Final Chapter
The sun crested over the horizon, lighting the waves into an undulating blanket of shimmering sapphires. A stiff wind blew off the sea—cold and bracing like a bucket of chilled water over the head. I’d never been more awake, or more clear.
Beside me, Rhodes pounded the spokes—securing the tripod to the earth. It wouldn’t do for our final goodbye to blow into the sea.
Fingers slipped through mine, lacing up tight. I smiled wanly into Micah’s eyes.
“Are you ready?” he asked softly.
“I’m ready.” I peered over my shoulder at the manor freely burning to ash.
Flames greedily consumed the steepled roof and ornate gables. It climbed the towering turrets, blew out the stained glass windows, and ravaged the halls and rooms—secret or otherwise. The high ceilings crumpled. The delicately carved trim warped.
Before my eyes, my childhood home burned to the ground.
“There’s no turning back now,” I whispered. “By now, everyone can see the smoke in the air. I can already hear the sirens.”
It was true.
Sirens called faintly on the air—fire trucks certainly, but under their noise would most likely be police cars.
“Meaning we’re out of time,” Alex said, falling in on my other side. “Let’s do this.”
Nodding to us, Rhodes opened the video app, and pressed record.
The three of them wore the handsome, perfect white suits they wore the night of our anniversary—the last night we were all together, and happy.
For me, I wore a simple cotton gown and no shoes. I didn’t need them where I was going.
“Hello,” Micah began. “If you’re here and you’re watching this, then by now, you know what we’ve done. You know we stole the Thompson necklace—”
“—you know we funded GloryBoi with dirty money—” Rhodes continued, taking his place beside Micah. Together, we stood at the edge of the cliff.
“—and you know I’m Fritz Calloway,” Alex went on. “I killed my abuser when I was eleven years old, and the directors of the group home I lived in lied and covered for me, to save my chance at a future. A chance that’s over now.”
“For all of us,” I finished. “The police will be on their way to take my husbands from me, but no more. I’ve lost my parents, my sense of safety, and my hope in humanity. I won’t lose the men I love too. So, we’re leaving,” I rasped, my gaze falling down the long drop below. “Together.”
“We’ve already sent Lily on,” Micah gasped, choking on a sob. “Our sweet girl is truly among the angels now.”
“And now it’s time for us to go wherever we belong,” Alex announced as we all grasped hands.
“Goodbye.”
Launching off, we jumped.
I tried to hold it in, but broke in less than a second. I screamed.
Wind, water, and terror rushed into all of my wide, gaping orifices. My dress flew and slapped me in the face, covering my eyes and making the coming impact a horrifying anticipation.
We smacked the icy water and it immediately took its revenge. Water surged into my eyes, nose, and mouth—wrapping its unseen claws around me and dragging me down to its depths.
And then stronger, surer hands held me tight, and guided me to the surface.
Alex, Micah, and Rhodes wrapped around me—holding me safe and secure as the waves tried their hardest to bash us against the cliff face.
“Hurry!” She waved frantically from the boat, flinging life buoys at us like frisbees. “Grab on!”
We did one after the other, letting her strength and our feet power against the waves and help us onto the boat.
Mrs. Finley handed out the last towel as Micah climbed on. “How did it go?”
“Perfectly,” I chattered out. Damn, that water was cold! “But the fire trucks are already on the way. We need to be a speck on the distance before they arrive.”
Hard eyes pinned me. Mrs. Finley pointed to the cabin. “After you.”
She said it to me, but I didn’t have to move. Micah, Rhodes, and Alex went down into the cabin, and emerged carrying a thrashing, shouting Sue.
Padded cuffs secured her wrists. A gag saved us from the spewing filth. Otherwise, she was dressed exactly like me, from the bare feet to the red hair tie.
The three of them carried her to the edge of the boat and ungagged her.
“—do this,” Sue screamed. “I’m your wife! I love you! You can’t kill me. You wouldn’t!”
Empty eyes and blank faces reflected back at her.
“Trust me, sweetheart,” Rhodes drawled. “This part of the plan got a lot easier to stomach when we heard you confess your plan to burn our daughter alive.”
“We don’t love you,” Alex said, “and you never loved us.”
“Fuck you,” Micah dropped—the end of his goodbye.
Eyes white with fear latched on to me. “Sarah? Sarah! Please!”
Rhodes and Micah secured her hands as Alex uncuffed her. She fought that much harder, shrieking as she tried to claw their faces off.
