Epilogue - Caleb
As soon as I woke up, the first thing I asked the hospital staff was about Nyah. Every single one of them gave me the same answer—patient confidentiality laws. They said it politely, professionally, like it didn’t matter that each refusal felt like a blade twisting deeper into my chest.
Why hadn’t she come to see me?
Five days had passed.
Five long, endless days.
The doctors wouldn’t release me. Broken ribs and a concussion, they said. The thought gnawed at me until I couldn’t stay still. I forced myself out of bed and walked to the nurse’s station, asking which room she was in, already rehearsing what I’d say when I saw her.
“She’s been discharged,” the nurse said.
The words didn’t make sense at first. Discharged—without coming to see me?
I finally found my phone and called her.
Disconnected.
I dragged a hand over my head, panic blooming.
I called Elle next—the one person who would know. “Hi, I’m trying to get in touch with Nyah. Have you heard from her?”
When Elle said no and told me Donna hadn’t heard from her either, I ended the call in a daze.
Something was wrong.
I could feel it in my bones.
The next afternoon, I was finally discharged. I asked Taylor to take me straight to Nyah’s apartment. I banged on the door, my heart pounding louder with every second of silence.
No answer.
I called her again.
Still disconnected.
My hands shook as I pulled out the spare key and opened the door.
The apartment was empty.
No Nyah.
No Lucas.
Nothing.
The place echoed when I took a step.
I stood there, staring at the walls as her absence pressed down on me. She’d vanished.
The memory of the woods hit me with brutal force—the chaos, the fear, the sound of gunfire.
Jeremy.
Rage surged, tightening every muscle in my body. The bastard had hunted her, terrorized her, and forced her to live in fear for years. He had put Lucas in danger. He had nearly destroyed everything she had fought so hard to build.
Even now, the thought of what he had done to her made my hands curl into fists. If he had still been alive, I would have finished the job myself.
Then my father called and told me to come to the house immediately.
“She’s gone!” I said the moment I walked into my parents’ home.
Everyone stood in the foyer, stiff and silent.
“We know,” Sophia said flatly.
“What do you mean, ‘you know’? What exactly is going on?”
“We’ve known for a while now,” said Bruce, stepping forward. “I’m so sorry!”
“I’m sorry, son.” My father handed me a piece of paper. “I’m sorry she ever entered our lives.” He walked away, pain etched across his face.
I read the letter.
Only days earlier, after Jeremy had been shot and the girls were finally safe, relief had swept through me so powerfully it had left me shaking.
The nightmare was over.
The memory of the woods came rushing back with brutal clarity.
Jeremy had grabbed the gun.
I still saw it—the cold determination in his eyes, the way the barrel lifted, aimed straight at me.
Everything had happened in seconds.
Before I could react, before I could move, Nyah had thrown herself onto me.
One moment, she was beside me.
Next, her body had slammed into mine, knocking the air from my lungs as she shielded me with her own.
The gunshot exploded through the trees.
I felt the impact a split second later—sharp, burning, violent.
Then her weight collapsed against me, and we fell together.
My head struck the ground hard, the world spinning violently around me as pain shot through my shoulder and darkness began closing in.
In those final seconds before everything went black, one realization cut through the chaos with terrifying clarity.
She had taken the bullet meant for me.
Even as my vision blurred and my body went numb, something else held on just as fiercely beneath the fear.
Hope.
Because the last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was the sound of her breathing against me.
She was still alive.
And that was all that mattered.
The memory faded, leaving me standing in my parents’ foyer with the letter still clutched in my hand.
I had truly believed we had survived the worst of it—that we would put the past behind us and finally start fresh together, that everything we had fought through would lead us to the life we both deserved.
The weight of the letter dragged another memory to the surface—the day Nyah had revealed her past to my family.
My mother had appeared at my side and taken hold of my elbow, guiding me toward the library. “What is it, Mother?”
“Doesn’t it strike you as a little… off?” she asked, folding her arms.
“What is suspicious?”
“That instead of Lucas being taken,” she said carefully, “Simon’s daughters were.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“She’s involved, son,” she replied gently. “I’m telling you—she’s involved.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?” she said softly. “Think about it. How much of Nyah’s story can you actually prove?
Does she have anyone who can verify it? Any witnesses?
Any evidence?” Her eyes never left my face.
“She kept herself vague for a very long time. Long enough to create a story you couldn’t challenge.
Her son was protected. Isn’t it at least possible that it wasn’t an accident? ”
“She’s not like that,” I snapped. “You don’t know her as I do.”
“Just reflect on it, son,” she said, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Deep down, you know I might be right.” Her voice softened. “I love you. I want to protect you. I would never do anything to hurt you.” She smiled.
The memory slammed back into the present, and suddenly my mother’s words didn’t feel impossible anymore.
I re-read the letter, looking for any clues that it wasn’t true.
Caleb,
I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you and your family. It was never meant to go this far.
Jeremy demanded more money, and things got out of control. Now that he’s gone, I’ve decided to move on and keep what I have.
Thank you for everything.
Goodbye!
Nyah
“This can’t be,” I whispered. “This isn’t true.” I scanned their faces, desperation rising fast. “Tell me this is not true!”
“Darling, it is,” my mother said, rushing toward me. “She never loved you. She was only after the money.” She pulled me into her arms.
I caught a flicker of a smile playing at the corner of her lips just before she suppressed it. Did I imagine that smile on her face?
I sank to my knees, the letter crumpling slightly in my hand as I shut my eyes. “It can’t end like this,” I said hoarsely. “I won’t let it.”
The sudden shift from hope to betrayal felt like the ground had been ripped out from beneath me.
I needed answers.
She couldn’t just disappear after everything. She couldn’t betray my family—and me—like this and get away with it. But even as the grief crushed me, something harder began to take shape beneath it. My jaw tightened.
I was going to find her… no matter what it took.