Page 130 of Lovely Darkness

I decide to take Sasha seriously.

I decide to make Wendy’s cure.

I always was good at writing letters. So I go into Doc’s office, find a sheet of paper, and start writing.

Dear Wendy…

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - ADAM

I have to admit… waking up the next day was traumatic. I had dreams, man. Wicked, fucked-up dreams filled with demons and darkness. I don’t know what that Lectra shit is, but I do know I will never drink it again.

I might be Adam Boucher, and I have certainly done some wicked things in my life, but I am not an evil man. I know this to be true in my heart. I am not an evil man.

McKay was already awake. Everyone was, actually. I was the last to come out of it. So that’s the face I saw when the nightmare was over. His. Smiling. Eyes a little bloodshot, but bright.

“There he is,” McKay said. It was his normal matter-of-fact tone but I could see the worry behind his eyes so I didn’t mention the nightmares.

I pushed them away and said, “Maggie?”

McKay shook his head. “Gone, Adam. Sasha left a message with Nick. He can tell you about it when you’re ready.”

“Sasha?” That didn’t quite make sense.

“Nick has the details,” McKay said. “But basically, she’s the one running those girls Nick Tate has been hunting down all these years.”

I had been lying on one of the couches, but I sat up for this. “Wait.” My head was pounding. “She what?”

“Turns out”—McKay sighed—“she was… picking them up or something. Putting them in safehouses, I guess. She took Indie, Nathan, Donovan, and Maggie with her.”

It took me a couple days to wrap my head around what happened and how everything had changed.

It was sad.

I was sad.

Not only because Maggie was gone, either.

I was sad about all of it.

The start, the middle, and the end.

Because I wanted this, didn’t I?

I wanted them to be gone.

I wanted my life with McKay.

Everything I did, from the moment I stepped into that island, right up to the moment when we drank the Lectra, was all wrong.

But as much as I resented Indie—I don’t know what life looks like without her.

I loved her in my own way. But that love was never going to be enough.

And now I’ll know if I could’ve done it better because I’ll never get another chance.

I won’t be the one to save Maggie.

Sasha will.