“You can’t do this!” she pleaded with me. “I’m your sister! Your twin!”
I rolled my eyes. “Bitch, you were literally going to kill me even though I’m your twin. Why do you think these pleas for mercy are going to work? You weren’t going to spare any mercy for us.”
She turned so fast, I missed it when I blinked. “You don’t deserve any mercy, you trashy, husband-fucking slut! You stole my life!” Her eyes bulged out of her head—red with madness. “You deserved everything you had coming to you! You all did!”
“Enough of this,” I snapped, throwing off my towel. “I’m not going down your it’s-everyone’s-fault-but-mine rabbit hole again. I’ll just let Satan explain it all to you in hell.”
“You won’t get away with this! You won’t—”
“Mrs. Finley,” I breezed, ignoring Sue completely. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“With pleasure.” Hefting the rock, she struck Sue in the temple, snapping her head to the side and ending her screaming for the final time.
Together, she and I dumped her over the side.
I felt nothing as her body hit the water. Even less as she floated away. Truth was, my sister died when I was eight years old—leaving nothing but the gleeful monster who enjoyed every second of my torment.
She couldn’t hurt me anymore. She couldn’t hurt my loves anymore. And most of all, she couldn’t hurt Lily anymore. A lot of things were done wrong in my relationship with my only sister, but this...
...this was the sole thing done right.
I knew that before we got to this moment, but the certainty settled in over the past week.
After Alex and I had our heart-to-heart, we went back to the hotel, and I told the guys everything—including that I was actually Sarang.
Micah and Rhodes exchanged looks and then replied, “Duh.”
They both explained to my astonished expression that they both figured it out at different times, but they definitely figured it out. I was just too different from the wife they knew. There was no way I was the same person.
When I asked why they didn’t call me out, they said by that point they’d fallen in love with me, and they didn’t want to do or say anything that might scare me off.
All of that was shocking enough news, but then I explained who I believed the killer really was and why they did it.
I told them that Soo Min obviously wanted the inheritance Omma tried to give solely to me, and to make her plan work, she had to kill me like she killed everyone else who’d seen the true will.
“But if I was the only one left who has to die, she would’ve done it already,” I explained. “It doesn’t make sense that she’s waited this long unless it’s not just me. She wants to get rid of everyone who can lay claim to her money... and that includes her husbands and child.”
They denied that it could be true at first. For a whole day and night, we went back and forth until I proposed a simple test. If Sue was waiting for us all to finally be alone in the house so she could pull something, I’d catch her in the middle of it and prove it.
And if that happened, we needed to have an escape plan waiting, because she still had information that could destroy our lives.
The guys agreed and that set off a flurry of activity. I went to the prison to speak to Mrs. Finley. I told her that I believed my sister was still alive, and if she wanted revenge against the sister who truly wronged her and her son, I could make that happen.
Mrs. Finley said yes so fast, I didn’t even get a chance to explain the plan.
With her on board, I pressured the detectives into letting her go.
I pressed on the point that she never would’ve gotten in my home in the first place if one of their own hadn’t let her in, and her assault against me hadn’t left any damage.
I was fine, and I’d tell the jury that, along with what a massive waste of time and taxpayer money this trial was.
They’d inevitably vote not guilty, and there would’ve been no point to any of it.
In the end, the detectives agreed and released her with no charges. Her next step from there was to charter the boat so it couldn’t be connected to us.
Our next step was to send Lily, Courtney, and Taylor on an impromptu vacation to New York. We wouldn’t have Lily anywhere near her unpredictable, homicidal birth mother.
Micah even bought a child-size mannequin that we covered with a blanket and carried into the house under the cover of night, just in case Soo Min was watching from somewhere. We needed her to believe we’d all come home.
With all of that done, we waited... and she came.
“There’s one thing I don’t get,” Alex mused. “Why did she stash my bloody clothes and the drive in my vent? What was the point?”
“I know exactly what the point was,” I told him.
“Before he died, Agassi tipped Sue off to how suspicious I was of everyone—including you guys. She purposely stashed those things in my old hiding place because she wanted me to find it... and she wanted me to think one or all of you killed Omma. Even though she planned to kill us all and it didn’t even matter, she wanted us to spend our final days fractured and fighting.
Because she hated watching us fall in love. ”
“Wow,” Micah breathed. “That’s a whole new level of vindictive.”