Page 93 of Behind These Four Walls
The men grappled, crashing into the furniture. Isla scrambled to her feet and grabbed the handle of Holland’s saber from behind a nearby table where she’d left it after one of her visits—the joys of living with a new adult who thought the world was her closet. Jackson gained the upper hand, shoving Lawrence onto the ground and reaching for the gun that was nearly in his grasp. His fingers pulled it toward him as he kept Myles at bay. Then he howled as Isla ran the saber through the palm of his hand.
“You killed my best friend,” she seethed. She wanted this monster to hurt as much as he’d hurt others for too long. This wasn’t enough. She kicked him. “You fucking bastard.”
She pushed the weapon down farther into his flesh as he screamed, bucking from the pain. All she could see was Eden driving away and then Edie in that pit, the gold of her necklace glinting against her remains. Isla would have kept pushing her weight down, forcing his arm to bend back toward his body until the blade pierced his chest. But large hands appeared, covering over hers, and, with gentle force, pried her fingers away, pulling her from that madness, off the dark path she had walked, and into a warm, solid embrace that smelled of sandalwood and safety.
It was finally done.
Epilogue
As the dawn broke and the last of the police—including Detective Bowen—and the paramedics and all the others cleared out, they left a weird calm in their wake. Isla stood on the balcony, watching the sun rise. Myles joined her, his hand brushing hers.
“You were amazing tonight,” he said softly.
It was the exact opposite of what she felt. The thought of how Eden had died made everything worse. Maybe Victor had had it right, wanting to believe Eden was somewhere sunny. “What about Bennett?”
“He might not be a Corrigan by blood, but he’s still my dad’s son. At least for now. I don’t know if Bennett will see jail time. For what? And Brooke? They have Holland. My dad will divorce Brooke and likely cut her and Bennett out of our lives with a settlement.”
Isla didn’t comment, not trusting the bitterness she felt that those two wouldn’t really pay for the hell they had put Eden and her mother through.
Myles continued. “But I think this is it for my dad. He’ll probably step down after all this. He’s lost so much. I mean, we all have. But he’d been living on a hope he’d made real for ten years,” Myles said. Looking meaningfully at Isla, he added, “Maybe nowwecan have a real chance to get to know each other on a fresh, entirely truthful note.”
Isla looked at him, suddenly unbelievably tired. All the adrenaline had left, and exhaustion had set in. “Are you really talking about you and me at a time like this?”
“If there’s anything I learned tonight, it was to waste no more time.”
As devastated as she felt, Isla understood. She didn’t want to waste any more time either. “That might be nice,” she said. “I’d like that a lot.”
When Myles left and she finally had a moment alone, Isla sat with her friend at Eden’s new grave near the solarium, which had been cleared of Brooke’s things and was now filled with hope and love like it was meant to be. This was now Eden’s special place, in memory of her, with a plaque to memorialize her:The Garden of Eden. Just as her mother would have wanted. She didn’t have to run anymore, feel guilt for wrongs she’d committed, or be angry. She could just be.
When Isla had first told Rey and Nat her plan to find the truth, they hadn’t understood why she owed Eden anything after ten years. She hadn’t had an answer for them then. But as she sat with Eden now, catching up on the ten years they’d missed, the answer came to her. It was because with Eden, Isla had been able to do what she hadn’t for her father. For Eden, she had been able to find the truth. She had been able to find justice. She had been able to find closure, and most of all, both Eden and Isla had been able to find peace.
“Found you, Eden,” Isla said. “You’ll never be alone again.”