mine, a deep groan escaping him sends a shot of pleasure straight through to my core. I need him. I need to feel him inside of me, his hands on me, his mouth on me, every long, thick and hard inch of his cock in me. I dig my nails into the marred skin of his back as he cries out in pleasurable agony.
“Ace, please, I need you, make me forget.” I feel his smile spread across his lips as a moan escapes me. He removes one hand from my neck, slowly moving down my side, to the waist of my bottoms. I bite my bottom lip to stifle a moan that threatens to vibrate through the room, as his fingers slip under the material of my leggings and underwear, flicking my clit and sliding through my already hot and wet lips. I lean my head back, but he holds me up with the hand still cupped around my neck.
“I need to see the look on your face as you come for me, baby, as I shove my fingers into you, rubbing circles along your clit, until you come apart on my fingers.” His crass words move me, my cunt loving every filthy syllable he speaks, as his fingers continue to move roughly against me. One by one entering me, until he’s three fingers deep inside of me. My tired and sore body moves against him, my pussy trying to find its release against his palm cupping my clit.
All the truths we’ve discovered, all the betrayals we’ve dealt and have been dealt, all the lies, the secrets, they all dissipate before us. None of it matters now, we’ve survived too much to let it come between us. All is forgiven, all is atoned for.
Two sinners who have found their salvation, free of the unholy trinity that threatened to destroy them. Love prevailed, love always wins. And together we have defeated these devils that threatened to destroy us. We’re not sinners nor saints, but mere humans who are imperfect, who make mistakes, who make false judgements. Mortals who can accept when they’ve been wrong and redeem themselves when they’ve done worse.
“Baby, please I need more,” I whimper against him, the lust radiating in his eyes rivals mine as he forces me to keep them open. And just like that my wish is his command, as he flicks my clit with his thumb, bringing me over the edge. I come apart, his fingers drenched in my need, as he swallows my shattering moan into his mouth with a kiss that feels like he’ll never have enough.
Suddenly, they all walk in. Fucking cock blockers. Ace quickly removes his hand from my pussy as he turns angrily to face them. “What the fuck!” he shouts out as Bass, Alek, and Beckett waltz in, and I know they heard my cries of pleasure, they know exactly what we were doing. Because unlike Bass and Beck with devious smiles on their lips, Alek walks in with his head down, trying hard not to meet my stare.
Though what startles me the most is the fourth figure behind them, who has yet to fully enter the room.
Roman.
My heart pounds ferociously as I see him, remembering all he revealed to me that night he had me in the cabin. Everything he’s done, who he’s worked for this whole time.
“What is he doing here!?” I shout, as Roman comes into full view. My rage once again boiling inside of me, the earlier pleasure I felt with Ace gone and replaced by the fury of seeing my stepbrother here before me.
“Shh, it’s okay baby,” Ace whispers against my temple, noticing my anger. “Roman was the one who brought us here, to the safe house Maxwell had, it’s where I’ve been staying. Where I was staying with him.”
“But why him?” I ask, staring straight at Roman. His demeanor is more relaxed than it was that day in the cabin. His dark jeans and black T-shirt, which still show off the colored ink down his arms and around his neck, make him once again look his age. Dark blond tousled hair above his head, and menacing green eyes, sorrowful and rimmed with guilt. It’s pathetic.
He steps forward but halts when he sees the anger in my scowl. “The moment I knew Marchesi was going to Servite Manor after Wesley and Lilith, I knew he was planning something big. And he made it clear he didn’t care who was caught in the crossfire. Maxwell had been tailing us for some time, I knew it but never told Marchesi. I guess he just didn’t seem like the bad guy. So I reached out to him and told him what I feared Marchesi was planning.”
“So it wasn’t Alek who called my father,” I blurt out, interrupting him.
Alek’s gaze lifts to mine, shaking his head reluctantly. “No, I went to get the guys.” I can see the pain etched into Aleks eyes. I may have lost a father I’d just met, but Alek lost an uncle. A part of his family. I know they weren't close, but it still hurts him.
“I reached out to Maxwell and drove him there,” Roman explains. “He left me this,” he adds, moving toward me but stopping when Ace steps toward him, blocking him from coming any further.
