EPILOGUE
O f course, Jay and I can’t hide out in room 225 deliriously happy forever. But we do stay there a long time. We even fall asleep in each other’s arms—for real this time. But eventually, we have to face the world again.
The first few days after Jay’s return are very intense for him, with police interviews and meetings with various lawyers. Plus, the media hounds him and his mother nonstop, asking for a statement. I support him when I can, but I can’t be with him all the time. He holds up pretty well, but I know that things are harder for him than he’s letting on.
Three weeks after he comes back, it finally starts to feel like the dust has settled on his legal issues. And the media inquiries trickle to almost nothing. To celebrate, Gracie and I take him to the hand-pulled-noodle-bowl place for some sesame noodles.
“Oh my god, this is good,” Jay says while twirling the thick sesame noodles around his chopsticks.
“Are you finally moving from team sandwich to team bowl?” I ask. Of course, he’s already had every Toronto sandwich he missed while he was gone. Since he’s living back at his mother’s in Scarborough, he’s had Shawarma Delight several times.
He shakes his head. “Nope. Honestly, what these noodles need is maybe ... a tortilla? A Greek pita? Maybe shove them in a baguette?”
I pretend to stab him with my chopsticks.
“Children, children. Behave ,” Gracie says, laughing. “I understand Jay forgetting his manners after he was in hiding so long, but Aleeza is ...”
“Aleeza is what ?” I ask.
“Aleeza is adorable,” Jay says, kissing me on the cheek. He does that a lot. We’re still in the can’t-get-enough-of-each-other phase of our relationship. We laugh a lot. We kiss even more. And we do a lot more than just kissing.
But everything hasn’t been all rosy and perfect since Jay’s return. It’s weird—I didn’t know him before all the trauma he went through, but I can still tell that the moments of quiet that sometimes come over him are not his normal self. He doesn’t talk much about his father, or what his uncle and cousins wanted to do to him. He’s happy to be back in the world, and we’re happy together, but it will take him time to heal from it all. All I can do is be here to listen when he wants to talk. He has a therapist, too, but of course he can’t tell her everything—like the truth about how he and I met. Or how he’s alive. But she’s still helping.
When we’re alone, we both admit that this is the best relationship either of us has ever had. And the closest. Strangely, it doesn’t feel that different from how we were when we could only talk on ResConnect. We can still watch movies and talk for hours and never get bored—except now we sometimes do it in person. We still text a lot, though, since I’m still on campus in East House. Jay is planning to stay at his mother’s and commute from there when he starts school again in September. I’ll be moving into an off-campus apartment with Gracie.
Jay doesn’t end up having any legal ramifications from faking his death. Andrew Murray was charged with assault for punching Jack, and the fraud or money-laundering or whatever charges are pending. There’s some talk about extradition to the Cayman Islands so he can be charged with Stephen’s death, but I doubt that will happen, which sucks. Another thing that sucks is that Andrew is out on bail. But there is a no-contact order that prevents him from seeing or contacting Jay, Jay’s family, me, Gracie, or Jack. As expected, Taylor and Lance didn’t face any consequences for anything. I think they should have at least been thrown out of the school for the lies and bullying in the Birdwatcher Tumblr and Instagram. But instead, the media has been portraying them as heroes . Because those all-Canadian good looks and old-money wealth mean they are the ones who saved the poor Brown kid from Scarborough. And of course, Taylor and Lance are eating up the attention. They haven’t once contacted Jay, their cousin , to see how he’s doing. I would bet that they’re pissed they didn’t end up getting his money.
The paperwork for Jay to access the trust is still being sorted, but Jay says the first big thing he’s going to do with it is get a larger house for his mom, aunt, uncle, and cousins. And get his mom a new car. His mother won’t let him spend more than that on her—but he wants to take her on a vacation too.
I’ve met Salma a few times now, and I really like her. She’s a lot like Jay—super easy to talk to and gets really enthusiastic about the things she loves. She seems to like me, but that could be because Jay told her that I’m the one who saved his life, not Lance, Taylor, or Jack. She doesn’t fully understand how. I don’t fully understand how either.
Of course, Jay and I can’t tell anyone the real way we met. Gracie is still the only one who knows the truth. We’ve been telling others we initially met at that Halloween party and were talking up until he disappeared. When I randomly moved into his old dorm room months later, I started investigating his disappearance for my media project. We told people that when I interviewed him for the final episode of my podcast (which I really did—mine was the only podcast he spoke to), we hit it off again and started dating.
A lot of people think he’s with me only because he’s grateful I helped solve the case, and they think I’m with him only for his money. But we know it’s not true. My mother thinks she manifested our relationship after she got to know him at the library, like some kind of psychic matchmaker. Jack suspects we knew each other in a past life or something, but we haven’t told him the truth.
