Epilogue
CALLIE
TWO MONTHS LATER
“I’m surprised your savior isn’t here.”
I glanced at Eilidh as she sipped at a glass of champagne. A bubble of envy burst on my tongue along with the sparkling juice I’d sipped. I wasn’t a big drinker, so I didn’t mind the no-alcohol part of the pregnancy journey, but I did love a wee glass of champagne. “Savior?”
“Carianne.” Eilidh sighed, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. She’d straightened her beautiful curls, so her hair fell in a sleek curtain around her face. “I can admit when I’m wrong about someone … but I would’ve thought she’d be here.”
Here was at my parents’ bungalow where the living room was decorated for my baby shower.
It clashed horrendously with the Christmas decorations, but that just made me laugh.
The room was filled—Mum, Aunt Allegra, Aunt Aria, Sarah, the Adair women, including all their daughters, and Flora, Morag, and a few other villagers Mum and I were friendly with.
Carianne was the only friend missing from the celebrations.
But I wasn’t mad about it. In fact, I was really happy for her.
“One of the detective constables on our case … Carianne’s dating him.”
“What?” Eilidh guffawed. “Isn’t that, like, illegal?”
“They waited until after the charges against her were dismissed.” It hadn’t taken long.
Dad had indeed recovered a USB stick from inside the necklace Gabriel gave me.
I was quite proud of myself for sleuthing that one out.
Fyfe had looked over its contents and there was a wealth of evidence on it against Gabriel’s old precinct and the top brass in the police there.
Bribery, racism, sexual assault, harassment, blackmail …
The list was endless. No wonder Gabriel had been so despondent and distant those last few months of our relationship.
Lewis went with me to Paris for Gabriel’s funeral, and I learned more about Gabriel in that one day than in our entire relationship.
His sister was there, a sister I didn’t even know he had, though she’d known about me.
It turned out that Gabriel’s mother was killed in a home invasion and that was what had inspired him to go into policing.
He wanted to help people, only to discover the people he was working for were abusing their power.
We now knew he and a colleague had gone to a journalist at a Parisian newspaper. His colleague was killed, and Gabriel had fled Paris. He’d left the evidence he’d stolen with me and told the journalist where he could find it. They’d tapped the journalist’s phone, however, leading them to me.
At first, the major de police and the brigadier-chef de police responsible for Gabriel’s unit and all the corruption didn’t want to cause an international scene, so that’s why they were careful with the break-ins.
That’s why they hadn’t come directly for me at first. But as the journalist gathered more evidence against them, especially with Gabriel’s death making national news, they’d gotten desperate—and that’s when they’d sent those men after me.
It and the USB were the final death knell for them.
The men in question were awaiting trial.
Paris was in an uproar about corruption within their police ranks.
And Carianne and I had been cleared of any charges.
While the man I’d slammed into the glass counter survived, I faced assault charges.
But once the Highlands police reviewed all the CCTV footage, plus the evidence on the USB, they dropped the charges against me and Carianne.
And miraculously, Carianne had found love amidst it all.
“They’re in Mexico for the holidays,” I continued. “All loved up.”
“Good for her.”
I frowned, studying Eilidh. There were dark circles under her eyes but more worryingly, she’d lost that sparkle in them. “What’s wrong, Eils?”
“Nothing.” She forced a smile and then placed a hand on my bump. “My wee niece is growing in there, so I’m nothing but happy.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Eilidh glanced at the others to make sure they weren’t listening.
They weren’t. The living room was a cacophony of multiple conversations going on at once, while Halsey played in the background.
My soon-to-be sister-in-law gave me a sharkish grin.
“What do you want to hear, Callie? That I’m wildly fucking unhappy when I should be the happiest girl in the world? ”
My stomach dropped. “Eilidh—”
“I’m kidding.” She gulped down the rest of her champagne and wiped her mouth.
“I’m going to be an aunt, two of my favorite people are getting married next year, I have five million followers on Instagram, a quarter of whom just come there to hate me because they think my uncles got me where I am, a quarter whom come to love on me, a quarter of them come to sexually harass me, and a quarter of them because they think I’m really the character I played on the show.
I have offers for work coming out of my ears when most of my friends can’t get an audition, so I am grateful, and I am happy.
My life is what dreams are made of. Where is the champagne?
” Eilidh marched into the kitchen, in search of more alcohol.
When I turned back from watching her, I met Aunt Allegra’s gaze. She came over. “Everything okay with Eilidh?”
“Do you think she’s drinking a bit too much?” I worried my lip.
“Is there a reason she would be?”
“I think she’s miserable.” I shrugged sadly. “And too proud to let anyone help.”
“Maybe I can try.” Allegra gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Go enjoy your party.”
