Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“ASTRONOMICAL” BY SVRCINA
BLOSSOM
The space around us is uninspiring to say the least. Functional, grey and institutional. Designed to process people like they are admin tasks, not welcome people waiting for loved ones who’ve been granted their freedom when it never should have been taken in the first place.
It’s been weeks since my live interview.
Weeks where Dwight requested the police body cam footage, which showed exactly what happened to Nox and Steele.
The officer who struck Steele is suspended pending investigation.
The same for the one who hurled those vile slurs at Nox.
The planted evidence traced back, not to the guys but to another officer who is also suspended as he was clearly being paid by Wilson.
Wilson’s corruption unravelled fast once the first thread was pulled, a thread that I’m proud to have some hand in pulling.
The response after my live interview and the one that was published in the NYT was bigger than I anticipated.
People I didn’t know came forward, lots of them, to also share their own accounts of Wilson Devonshire’s wrongdoings.
The case was substantial, and I was glad for it.
My mother’s weapon finally doing what it was meant to do.
And all through it, I wasn’t able to speak to them. To tell them that I was working to take him down. That I wouldn’t stop until they walked free.
My hand goes to my jeans pocket, the crinkle of the paperwork from the social worker safely nestled inside.
Marie called not long after I went live, letting me know that she was pushing for the kinship application, and when it came through yesterday, I asked if I could give it to them today. A peace offering. An apology.
My hands wring in front of me, that nausea in the pit of my stomach leaving me feeling unsettled and jittery.
Jus bumps my shoulder with his.
“They’ll be out soon, Miss. Blossom.” Neither of us look away from those doors.
My phone buzzes in my other pocket.
Reaching in, I pull it out and see it’s a text from Ralph.
Ralph: Wilson Devonshire was taken into police custody this morning. Charges include corruption, abuse of office, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. I thought you'd want to know before they come out.
I read it once. Twice. My hand trembles slightly.
The nausea settles a little, though I feel far from triumphant. I mostly feel tired, my bones heavy and hollow. His consequences finally came to land after a lifetime of escaping them. He’s being held accountable for his actions, something I realise I’ve waited my whole life to see.
I think about my mother. About the years she spent with that man. The quiet documentation, the building of something she never got to see used. She didn’t live to see him brought to justice, and that, if nothing else, has a tear escaping down my cheek.
Justin looks at me. “You okay?”
I wipe my cheek, sniffing. “Yeah. Wilson’s been arrested.”
He takes an inhale through his nose. “Good. Fucking asshole.”
Then he goes back to watching the doors.
I glance over just as the noise of them opening fills the quiet morning, my heart leaping in my chest.
Dwight comes out first, paperwork and briefcase in his hands, saying something to a staff member in a black uniform.
I don’t breathe, waiting until he steps aside and then all of a sudden there they are.
All three of them, in grey sweatpants and white t-shirts that don’t fit them at all.
They blink in the light, and are rough around the edges in the way that god awful sleep and worse food does to you.
They look like themselves and not like themselves simultaneously.
But they’re here. Finally, right here.
My eyes find Steele first, looking at his temple to see if the evidence of the baton landing is still there, which it isn’t. Then I switch to Ant, then Nox.
They need a good Tina dinner.
I see them scan the car park that we’re just in front of. Feel the moment when they spot us, because everything just stops.
Justin doesn’t wait. He crosses the small distance between us at a run and crashes into Ant who catches him without hesitation, going down to his knees right there on the pavement, both arms tightly wrapped around his brother.
Jus is crying, my chest tight as I watch the tears stream down his face despite the fact I know he hates it.
“I thought—I thought they were gonna keep you forever—”
Ant holds him tighter, his own eyes glassy. “I know, Jus. I know. I’m here. I’m not fucking leaving you ever again.”
A lump forms in my throat as I watch them, knowing that their separation this time was all my fault.
“Petal?” Nox voice washes over me, and it soothes and stings at the same time because I don’t deserve it.
I look up to find his emerald eyes on me, full of intensity.
