EPILOGUE
Lee kept a tight grip on Rori’s hand as they followed his parents into the hotel in Spokane, Washington. His stomach was a mess of nerves in anticipation of the meeting that was to come.
His parents led them to where a tall man with a headful of white hair and stooped shoulders stood. His dad shook the man’s hand, then his mom hugged him.
“Lee, this is Dr. Stein.”
There were no further introductions needed. Lee knew exactly who this man was and what he’d done to help Lee survive.
Dr. Stein held out his hand, and when Lee took it, he was surprised at the strength in his grip. The man held Lee’s hand between both of his as he gazed at Lee, his expression filled with emotion.
“I can’t tell you what an answer to prayer it is to see you healthy and happy. God is good.”
Lee couldn’t deny that. “Thank you for all you did for me.”
The man’s faded blue eyes suddenly held a sheen of moisture. “I only wish I could have done more for your brother. Many people failed you. I didn’t want to be one more on that list.”
“You didn’t fail me. And you didn’t fail Ian either.” It had taken some time for Lee to come to a place where he could clearly lay blame where blame was deserved.
“And who is this beautiful woman?” Dr. Stein asked as his gaze moved to Rori.
“This is my girlfriend, Rori Harlow-Gray.”
Dr. Stein smiled at her as he shook her hand. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you.”
Rori’s smile as she looked up at the older man was as beautiful as ever. “The pleasure is definitely mine. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have Lee in my life.”
“Well, I mustn’t hog all your time,” he said, releasing Rori’s hand. “The others are waiting.”
The older man moved with slow but steady steps as he led them to the small meeting room that had been reserved for the gathering. Lee and his parents had decided to go to Spokane rather than Coeur d’Alene or Serenity to avoid the risk of running into someone they knew. Plus, Spokane was more convenient for the people who were flying in—which was everyone but them.
It was around a two-hour drive from Serenity, but the trip had passed pretty quickly. Lee and his parents had brought separate cars since Lee had plans following this visit.
Lee took several deep breaths as they reached the door to the room. Rori squeezed his hand and briefly leaned her head against his shoulder.
There had never been any question in his mind if she should come with them for this meeting. She’d been his rock, his strength, throughout the past several months. It would have felt very wrong not to have her at his side for this.
The small group of people who were standing together chatting, turned when Lee and his group walked into the room. Right away, Lee recognized Susan Theissen, the psychiatrist, since he’d been speaking with her once a week for a while now.
She had flown in to meet with him not long after the conversation he’d had with his parents. After that initial in-person meeting, she’d met with him virtually once a week. Rori had even had a couple of sessions with her. Both concerning her own situation, but also to learn how best to support Lee.
Susan hurried over to greet them, a wide smile on her face. She shook hands with each of them, then led them to the others.
Introductions were made, then they all sat down around a large round table that held a place setting for each of them. His parents had figured everyone would be more comfortable if they talked over a meal, so they’d made arrangements for that.
Lee took a seat to Rori’s left, while his mom and dad sat on her right.
He recognized the two detectives who’d been in charge of his case, who were now retired. They’d both been interviewed for the docu-series, though they’d given no indication that they were aware that Lee had survived.
Also present was another doctor and the lawyer and judge who had advised them on the legalities of the decisions made. More people knew what had transpired than his parents had been aware of.
Considering how many people knew, Lee was a bit surprised that his secret had remained hidden all these years.
“I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see you like this,” the judge said. Like Dr. Stein, he was elderly. He’d lost all his hair, but his gaze was sharp as he looked at Lee. “I had hoped that the decisions we made would allow you to live as normal a life as possible, and it looks like that’s what happened.”
Lee nodded. “I had a wonderful childhood with my adoptive family. Mom and Dad gave me a stable and loving home, and I’m very grateful.”
“I knew they would,” Dr. Stein said with a smile. “I figured if they were anything like your grandfather, you’d be in good hands.”
They spoke a bit about the docu-series, with the people who’d been interviewed giving their thoughts on it. This was the first time Valeria was up for parole, and the group were split on whether they thought she’d be granted it.
“Would she get out on good behavior?” Lee asked.
The one detective shrugged. “She had a few incidents early on in her incarceration, but nothing over the past few years. Unlike Ian Sr. He’s had plenty of run-ins, even though he’s getting up there in years. He’s had to spend time in solitary because he attacked fellow inmates and even a guard.”
Lee didn’t like to hear that the man had continued to exhibit aggressive behavior. It was the biggest issue he’d struggled with during his sessions with Susan. The belief that he carried similar traits as his biological father was a hard one to let go of.