I tried, but the nagging worry over Eilidh wouldn’t leave me.
I said as much when Lewis came to pick me up.
At twenty-nine weeks pregnant, I still had a pretty neat bump, but there was a noticeable difference in the size of the bump from two weeks ago.
The tight, full feeling in my stomach was weird, but the whooping sensation I felt anytime our baby girl moved was the strangest, most wonderful thing.
When she kicked, I’d grab anybody in the vicinity to feel it, too, like no one else had ever experienced pregnancy before.
Thankfully, everyone so far had been happy to indulge me.
Lewis had gotten more careful with me the bigger my bump grew.
Even as I explained my worries about Eilidh, I could see it took him a second to process it because he was making sure I was safe and comfortable in the car, the back of which was overflowing with gifts. We’d have to make a second trip to collect the rest because everyone had spoiled us.
As he started the engine, Lewis asked, “What makes you think Eilidh’s unhappy?”
“She literally said ‘I’m wildly fucking unhappy.’”
Her brother shot me an alarmed look.
“Then she went ‘Just kidding’ before downing her third glass of champagne.”
Lewis sighed heavily. “I’ll talk to Mum and Dad. Did it put a damper on your baby shower?”
I shrugged. “I’m always going to care more about Eilidh than a party.”
“Which is why I love you.” He reached over to smooth a hand over my knee. “Eilidh will be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
At that, I relaxed. Because I knew Lewis meant it. We chatted about the party, the gifts, and what the guys had been up to at their version of a baby shower. Lewis got a bit evasive on that, and I pestered him for information.
“Will you stop?” He laughed as we pulled up to our house in the woods.
“You’re not telling me what you got up to with the guys and it’s weird,” I huffed as I got out of the car before he could help me. Lewis rounded the bonnet, anyway, and I waved him off. “Not an invalid, sweetheart.”
He grumbled under his breath but took my hand. “Fine. I’ll show you what we were up to.”
Instead of going upstairs, he led me to the downstairs bedroom we’d decided would be the nursery. We had grand plans to decorate it in the next few weeks.
My fiancé grinned over his shoulder at me before opening the nursery door.
I released his hand but only to cover my gasp of shock. Delighted surprise thrummed through me as I stepped into the now beautiful space.
Like the primary suite, this room had a floor-to-ceiling window so you could see the moat that surrounded the house.
The low December sun gleamed on the water, bouncing its reflection off the opposite wall of the bedroom, a wall now papered in a mural that covered all four walls.
Calm greens and teals painted a misty watercolor scene of a forest. Pops of purples and pinks drew my eye to the fairies and their little fairy wings dancing among the scenery. It was a fairy glen.
Against the main wall was the cot I’d told Lewis I liked best but thought was too expensive.
On the other, a changing table, and in the corner, a beautiful rocking chair and stool, next to a matching chest of drawers and a wardrobe for all the baby clothes people had already gifted us.
Lights shaped like stars had been strung along the top middle of two walls.
And a custom pink neon sign on the main wall above the cot spelled out the name Harley.
“You did all this in a day?” I whispered in disbelief.
Lewis nodded, wrapping his arms around me from behind, his hands cradling my bump as his chin rested on my shoulder. “Dad, Walker, Harry, Fyfe, and Uncle Arran helped. Do you like it?”
Tears of happiness blurred my vision. “Harley Adair is already the luckiest girl in the world with a dad like you to spoil her.”
“And a badass mum like you to protect her.” He kissed my cheek.
I leaned back into him, savoring the feel of his hard strength at my back. “Sometimes I’m so afraid, because I’m so happy.”
“I understand.” Lewis’s voice was gruff as we both stared around the nursery. “You have so much to lose when you have everything.”
“We do have everything, don’t we?”
“Aye, we do.”
“But …” I turned my head to look up at him. “It hasn’t been an easy road, Lewis. For either of us. We both had a shitty start. And we lost each other for a while. But … maybe we’re each other’s reward.”
“And Harley is the bonus?”
I grinned, nodding, as I turned back to stare in awe at the space Lewis had created with our family. “This is everything I ever dreamed of having back when we were kids.”
“I know.” His hold on me tightened. “I’m sorry I took a bit too long to give it to you.”
I shook my head, still smiling. “I’m not. It means more now because of it.”
“Aye?”
“Aye.”
“Do you know how much I love you, Callie Ironside soon-to-be Adair?”
I smoothed my hands over his. “As much as I love you.”
“Always only ever you.” His voice was a gruff whisper in my ear before he brushed a kiss across my cheek.
I leaned into that kiss and whispered back a truth that had existed inside me since we met at ten years old. “Always only ever you.”