Jack is still in the sixty-day rehab program where his parents sent him after he healed from his injury. At first, he could only email us, so I would get these long, anxious, rambling emails about how he’s afraid getting clean will change who he is and that no one will care about him if he isn’t the same Jack Gormley anymore. He’s allowed to text now, and his mood and anxiety already seem better. He texts Jay and Gracie regularly too. I think he’ll still be Jack when he gets out, even if he can’t talk to his past self anymore. He’ll still be the center of his group of friends—it will just be a new group.
Speaking of Gracie, she finally admitted that she won’t date Aster because she’s afraid Aster will grow bored of her and leave her for someone rich like Nat, which is ridiculous, of course. Aster is crazy about Gracie. But at least Gracie isn’t pushing Aster away anymore. They’re not officially a couple, but Jay and I think they will be within a few weeks.
“Oh shit, look who’s here,” Gracie says, looking at the door of the noodle shop. This place is near campus, so a lot of students come here. From Gracie’s face, I expect it to be Taylor or Lance, two people neither Jay nor I want to see.
But it’s not. It’s Mia. She’s with someone I remember from West Hall who’s in her program. It seems Mia ditched the trust-fund crew too. Or they ditched her.
When Mia sees us, she freezes, like she’s not sure what to do. Eventually, she comes over to our table. I wonder if she’s going to make a snarky comment about me or Gracie.
“Hi, Aleeza,” she says. I can’t read her expression. I think I must be out of practice with her. But she doesn’t seem ... angry at least. Or phony.
“Hey, Mia,” I say. “You remember Gracie. And this is my boyfriend, Jay.”
She introduces me to the girl she’s with. Jay just nods to them, not saying anything. He’s guarded for a reason—because he’s been in the news so much, people he barely knows have been constantly coming up to him or contacting him since he’s been back. He’s not interested in being a celebrity or being in any spotlight. Plus, he’s a loyal boyfriend, so he doesn’t like Mia.
But Mia doesn’t seem to be here for Jay. She gives me a hopeful smile. “Aleeza, will you ... I mean, are you going to be in Alderville this summer?”
“That’s the plan,” I say. “I got a job at the library with my mother.” And I’ll be visiting Jay in Toronto whenever I can. He’s planning to visit me in Alderville too. Sometimes he’ll stay at my place, and sometimes he’ll go to his grandmother’s cottage. After being near Alderville for so long, he says it feels like his second home.
“Oh, okay,” Mia says. “I thought maybe we could move home together. Like, my dad could drive us. No reason for both our parents to come get us. And maybe we can hang out this summer?”
I look at her, confused. She looks genuine, like she’s actually trying to be my friend again. Does she really think I’d want to hang out with her after everything?
“Why?” I ask.
She frowns.
“Mia,” Gracie asks, “I heard Taylor moved out of your room. Did she drop your web series?”
She shakes her head. “No, we’re cool. I mean”—she looks awkwardly at the person she’s with—“I’m sure I’ll see her soon.”
I snort. “I don’t think Lance or Taylor will be back.” I look at Mia. I wonder if she’s going to say anything about her ex-boyfriend’s dad trying to kill my boyfriend. Or mention how strange it is that her ex and my current are actually long-lost cousins. I wonder if she’s going to ask how Jay is doing after what Lance’s father put him through. Or how I’m doing.
But she doesn’t. Because she doesn’t really care. She’s only here because she feels like she lost whatever fight we were having, and Mia is not used to coming in second after me.
“It’s fine,” I say. “Jay’s driving me home. And I doubt I’ll have time to hang out,” I say. I smile at Jay. “We’re going to be really busy together.”
Jay takes that opportunity to kiss my cheek again. I love him for it.
“And she’ll be busy with me,” Gracie says. “Aster and I are planning to come up for a beach trip to Alderville. Plus”—she looks at me—“Jack will be back by then. You know you’ll be seeing a ton of him this summer too. He’s talking about finding a marina for his boat there.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m going to be so busy this summer. But I’ll probably see you around town or something.” I turn away from her and pick up some noodles with my chopsticks.
“Fine,” Mia says. She starts to walk away from the table, then turns back and looks right at Jay. “I don’t know what she told you, but Aleeza was, like, stalking you for weeks. She was obsessed . It’s so creepy you’re together now.”
Jay shrugs. “Actually, it’s not creepy; it’s convenient. Because I was stalking her too. I’m even more obsessed with Aleeza.”
Mia rolls her eyes and walks right out of the restaurant. Her friend trails behind her, a confused expression on her face.
Gracie snorts a laugh. “She didn’t even get food.”
I shake my head. “Nah. She’s not going to stay and watch me be happier than her.”
Jay rests his chin on my shoulder. “Were you really obsessed with me?”
“Yep,” I say. “Still am.”
“Good. Me too.” He leans into my neck and plants a kiss there. And then another.
“Ugh, you two. Go get a room!” Gracie says, stabbing a chopstick into each of us. We dissolve into laughter again.
We had a room. And getting that room is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.