Rori didn’t talk much, but she seemed comfortable and at ease as they ate. He’d told her she didn’t need to come if she didn’t want to, but she wasn’t having any of that.
He wasn’t sure that he would have managed to move forward as well as he had without Rori in his life. She’d listened when he needed to talk. She’s held his hand in silence when he’d needed company but not conversation. And she always had a hug for him.
In some ways, he felt she’d brought more to his life than he had to hers. Anytime he said that, however, she reassured him that wasn’t the case.
As he looked around the table, Lee was filled with gratitude for each person there and the impact they’d had on his life. Were it not for them, he wouldn’t have had the privilege of growing up in a loving, Christ-centered family. And were it not for the Halversons, he most likely would have lived a very different life.
And then there was Rori. She meant the world to him. Though she’d been a new Christian—newer than he’d realized at the time—she’d constantly pointed him to the Bible and to God as he struggled with his past.
Her growing faith had strengthened his, and he’d come to appreciate the strong foundation it had built for their relationship. And he wanted to continue to build on that foundation, which was why he had hidden a ring in his car and had made plans for an outing with just Rori immediately following that meeting.
As he spoke with the people present—especially the detectives—he learned that they felt much like his parents and Susan. He was in control of who he was. Not his genetic make-up. Only Dr. Stein and one of the detectives—Mick Sellers—were Christians, but they didn’t hesitate to share that they believed that God had given him a new life. One that wasn’t tied to his birth parents.
In total, they spent four hours together. Some in the group had flights to catch since they’d only flown in for the day, but Dr. Stein and Mick Sellers remained after the others had left.
“If you have any questions about the case or anything pertaining to Ian and Valeria, do not hesitate to contact me.” Mick handed Lee a card. “That has all my contact information on it.”
“Thanks,” Lee said. “I appreciate that.”
“I’ve always carried such heaviness in my heart over what happened to you,” the man said with a sad smile. “As a detective, there’s always that one case that never leaves you, and your case was that one for me. I was on the scene when they found you and Ian, and it’s something I’ll never forget. But now, anytime those images want to drag me down, I’m going to think of our meeting today and thank God that He helped us save you.”
Lee hadn’t thought about how the police might have been impacted by what they’d encountered. He’d struggled with the pictures he’d seen. He couldn’t imagine what it might have been like to have seen it all in real life.
“Thank you for everything you did. Speaking with you all today has given me a real sense of peace over the way things transpired after Ian died.”
“I don’t know why God allowed you and little Ian to suffer like you did,” Dr. Stein said. “Like Mick, this case has lingered in my heart and mind. But it seems that God has brought good from the midst of horror. I hope that you will continue to seek His will in your life and that you don’t allow what happened to you to define your future.”
“I’m doing my best to not allow that to happen. Rori and my family have been a wonderful support. I’m not sure I would have been able to move past what happened without their help.”
After chatting for a couple more minutes, they made their way out of the room and to the entrance of the hotel. They shook hands, then watched as the detective and the doctor walked to the nearby parking lot.
“I think that went very well,” his mom said with a smile. “What do you think, Lee?”
He nodded. “It went better than I dared hope, to be honest.”
“It has been great to see that there were good people who were willing to step up and do what was necessary to protect you in the midst of a horrible situation,” his dad said. “And that none of them have ever revealed the secret, even when they were interviewed for that show.”
His dad had watched it, but his mom had declined. She’d said she didn’t want those images of her baby boy in her mind. Lee knew that she carried sadness that she hadn’t been able to love and care for Ian the way she had been able to for him.
There would always be sadness when his brother came to mind. There was no getting around that, but at least now Ian was free from the pain and suffering inflicted on him during his short life on earth.
They hugged his parents, then he and Rori headed for his car. As he sat behind the wheel, Lee exhaled deeply, staring out through the windshield.
Rori’s hand slid into his as she said, “How are you feeling?”
He looked over at her and smiled. He’d learned that she always wanted—needed—him to be honest with her. She didn’t want him to sugar coat how he was feeling.
“Relieved,” he said, giving a name to the first emotion he could pinpoint. “You know that I was a bit worried about it, but I think it went pretty well.”
“It went very well, I think,” Rori said. “It’s amazing that each of those people who were connected to you back then were so willing to take on a secret like they did to protect you.”
Lee nodded. “I was fortunate.”
“It was interesting that some of them agreed to appear on that docu-series.”
