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“I have no idea. And I don’t think he wants us to have any of the details.”

“It’s good that we don’t know.” Lydia nodded.

“Yeah,” Eliza replied and sat down on the stool at the kitchenisland.

“It’s over,” Lydia noted. “Really over now.”

Eliza grasped her locket, rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger, and said, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Are you okay?” Lydia asked before she placed a hand on Eliza’s back between her shoulder blades and rubbed.

“It’s like I want to know more, but I also don’t at the same time,” she replied as she continued rubbing the locket.

“I know. Me too,” Lydia shared. “I guess we just need to trust that he wouldn’t have sent this if it wasn’t finished.”

“We don’t even know him. Can we really trust that?”

“El, yes. I remember the look in his eyes that night. This thing, this project or whatever it was, cost him his family. He wouldn’t tell us that it’s over if it wasn’t.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Eliza replied, still rubbing the locket. “We’re safe now.”

“We are, I think,” Lydia said and pressed a kiss to the top of Eliza’s head. “We should text everyone and tell them.”

“Yeah,” Eliza repeated. “They should know that there’s nothing more to worry about, too.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you.” Eliza looked up at her and smiled.

“I love you,” Lydia told her.

“I love you, too, sweetheart,” Eliza replied and kissed her wife.

???

Two women stood unnoticed off to the side of the room. Eliza and Lydia couldn’t see them, of course. No one had seen either of them in decades. But it wastheirlove, their story, and their device that had brought all of these women together in one way or another. Neither of them could have predicted that their deaths would alter the purpose of the device, but neither of them was unhappy that it had done so. One of them turned to the other and smiled. Her brown hair was down, and her green eyes were aimed at the other woman’s brown ones.

“My love, are you ready?”

“Always,” Iris replied.

Daphne reached for Iris’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Then, they turned around and walked until they faded away.