Epilogue One
EPILOGUE ONE
ALEX
Two Years Later
I sat on a sun lounger in the garden, watching my wife and son playing in the pool. It was the hottest day of the year, and I reached for the cocktail that Clive had brought for me and left on the glass table to my right. I picked it up and sipped the cool orange flavour, savouring how well it quenched my thirst, as Emma smiled and waved back at me. This wasn’t my usual choice of drink. I was more of a whisky man, but sometimes, it was good to shake things up. Keep those around you on their toes. Surprise them. Predictability brought its own problems; it made people watch you closer. Notice things you didn’t want them to notice. Especially if things weren’t as they seemed.
“Look, daddy. I splashing,” our son, Albie, squealed, and I laughed, waving back at him as I replied, “I can see. You’ll be swimming soon, my clever little man.”
Emma glowed with pride, looking at me, then our son, and asking him, “Shall we splash daddy?”
Albie squealed in delight, and Emma pushed the little ring he was clinging to through the pool as he pretended to swim towards me. Then, as they came close, they started to flick water at me. Albie barely made a splash, at least, not in my direction. He screwed his little face up as the water hit him more than anyone else. But Emma was really going for it, soaking my legs as I called out, “Oy. You’ll pay for that.”
I stood up, took my shirt off and pulled my shorts down, then I ran and jumped into the pool, tucking my knees into my chest to do a cannonball that I knew would soak them both.
As I broke the surface of the water and pushed my hair out of my eyes, I heard Albie squealing, and Emma laughing.
I swam to the opposite edge of the pool and shook my head.
“Game on,” I teased.
Emma cried out, “Oh no, Albie, daddy shark is after us.” And Albie shrieked even louder.
I laughed as Emma tried to swim further away, and Albie’s little legs kicked faster in the water. And I felt a surge of love in my heart. A warmth that only she had ever given me.
I was so fucking proud of her and the life we’d made. The family we’d created and were still creating.
In four months, Albie would have a little brother. My heart was so full, at times, I couldn’t handle it.
I looked at her, my beautiful wife, knowing I’d do anything for her. I’d kill for her. I had done. I’d killed my brother to save her. I’d killed her boss, too, because he’d made her life a misery. I’d choked him and dumped him in the canal where he belonged, along with the rest of the scum. It had been a long time coming. I was surprised I’d waited so long to take him out.
And the man at her office, Harrison, I’d killed him as well. He'd slapped her ass in front of everyone, fucking violating her. She wasn’t the first girl he’d harassed that day, though. I’d caught him leaving a store cupboard in the hallway right before the meeting, and as the door slowly shut behind him, I noticed a girl cowering in the corner, crying. He was a sick fuck. A quick deep dive into his internet history, courtesy of my friend Ethan, who’d answered my text and come up with the goods, told me as much.
I made sure he wouldn’t hurt another woman again. But they’d never find his body, because Arran had helped me dispose of it. Arranging the vat of acid and helping me lift his body into the polypropylene drum he’d bought for the job. It still amazed me that acid could melt through metal and bone, but hard plastic, like that drum, was resistant.
Yes, I’d killed for my wife, and I’d do it over and over again if it kept her safe.
My name was Alex Kingston.
I was a proud family man.
And I’d kill anyone who tried to destroy that.