“I think it was probably a good thing they did. They talked about their role in the case in such a way that no one would ever suspect anything.”
“Do you think you’ll keep in contact with the doctor or the detective?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “If I’m supposed to be moving forward, I don’t feel like I need to. Our only point of connection is to what happened in the past. But I’m not saying that I won’t contact them. I’ll probably want to talk to Mick if Valeria gets parole.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen. She might not have instigated what happened to you, but she didn’t try to help you and Ian, either.”
He’d talked at length with Susan about Valeria’s role in everything. It had been hard enough to understand why a father would do what Ian had done, but a mother? It was so hard to comprehend.
“We’ll see what happens.”
Thankfully, he had no role to play in her parole hearing since he couldn’t reveal that he still lived. Though part of him would have liked to tell the parole board why she should stay in jail, he was glad he didn’t need to carry that weight. It was completely out of his hands.
“Want to go for a walk?” he asked. “There’s a nice park not too far away.”
Rori smiled. “I’d like that.”
Nerves fluttered madly in Lee’s stomach as he backed the car out of the parking spot.
~*~
Rori hadn’t spent much time in Spokane, so she looked around curiously as they drove. Like Lee, she was relieved the meeting was over. It had been a necessary part of his journey, but she knew it had taken a lot out of him.
Over the past ten months, Lee had gotten to where he didn’t need or want to discuss the situation every day. In fact, a week could pass without them talking about it.
Rori didn’t think it was because he thought he couldn’t talk about it. She’d made it very clear that whenever he needed to talk, she was there to listen. Hopefully, the meeting that day was another step forward for him and didn’t send him backwards.
But if it did, she’d be there with him, just like she’d been with him so far.
It was hard to believe that it had almost been a year since she’d come to Serenity. Even more than that, it was hard to believe that she and Lee had been together for nearly that long, too.
Never in her life had she been so close to someone. Never had she had someone who cared for her as much as Lee did. Who loved her as much as Lee did. Who she loved as much as she did Lee.
And it wasn’t just Lee. She now had close friendships with Charli, Janessa, and Carisa, and she had a support system in Essie and Al. The church was also a big part of her life, and she loved helping out where she could.
“I wish I’d brought my camera,” Rori said as Lee drove through the entrance of the park. “This looks beautiful.”
“We can always come back again sometime so you can take pictures.”
He did stuff like that for her all the time. “I’d like that.”
After he parked the car, they headed off down a pathway, hand-in-hand. But then Lee came to a stop. “I’ll be right back. I want to grab a bottle of water.”
Rori stepped to the side of the path to wait, looking around the area. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of people taking advantage of the warm spring day. It had been a long winter with an early snow, followed by lots more of the white stuff, a blizzard, and cold temperatures.
The high point of her first winter in Serenity had been Christmas. The first one spent with people who truly wanted to be with her. She’d loved finding gifts for Lee, and then shopping with him for gifts for his family. And on Christmas morning, she’d received more gifts than on any Christmas ever before.
But more than the gifts, she’d enjoyed the events surrounding Christmas, especially the children’s Christmas program that Layla, Amelia, and Peyton had been part of. She couldn’t wait for next Christmas, even if she had to deal with winter all over again.
Finally, the temperatures had climbed, and the snow had melted. Spring had come to Serenity, and flowers were blooming. It was a good reminder that even in the roughest of times, winter ended, and spring brought new life.
Lee jogged back to her, a water bottle in his hand. He offered her his elbow, and she held on to it and walked close to him as they continued to make their way along the path.
“The flowers are already so beautiful,” she remarked as they turned onto a path that led into a garden area. “I can’t imagine what they must look like in full bloom.”
They passed a few people in the garden, but it seemed most preferred to be out in the open, playing sports or sunning themselves on blankets.
“Want to sit down for a few minutes?” Lee asked when they neared a stone bench.
“Sure.”
As they settled onto the bench, Lee slipped his arm around her waist. Rori leaned against him, tilting her head up to see his face. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, and Rori was happy to see that the tension from earlier in the day had eased from his expression.
Her heart overflowed with love for Lee. He was everything she could have wanted in a man. The way he treated her showed that he thought she was special and worth treasuring. And the way he prioritized their relationship told her that it was as important to him as it was to her.
The past several months hadn’t all been sunshine and roses. While Lee had been dealing with his stuff, Rori had faced a few issues with her mom after she’d discovered that Rori was spending time with Essie. She’d been livid and had made Essie’s life miserable for a bit. In the end, her husband had stepped in and told Rori’s mom to back off.
