EPILOGUE 2
JADE
Three Years Later
“Call him.”
I shook my head as I stared at my adorable three-year-old terrorizing her stepfather.
He was just trying to play nice but Echo was having more fun cackling every time she jammed a play knife into his leg.
My man had a plethora of bruises from her heavy hands and her taunts, even though childish, reminding me of a man I wish I could forget.
A man who had me wrapped up so far in his darkness that all I wanted to do was hang off his every word. Having left that world, I could see how big of a mistake it was to be anywhere near him.
Finn.
Just the thought of that bastard was laughable.
He used me and then was going to kill me when I became useless.
Just like he fucking killed his own boyfriend. Allegedly.
“Jade, honey, call him,” my mother urged as she sat down beside me. She pulled me into her side and I rested my head on her shoulder, too tired to do anything else. I thought having this child and starting a new life would be the relief I needed.
It hadn’t been.
Every single waking moment with Echo reminded me of Finn. Well, Runo, I guessed.
Even down to those mismatched eyes Killian had had and the darkness beneath her smile.
I’m not even sure how I could tell but I knew she was just as evil and warped as her father.
The doctors hadn’t mentioned anything and her psychiatrist thought I was overreacting, mostly because I hadn’t explained who her father was.
I’d been told HMD and DMD were just myths, that they meant nothing.
All they saw was an adorable little girl who was just a bit rough.
“Fuck!”
I refocused my attention on my husband and sighed, regret flooding my chest. He was holding Echo at arms’ length, a welt along the length of his calf.
He shook her a little bit, his lip starting to curl up in disgust before I rescued her.
I might be terrified of what she represented but that didn’t mean I didn’t love her.
“I’ll take her, Nathan. You go check on Riley, okay?
” I held my breath, hoping and praying that Nathan would just march off into the baby’s room and stay there for a bit.
The only reason Nathan stayed was because of our 3-month-old son.
Echo hadn’t even really met him yet because she was too rough.
She had no remorse and even when she said sorry? It was like it was just a word to her.
I felt like I’m raising a fucking psychopath.
Nathan dragged a hand down his face and then nodded. “Babe, I know you love Echo and I’ve tried but we’re going to have to fucking talk soon. Kindergarten & Pre-K starts this fall and no school will take her. You sure as hell aren’t fucking homeschooling her.”
Echo leaned her head on my shoulder, fingering some of my hair strands. I tightened my hold on her, trying to find the right words. “We’ll… figure it out. I got her.” Nathan didn’t even kiss me as he slipped down the hall, leaving me with my mother and Echo.
Turning around, I caught my mother still watching me, waiting for an entirely different decision.
She wanted me to call Runo, to tell him to take his kid but I had seen what that man was capable of.
He should never be around kids. And yet, he might be one of the only people who could help me wade through this bullshit with Echo.
He was the only one who could understand her mind if she was like him.
My mother handed me the phone and I quickly dialed his number, hating that I had to take this step. Echo slowly slipped the device from my hand and just as the call picked up, whispered the one word that would ruin me.
“Daddy?”
Silence met her question for several seconds and then a honeyed voice I had been trying to forget slipped through. “I had a baby girl?”
“Echo. You had Echo,” My daughter said. I didn’t even know how Echo connected the dots to who we were calling.
Runo hummed into the earpiece, a deceptively delicious voice that reminded me of the good moments, moments where I was his and he was mine—even if it didn’t mean anything. “Well, Echo. I’m pretty sure that your mother must have called me. She said I wasn’t to meet you. So, what changed?”
I went to answer but it was like Echo has picked up everything we’d been saying over the last few months. Her articulation was perfect, the smoothness of her voice mirroring her father’s.
“Mom thinks I might be like you. She wants help and the doctors don’t believe her.”
I should hang up and yet, I was curious. Morbidly curious, some would say, considering that I was calling a fucking serial killer I used to have sex with to see if his daughter was just as crooked as he was.
“Is that right?” Runo purred through the earpiece. “Do you hear voices, Echo?”
Her little nose scrunched up and she shook her head. “No.” A three-year old shouldn’t have even know what he meant by the question but Echo was… different. Smarter, more deviant, just… evil.
I cut in. “Runo, I didn’t call for you to connect with my daughter.
I called you because she’s violent. She doesn’t listen and her eyes are mismatched like yours—well, like the contacts you used to wear.
The doctors can’t tell me anything, just that she’s too young to diagnose.
I just want to know what your parents did when you were younger. That’s it.”
“Hmmm, well, do I get to meet her?”
“No! That’s not what this is for. If you won’t help me, fine. I just thought…”
Runo chuckled. “Jade, you thought I would have some compassion? Some afterthought because you had my child? You used your pregnancy to save you and then told me I would never be allowed to meet her.”
“You’re not capable of emotions.”
“I never said I was. After all, I had my boyfriend killed to spite my father.” He cackled, a heavy sound in the back reminding me of the cop Runo ran around with.
There was no fucking way Runo had faked all of that shit and the chief of police was still behind bars.
There were so many loose ends with that investigation, several other people being arrested but nothing concrete.
Runo tsked, grabbing my attention again.
“Now, you said something about violence. Let me just tell you, that’s only the beginning. ”
“Beginning of what?”
“Beginning of her choosing who to hate.”
“That doesn’t… that doesn’t make sense.”
He snorted, the man no more mature than he had been three years ago. “Sure it is. I did the same thing to my father and then to all of the people who wronged me. It’s not rocket science.”
“What am I supposed to do with her?” My anxiety flared at the thought that I would never truly be able to help Echo and that she would turn out just like her father.
“Why are you asking me? You didn’t want my help, Jade. Have fun with her. Echo, my baby girl, come meet me when you’re old enough. I’d love to see what I created.”
And then he just hung up. That wasn’t even the worst part. It was when Echo started cackling just like her goddamn father.
Check out Echo all grown up in the new spin off series – Wicked Quartet – coming 2026!