Chapter 19 - The Grave Without a Child
Eight months after the funeral, Adrian returned to the cemetery.
This time, he was not alone.
Lily sat in his arms.
Grace walked beside him.
Emma skipped ahead carrying white flowers.
Rain had stopped earlier that morning.
Sunlight appeared between the clouds.
Evelyn’s grave looked exactly as Adrian remembered.
Except the small marker beside it had been removed.
Lily Evelyn Vale.
Beloved daughter.
Three days old.
The false grave was gone.
Adrian stood before Evelyn’s headstone.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
Then Emma placed flowers beside it.
“Those are for Lily’s mommy.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Yes.”
Grace touched his arm.
“We can give you a minute.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“She should be here.”
He crouched.
Lily reached toward the engraved letters as if they were something she might touch and understand.
Adrian whispered.
“Your mother saved you.”
“She was brave when everyone around her gave her reasons to be afraid.”
“And she loved you before she ever met you.”
Lily babbled happily.
Emma whispered.
“She likes the flowers.”
Adrian laughed softly.
“She probably does.”
A black sedan stopped near the cemetery road.
Grace stiffened.
Two federal officers stepped out.
Between them walked Victor Vale.
Adrian stood.
Victor had requested the meeting before beginning his sentence.
Adrian almost refused.
Then he changed his mind.
Victor stopped several feet away.
His eyes moved toward Lily.
He looked older than Adrian remembered.
Smaller.
No expensive suit could hide it.
Victor stared at the child he had once ordered killed.
“I wanted to see her.”
Adrian said nothing.
Victor swallowed.
“She looks like Evelyn.”
“Yes.”
Victor lowered his head.
“I cannot undo what I did.”
“No.”
“I know apology means nothing.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“Your father would have been proud that you saved the family.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I didn’t save the family.”
Victor frowned.
Adrian looked at Lily.
“I ended it.”
Victor understood.
The Vale criminal organization was gone.
The succession was meaningless.
The throne Victor had killed for no longer existed.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You murdered Evelyn for something I gave away voluntarily.”
Victor’s eyes filled with something that might have been shame.
Adrian felt no satisfaction.
That surprised him.
For months, he had imagined revenge would feel like relief.
It did not.
Freedom did.
Victor was taken away.
Grace watched the sedan disappear.
“Do you forgive him?”
Adrian looked at Evelyn’s grave.
“No.”
Grace waited.
Adrian continued.
“But I’m done carrying him.”
He handed Lily one of the white flowers.
She immediately tried to eat it.
Emma laughed.
Adrian laughed too.
And beneath a sky finally clearing above Chicago, Evelyn’s grave stopped feeling like the place his life had ended.
May you like
It became the place he chose to begin again.
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