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“I’m on it. I’ll call you in a minute.”

A few minutes later my phone rang — Zach.

“Hayley said to meet us at the light house.”

“The actual light house?”

“No, that one on the beach, the rental. The octagonal shaped house, the one that’s been there since forever.”

“Okay, remind me the address, I can get there but don’t want to think. And when did Hayley become a property manager, just whipping rentals out of her ass every time we call her?”

“Probably when her best friend started running from evil men and needed safe houses.”

“What I really need more than anything is clean clothes. I don’t know if it’s safe to go to the house, and I can’t think straight.”

Emma’s voice came over the phone. “Sweatpants, t-shirt, that kind of thing?”

“Yes, god yes. Clean underwear?”

“Plus toothbrush, when will you get there?”

“Two hours.”

“Coolio, it will just be me and Ben at first, maybe Hayley, you want clean clothes and — you really don't have Magnus?”

“No, but... now that we’re so good at our timing and locations, maybe he’ll be here by the end of the day.”

“That would be great.”

“Yeah. That really would.”

58 - KAITLYN

Though I had been using this beach house as a landmark since I was really young, because it was a round house, the only one of its kind on the beach, I had never actually been inside it before.

The house was dark, cozy, parts of it felt almost like a cave, wood paneling, old-school-style. Instead of Beach House Modern, this was Beach House Grandma. There weren’t big sweeping windows, but there was a nice deck with plenty of chairs. The perfect place to have a coffee and watch the waves.

Inside it was a little like a fabric store explosion: stripes, checkers, dots, sometimes a golf pattern, sometimes wicker. It wasn’t my style at all, but it was not on the north end or the south end of the island. It was in the middle. And it looked out over the beautiful dunes, had a view up and down the beach, and today was a clear crisp day. Its television carried the weather channel and it had a bed and nobody could find me here, yet. It would be a haven, comfortable and completely necessary.

Except there was nothing here that was part of Magnus. Except me.

Emma and I hugged with Ben between us. Hayley hugged me too. They knew I had been through a lot, but they couldn’t really grasp how much. The wedding had been just a couple of days ago. Whereas I had experienced hundreds of years of danger since.

Emma handed me a Target bag full of clean clothes and some basic toiletries and they made me go take a shower before there was any kind of discussion. In the bathroom I gave myself a pep talk: tell them just enough. I couldn’t bear to tell them about Magnus having a child with another woman. I loved him too much. I understood too much to let his reputation be harmed like that. I couldn’t bear to have him judged in that way. I understood all that he went through, and what it had cost him.

It would be our family secret.

59 - KAITLYN

Ishowered, wiping the grime of a birth, a few time travels, and a couple of kidnappings off my body. I begged the universe, God, and anyone else listening that Lizbeth remained clean enough and free from the effects of ravaging bacteria.

I scrubbed my hands for a fourth time. My bare hand. What if I didn’t have my wedding ring ever? Ever ever? And I kept thinking about Magnus’s face when I was behind Tyler, his sounds when they were beating him, the look of despair in his eyes — the last thing I saw as he was pulled away from me.

“Please, please, please be okay. I love you. Come home. Please.”

I toweled myself off and realized it had been too long without checking the weather. While I dressed I called to Hayley, “Turn on the weather channel!”

She called back, “Are we doing that again?”