She’d tried to turn her ire on Rori, but Rori had made it to a point in her life where there was really nothing her mom could do that would upset her. It had bothered her tremendously, however, when she’d attacked Essie, who had been more of a mother to Rori than her own mother had ever been.
But they’d weathered that storm, and any that Lee had dealt with, to come out stronger on the other side of each one. It gave Rori hope for their future together.
For the first time in her life, she could picture being a wife and a mother. But only to Lee and to Lee’s children. She knew it was what he wanted. It was just a matter of when it happened.
The peaceful atmosphere of the garden was nice after the intense time spent at the hotel. Not that it had been bad, but it hadn’t been relaxing. They needed this time to decompress.
“I love you,” Rori said, feeling like the words were needed in that moment. Once she’d said the words the first time, they’d come easier and easier, and he was never stingy with the words either.
Lowering his head, Lee opened his eyes and smiled at her. “I love you too.”
They shared a soft kiss, then Rori said, “Thanks for letting me tag along today.”
“Letting you? There was no letting you,” Lee told her. “I needed you there with me. You’ve been my closest companion on this journey, and I will always choose to have you by my side.”
Rori smiled as his words warmed her. “And I’ll always choose to be there.”
Lee’s expression turned serious as he shifted to face her more fully. His arm slid from her waist, then he took one of her hands.
“Once upon a time, always would have been a bit scary,” Lee said. “But now, it’s all I want. Always with you.”
Rori’s breath caught in her lungs at the depth of emotion she saw in Lee’s eyes.
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled something out. “I want forever with you, Aurora Harlow-Gray.”
When he lifted his hand, her heart thumped hard in her chest as she realized he held a ring. The gold band was slender, and the diamond on top winked in the sunlight.
“Will you marry me, Rori?” Lee asked. “Will you spend forever with me?”
Tears sprang to her eyes and slid down her cheeks as her emotions got the better of her. This was what she wanted but there had been times she’d struggled to believe it would actually come to fruition.
“Yes. I will,” she said, forcing the words past the tightness in her throat. “I love you, and I can’t imagine marrying any other man. Only you.”
Lee brushed his fingers across her cheeks, wiping away her tears. Then he took her left hand in his and slid the ring on her finger.
“You’ve made me so happy,” Lee said as he took her face in his hands and leaned forward to press his lips to hers.
Rori gripped Lee’s wrists, pouring all her love into this first kiss as his fiancée.
When their kiss ended, Rori smiled up at the man she would one day call her husband. “I can’t wait for us to get married.”
“So you don’t want a long engagement?”
Rori shook her head. “I don’t need a fancy wedding. I just want us to be married.”
“In that case…” Lee grinned, then had her pose with him. He held his phone up as they kissed, her left hand resting on his cheek, and took a picture.
Once he had the shot, he tapped out a message, then showed her what he’d sent to his family’s group chat.
She said yes! Who wants to help plan a quick wedding!?
They both laughed as the responses flooded in.
“This is going to be so much fun,” Lee said as he got to his feet, pulling Rori up with him. Wrapping his arms around her, he spun them in a circle before setting her down, both of them laughing. “I can’t wait to see how special our wedding day is going to be. And I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of our lives.”
“Me, too.” Rori clung to Lee, confident that they would be together for as long as God kept them both on this earth.
They’d had tears. They’d had laughter. They’d had good days. They’d had bad. And she was sure they’d have more of all of that, but with God’s help, they’d face each situation with confidence.
She’d taken a big step with her move to Serenity, then tackling a new job and getting a new boyfriend. Not to mention changing her whole outlook on life when she became a Christian.
Now, with her acceptance of Lee’s proposal, they had another big change coming. One that would intertwine their lives in the best possible way. And since they’d already put God at the center of their relationship, it would be the same with their marriage.
After living her life on the outside looking in, Rori finally had a place that was hers and hers alone, and that place was in Lee’s arms and by his side. Together, with God’s help, they would build a home of safety for themselves and any children they had.
No child of theirs would ever know the pain and rejection that they had. Rori knew that with complete confidence because she and Lee had committed to living their lives to honor and glorify God.
Rori smiled at the man she loved with all her heart. “I’ll love you for always.”
“And I’ll love you forever,” Lee murmured in response.
The kiss they shared in that moment held the weight of the promises they’d already made to each other and the ones they’d make in the future. One day soon, they’d stand before God and those they loved and say the vows that would bind them together.
Rori couldn’t wait.
~*~ The End ~*~