Epilogue
Two weeks have passed since Cinder returned to Midnight Manor, and she’s doing a lot better. She still has to take it easy, which is driving her crazy.
I had to convince her that it’s still too early to open up the dance school, that she needs to keep resting and healing so she can be at her best once it does open. Besides, the doctor told her she still can’t dance, so as much as she hates it, she’s had to be somewhat sedentary except for the walks we take around the property.
She won’t admit it, but they take a lot out of her. She almost always naps after.
I’m running out of things to keep her entertained around the manor, so today I decided to pull out some old home movies for us to watch in the theater room. I figure she might get a kick out of seeing my brothers and me when we were younger.
I don’t have to worry about dredging up the past because my dad isn’t in these movies. These are the ones my mom filmed with just us boys. It’s been over a decade since I’ve looked at them, so I’m not entirely sure how I’ll feel viewing them.
The last time I watched them, they made me feel sad for all I’d lost. But I have so much to look forward to in my life now that I have a different perspective. I’ll always miss my mom and wish I could have gotten to know her better, but I feel confident that she’d be happy with where my life is today.
I’ve just cued up the first movie, and I take a seat beside Cinder.
“This was a great idea.” She grins. “I can’t wait to see what you all looked like when you were little. Was Sid as moody then as he is now? Was Asher always the leader?”
I chuckle. “I guess neither of them has changed that much.”
“And what about you?” She takes the bag of MM’s she brought in and dumps them into the bowl of popcorn in her lap.
I cringe. “I don’t know how you eat that.”
She playfully rolls her eyes. “I told you, don’t knock it until you try it. You’d be surprised how yummy it is.” Cinder holds the bowl out to me, and I hold up my hand, shaking my head.
“I’m good.”
She shrugs and turns her attention to the screen. “Okay, let’s get started.”
I hit Play on the remote.
“Is that the pond we walked by?” Cinder asks.
“That’s the one.” I chuckle when Kol pops on the screen. I’d guess he’s about eight or nine. “That’s Kol.”
He races down the dock and jumps, pulling his knees to his chest and shouting “Cannonball!”
Female laughter from behind the camera fills the theater. My mom’s laugh. I’d forgotten what a good laugh she had. Over the years, it’s faded from memory, but hearing it now, it’s all too familiar, and my chest is hit with a pang of nostalgia.
Next Asher comes on screen and does a perfect dive off the end of the dock.
“Let me guess, that was Asher?” Cinder says.
I turn to look at her. “How’d you know?”
She shrugs. “I’m not sure actually. Just seems like such an Asher thing to do.”
We both laugh and look back at the screen.
Oh god. I forgot about this.
Sid is pulling me down the dock by the arm, and five-year-old me is trying my best not to go with him. I was terrified to jump in, even with a life jacket on.
Cinder’s hands fly up to her face. “Oh my gosh! Is that little guy you?”
“Yup. I wasn’t a strong swimmer, and I remember how scared I was. I’d never jumped in before.”
“C’mon, Nero. Don’t be a baby,” Sid says in the video.
Asher and Kol are treading water, trying to encourage me to jump. But I’m not having it. I’m doing my best to stop Sid from dragging me to the edge, but he was bigger and older than me, so I didn’t stand much of a chance.
“Obsidian, leave him alone if he doesn’t want to go in,” my mom says.
The sound of her voice pushes the air from my lungs. It’s been so long since I’ve heard it. But rather than feel sorrowful, I’m glad I still have the opportunity to revisit it when I want. I won’t wait so long to pull these tapes out again.
“Was that your mom?” Cinder asks.
Something in her tone has me turning to face her. All the color has drained from her face, and her mouth hangs open as she looks at the screen.
I hit Pause on the video. “Princess, what’s wrong?”
“Nero, was that your mom?” She turns and looks at me with an urgency to her voice.
“Yeah… why?”
“I know that voice.”
My forehead wrinkles. “How could you know that voice?”
Her eyes widen. “The night you found me at the basement door… the night I found you in the aviary… the night I was shot…” She swallows hard.