My lips part, I’ve been rehearsing this moment for weeks. What I’d say. How I’d be. But that damn lump makes it almost impossible to speak. I clear my throat, and like a damn breaking, suddenly all the guilt, the fear, the weeks of not being able to reach them — it all comes pouring out.
“I’m so sorry. I didn't know he would—I tried everything but he blocked me at every turn and I couldn't get to you to explain and I know this is all my fault because he's my father and I understand if you never want to see me again—”
My hand goes to my jeans pocket then I step closer, pulling out the paper from Marie, though I fumble and almost drop it my hands are shaking so badly. I turn to Ant, holding it out to him like a prayer. He rises, Jus still glued to his side.
“Marie, she gave me this to give to you — well I asked for it really — but anyway, the kinship application went through. With your jobs and I secured you a large apartment, Justin is free for you to take him… home.” The last word comes out broken, tears filling my eyes at the prospect of losing them.
Silence.
Justin goes very still, his gaze darting from the paper in my hand, to me, to his brother’s face.
Ant takes the paperwork from me, looks down at it as his jaw works, his eyes tracing the text. Then he folds it, tucking it in his sweats pocket, his ice blue eyes coming to land on me.
His gaze makes me shiver, the blue almost burning.
“You don’t want us?” His words are quiet, dangerously so. Almost gentle in their delivery but they still make my pulse rush in my ears.
“What? No, I—How can you want me after—”
One stride is all it takes for him to reach me, his hand coming up and wrapping around the front of my throat, halting me mid sentence. He doesn’t squeeze, doesn’t restrict. Just holds me, grounding me. And something loosens in my chest allowing me to take a full breath in what feels like weeks.
“Bloom, stop.”
I freeze, staring into the blue of his eyes and letting him hold me.
“Now baby, the only fucking home we have is with you in that big fuck off mansion and with that rabble of kids. Understood?”
“Y-you want to come back? With me? After everything?” My voice breaks, the tears falling hot down my cheeks as I dare to hope.
His face softens, his thumb stroking my pulse point. “Your father’s sins are not yours, Bloom.”
Faint rain on pavement and coconut washes over me as Nox steps into my side.
“You think we blame you?” He scoffs as I drown in emerald as I stare into his eyes. “Princess, you went to war for us. You burned your relationship with your father to ash. You exposed yourself publicly. You fought every single fucking day to get us out.”
I blink as more tears fall, and he uses his thumb to brush them away.
Steele comes up on my other side, caging me in and my entire body relaxes at having them surrounding me. “We heard it, in there. Your interview. You claimed us, Flower. You didn’t abandon us.”
I’m properly crying now, the kind that takes your whole face and doesn’t give a monkey’s whether you want to look pretty or not.
“I was s—so scared you’d think I didn’t care. That I’d given up—”
Ant uses his grip on my throat to pull me in, pressing our foreheads together.
“We’re coming home. Every single one of us, Bloom. Together. And we’re never leaving again.”
I inhale his words into my lungs, surrounded by them and feeling safe and loved and beyond lucky.
“Can we go home now?” Justin’s voice sounds from just outside the huddle I’m in. “The place has been weird without you fuckers.”
I huff a laugh as Ant shakes his head against mine.
Something settles in my chest as he presses the lightest of kisses against my lips before pulling away, even though I can feel his need to devour me.
My face is turned so first Nox and then Steele can do the same, a promise of more to come later when we’re not outside this awful place that tried to take them from me.
I look at each of them when they step back, Justin’s hand sliding into mine. Ant gives my pulse point a final stroke, then removes his hand from my neck, much to my dismay. As if he sees my thoughts written on my face, he smirks in a way that has my pulse fluttering wildly.
“Later, Bloom. Promise.”
Heat unfurls inside me as something in my solar plexus settles, a thing that has been unsettled for so long I’d almost forgotten what it felt like without it.
I look at these men who saved me when I didn’t even know I was drowning. They may be rough around the edges. They may look tired — though who am I kidding they are still sex on legs. But they’re home.
I turn to Justin, giving his hand a squeeze.
“Yes. Let’s go home.”