“What is it?” I ask, looking at Ace and asking him to get the envelope Roman’s holding out to me. He listens, taking it and handing it over. Inside is a letter written to me on behalf of Maxwell, my father. I look up at Roman who steps back, slowly nodding for me to read it for myself.
My dearest daughter,
If you’re reading this, I’m afraid it’s too late for me to tell you this in person. I’m sorry for not being the father you deserved. It would be a copout for me to say I never could have known about you or that there was no way I could have ever found you. I was consumed by my rage, that I left this place swearing to never come back. But in doing that I missed out on a lot. I missed out on getting to know you but worst of all I missed out on saving you, on giving you the life you deserved. So, I’m trying now. Roman has what you need. You can trust him; he will take you somewhere safe. I only ask that you be open to forgiving him and trusting him once again. He came to me when he realized what they had planned, what Franco had planned, and he helped me save you. I know one good deed, no matter how grand, does not erase all the bad, but give him a chance to explain himself. Roman has the inheritance I left you and the information of all my accounts. Not a dime of it is my family’s money, all of it is honest money I made when I left Hillcrest. You still have your third of my father’s inheritance, Roman has that with him as well. I know you might want none of his money, but it’s rightfully yours. Do with it as you please, but my money I promise you were made with not one ounce of sin. It’s yours, my darling. Use it to leave this place, you deserve so much more, my dear. With Ace by your side, I’m sure you’ll need nothing. Last, I ask one last thing of you. You owe me nothing, and I understand if you refuse, but by now you’ve met your cousins, my niece and nephew Drea and Alek. I ask that you forgive them, Scarlett. They are much like you, a product of their father’s sins. Victims in this war between families, in this battle between sinners. I ask you to help them escape the clutches of evil that threaten to consume them. I was a coward and couldn’t help them .
I will always love you my sweet angel.
Your father,
Maxwell Smoak
Tears fill my eyes, dripping down on the parchment gripped tightly in my hands. He didn’t deserve the cards he was dealt; he didn’t deserve to be there. But if it weren’t for him, Ace and I wouldn’t have made it out alive.
“I have all the paperwork here with me, he changed his will as soon as he found out about you nine months ago,” Roman says, handing me a folder I didn’t notice he had been holding.
“I don’t want his blood money, the Smoak’s blood money.”
“It’s rightfully yours,” Alek says, shocking us with his admittance. He walks over to the edge of my bed leaning forward. “You’re a Smoak, my grandfather knew, he wanted you to have it. My uncle wanted you to have it.”
“I don’t want anything from your family, Alek. They’re nothing to me, Maxwell was—” I choke out.
“Shh, we don’t have to deal with this right now, babe. We’ll have time to decide later,” Ace assures me, glaring at the guys who take the warning and step back.
“Ace,” I shout, remembering the truth he’s just discovered. “Wesley, your father…”
“It’s all the same to me, Scarlett. I’ve never had a father. Not in Warren and definitely not in Wesley. That he is my biological father means nothing to me, it changes nothing.”
Suddenly as I turn back and look up at the guys who don’t look at all surprised, I see Bass looking directly at me..
“Jade,” I cry out at the sight of him here and not with my sister protecting her like he swore. “Does she know I’m okay?”
Bass steps forward at the mention of her. “I left before she could run after me, but I texted her when we got here,” Bass assures me.
I quickly turn to Roman who stands beside him. “Jade doesn’t know you’re back. You can’t leave, Roman. Tell her you’re back.”
For once I see a fear in his eyes that rivals anything I’ve ever felt. The fear of Jade discovering the monster he’s become. “I can’t, Scarlett, I can’t look my little sister in the eye and tell her what her big brother has become. A puppet, a criminal, a murderer, someone she’d be so ashamed of.”
I sit up, painfully but managing. “You’re her family, Roman, her brother. She will forgive you for that, you know she will.”
He shakes his head, running his hand through his hair, an anxious chuckle escaping him. “But I can’t, Scar. How will I ever be able to come clean to her? How will I ever be able to admit it was me who shot and killed our father in cold blood?”
Suddenly, we hear a loud, shrieking cry come from behind us as all eyes turn to the door that remains open, finding Jade standing under the doorway, a look of utter resentment and betrayal in her clear green eyes before she takes off running toward the darkness of the night.
THE END… FOR NOW.