Page 263 of Only Be Mine

The truth had weight.

And I could carry it now.

“You’ll pay for this!” he shouted as they dragged him away. “You’ll regret this!”

The doors closed.

I didn’t stay to hear anything else.

Outside the courthouse, the sky was wide and blue.

I breathed in.

No deadbolt.

No expectation.

No hand at my back.

Just air.

And the undeniable understanding that the life I had known was over.

Not cracked.

Not bruised.

Gone.

But for the first time in ten years…

It was mine.

Epilogue

Cate

Seven Years Later

The air in Coyote Ridge smelled like pine and sun-warmed earth.

I sat on a weathered bench near the edge of the playground, a paperback open in my lap I hadn’t actually read in ten minutes. The mountains rose steady and unbothered all around us, and in the distance, blue at the edges where they met the sky.

Johnny stood at the top of the climbing structure, hands on his hips like he owned the world.

He was six now. All elbows and stubborn determination. Dark hair falling into his eyes, jaw set in concentration as he calculated the fastest route down the slide.

He didn’t look like Trevor.

That thought used to worry me.

Now it just passed through quietly.

“Hey!”

The voice came barreling across the playground before the body did.

A little girl in pink sneakers and wild blonde pigtails ran straight toward Johnny without slowing down.