My chest tightens. She’s worrying me now. I have no idea what the hell is going on.
“I thought I was sleepwalking all those times. There was this mist I couldn’t see through, but there was a voice beckoning me forward, saying my name over and over again. Nero, that was the voice. It was your mom’s voice!”
“Are you sure?”
She nods frantically. “Absolutely. I’m telling you it was her.” Tears gather in her eyes. “Nero, what do you think that means?”
A swell of emotion fills my chest, and I struggle for a breath. “I think it means my mom knew before I did how right you were for me.” I cup her face, kissing her gently.
When I pull away, her eyes are full of tears. “I wish I could have met her.”
I lower my forehead to hers. “I do too.”
We sit like that for a few minutes, breathing each other in. I don’t always feel close to my deceased mother when I think of her, since I was so young when she passed away, but between the videos we’re watching and what Cinder has just revealed, I swear I feel her spirit here with us.
I sigh and pull away. “Should we watch some more?”
“Of course. I want to know her as best I can.”
Smiling, I give Cinder a quick kiss then shove my hand in the bowl with the popcorn and MM’s mix. Then I toss some in my mouth.
“Well?” Her eyebrows rise.
I chew, rocking my head side to side. “Not bad. Better than I thought.”
With a smile, she rests her head on my shoulder. I click Play and the video starts up again.
The longer we watch the videos, the more a feeling of peace comes over me. I may have lost the love of my mother, but she helped me gain the love of the most amazing woman.
The door to the theater room opens, and I straighten up and look over my shoulder. Kol stands at the entrance, hands in his pockets, staring at the screen. I hit Pause.
“Jesus. I haven’t seen these in… shit, I don’t know how long,” he says, not letting his eyes stray from the screen.
“We’re taking a trip down memory lane.”
“Did you come across the one where Mom tried to make macarons?” He chuckles, and I smile.
“Oh yeah. Cinder and I were laughing over how Mom didn’t believe smoke was coming out of the oven when you first told her. Remember how disappointed she was that they didn’t turn out?”
“And then she placed an order for some from that fancy bakery in New York.” A sad smile crosses his face.
We’re all quiet, and Cinder takes my hand.
“What’s up? I know you’re not just here to see what we’re up to,” I say.
Kol sighs, shoves his hands in his pockets, and walks over to us. “Sid’s disappeared.”
I frown. “What do you mean he’s disappeared?”
“No one knows where he is. He’s been gone for two weeks, and we’re not sure if he’s just laying low or if something happened.”
I think back to the last time I saw him… it would have been the day Cinder was attacked. I hadn’t thought much of not seeing him lately. I’ve been giving all my attention to Cinder since she’s been back, and before that, I was at the hospital twenty-four-seven. We’ve been eating all our meals together in different places in the house, and if we were in the dining room and Sid wasn’t there, that wasn’t unusual. He travels for work sometimes.
“You have no idea where he is?”
Kol shakes his head. “He hasn’t used his credit cards, his phone, or logged into Voss Enterprises at all. It’s like he’s vanished.”
“What about the plane?” Cinder asks.
Kol moves his attention to her. “No flight plans. If he flew somewhere, he didn’t use one of our planes.”
She bites her bottom lip and looks at me.
I think back to our last conversation and the way he’s been acting, how he said his head was a mess. I took the comment about not everyone being perfect as him talking about Cinder, but what if he was talking about himself?
“You don’t think he’d hurt himself, do you?” I ask Kol.
The two of them are usually thick as thieves, but with Rapsody in Kol’s life, I bet that’s no longer the case.
Kol stiffens, and his forehead wrinkles. “Why would you ask that?”
I relay my last conversation with Sid to him.
“Fuck.” He runs his palm over the top of his head.
We’re all quiet, thinking of the possibilities.
I don’t know what Sid is up to. All I know is that my brother better be okay.
TWISTED TRUTHSis the fourth and final book in the Midnight Manor series featuring Obsidian Voss.