Page 80 of Kylie

“Of course.”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes, Dad. Oh, my God.”

“See you in a few.”

The call ended, and I set the phone on the counter, staring at it. I kept waiting for something to happen. Something that would make me wake up and ruin the best dream I’d had in a long time.

“Jess. Come on. Let’s go see her.”

Trepidation curled in my gut, making me feel sick.

I grabbed Braydon’s arm. “Are you sure it’s really her? I’ve heard about impostors and all that…” Granted, the TV shows I’d seen were usually about kids who had been missing since they were really small, only to have a teenager pretend to be them in order to get something from the parents. I was almost positive I’d never seen an adult do it.

“It’s her,” he said and his tone was so sincere, I had to believe him.

“Can we go?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s gonna watch the⁠—”

A knock interrupted my question, and a second later, Brendon walked in.

“Brendon’s gonna watch the kids.”

I nodded although no one had asked me a question. After I managed to find my shoes and pull them on, my husband led me out of the house.

Somehow, I managed to keep the tears at bay, but the moment I laid eyes on my big sister, the dam broke.

Curtis

Being that my birthday was a couple of weeks away, I had to admit this was likely the best gift I could’ve ever received. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things you hear about. I could attest since I would be turning seventy-seven this month and in all my life, I’d never witnessed a miracle like this.

Kylie was alive.

My son’s wife had been taken from us, but not in the sense that we originally thought.

And yes, those were tears in my eyes as I stood there in Travis’s home watching as my daughter-in-law saw her children for the first time in nearly two years. I figured it was a good thing my doctor had given me a clean bill of health; otherwise, I would question whether my ol’ ticker could handle something of this magnitude.

The tears were flowing steadily. Between my wife and Kylie’s father and sister, we had to break out an extra box of Kleenex.

Not that I was complaining. No, certainly not that.

As far as family reunions went, this was the best anyone could ever ask for.

Gage

My heart was in my throat. Or at least that was how I felt from the moment I saw Kylie. My world had stopped spinning momentarily as my eyes drank her in, convincing my brain that she wasn’t an illusion.

And since that moment, I’d found it difficult to breathe. My chest was tight, which was likely the only reason this felt real instead of like a really fantastic dream.

Kylie was alive.

The woman I loved more than life itself had come back from the dead.

Well, I guess technically, she hadn’t come back because she’d never been dead, but some deranged bastard had sure wanted us to believe it. And he’d won that round, stealing her from us for so long.

I would admit that I didn’t harbor grudges the way Travis did. Nor did I feel the need to dole out punishment when it was easier to save face. Most things could be handled with a civil conversation. But this was different. Martin Calloway would pay for his sins; that was a goddamn promise.