Chapter 53
Two months later
I GOT THE JOB AT THE LIbrARY IN PORTLAND, AND I’M AT HOME AGAIN amongst the stacks.
Mary, or Nina, as she wants to be called—she said that Mary Spencer no longer exists—wanted me to stay with her, but after a couple of weeks, I knew that I needed my own place, my own life.
But Nina and Wyatt are my new family, and I am so grateful to have found them.
Alex’s trial is set for a few months from now and I dread having to testify, to relive the last couple of months, but I know that I must. Wyatt and Nina will be by my side.
After a good day’s work, I drive my old car to my new home, a small saltbox I bought with the money from the sale of my mother’s house. I feel a sense of peace as I pull into my driveway and see Noah’s Subaru there. He’s come up for the weekend.
We relax in my small living room, fire blazing in the fireplace.
My Lab mix, Sophie, snores on a little rug a bit too close to the flames, but she’s happy and content.
Nina sent me home with her and a black one-eyed cat named Jack who is contentedly curled on Noah’s lap.
Nina said that Sophie spent the first two years of her life tied to a tree before Nina rescued her, and that Sophie and I both needed a new beginning.
Jack, she said, wandered up to her front door one day seemingly coming out of nowhere, demanding to be rescued, she said, as cats sometimes do.
Alex has been charged with Carol’s murder.
The rest are pending, waiting for the evidence needed to file charges in the cold cases.
Apparently, the police didn’t find the boxes in the turret room when they executed the search warrant at Spencer House.
As I suspected, Alex moved them ahead of time.
But what they did find was major blood evidence in Carol’s case.
Luminol was sprayed in the front room and revealed a deadly, bloody scene.
So, along with Nina’s statement, the case is solid against Alex.
And, after an exhaustive search of Spencer House grounds, they located Carol’s remains buried in Mary’s grave.
Noah is still working on connecting cold cases to my father, sharing what he finds with the FBI.
I’m glad that Noah is still searching. We don’t talk much about his work.
I don’t really want to know the details as long as Alex is brought to justice and the families that he has devastated know that he will get what he deserves.
I’ve started a new novel. Barry Staunton had the audacity to call me and ask if I’d be interested in writing a tell-all.
I’m amazed at how quickly he turned from Alex to me.
But I have absolutely no interest in writing about Alex or my life with him.
Despite what I told Sunny, I’m not writing about a stone-cold bitch but a book about family, using my mother’s courage, and Nina’s as well, as inspiration.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get published, but I’m content just to be writing, finding myself in the stories I create. And with Nina, Wyatt, and Noah I’ve found my family at last. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted.