Page 28

Twenty Seven

Never Again

T ristan held his breath and lay perfectly still. Now and then, he would refill his lungs at Alexa’s signal.

One by one, every person attending his funeral came forward to take one last glance at him. The sooner Merissa showed up, the sooner they would all know he had come back from the dead.

And so far, she hadn’t arrived. Had the news of his resurrection somehow reached her?

No. Jesus had said she would come. And she would.

There was no doubt Merissa would make a show and attempt to do something to them when she realized her plans had gone up in flames. And when she did, Jesus would fight the battle for them.

Tristan’s limbs started to grow numb the longer he lay in the coffin. The chill in the air made him shiver slightly. At least he had the sense to change into another suit from his drenched one before coming back to the funeral home.

“A few seconds until the next one approaches.” Alexa’s mutter reached Tristan’s ears, and he didn’t wait to refill his lungs.

The moment he relaxed, the sound of heels clicking against the floor reached his ears, indicating his next visitor. Tristan stayed perfectly still. The visitor’s presence neared him. Shadowed over him.

He wondered who wished to have a closer look at him. He wasn’t exactly fond of being stared at by strangers.

“Hello, nephew,” the stranger drawled.

Of course…

“You poor, na?ve fool.”

Tristan opened his eyes. “Hello to you too, Merissa.”

Merissa staggered back. Her eyes, concealed behind the lace of her black bonnet, widened.

Tristan sat up, rested an arm on the coffin’s side, and arched his eyebrow. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Gasps and shrieks went around the room.

Tristan turned his attention to the panicking crowd. “I’m not a ghost, please, don’t panic!” he raised his voice for the entire room, hoping to sound assuring. “Well, I was dead, but not anymore.”

He stood on the coffin and hopped down to the floor. Straightening his suit, he turned to Merissa and gestured toward the crowd.

“Would you like to tell them, or should I?”

A glare replaced the shock in her eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, haven’t you guessed?” he asked in mock surprise, just before his face grew somber. “I’m exposing you.”

He turned to the guests. “This woman—” He pointed to Merissa. “—is the reason you and I are here. I don’t know how many of you remember her or recognize her, but let me reintroduce her to you—Merissa Pearson.”

Half of the room fell silent, staring wildly at the woman in the black bejeweled dress and a matching hat that concealed her face from view. Then murmurs broke out.

An older relative of his mother stood suddenly, and her voice rose in a wail. “Merissa!”

The kind woman was the mother of the monster standing next to him. He glanced at Merissa’s face to see her reaction. She took one look at her crying mother and averted her gaze with a roll of her eyes, her expression impassive.

He didn’t expect anything less. The woman killed her own son, after all.

He addressed the stunned crowd again. “Yes, this is the Merissa Pearson who disappeared twenty-six years ago, then reappeared a few years later to exact revenge on the man who rejected her love and the cousin who stole the man she was in love with—my parents.” He paused before adding, “But of course, most of you aren’t aware of that part of the story. And that’s why I am here, to expose the truth.”

A scoff escaped Merissa. “You think they would believe you?”

Tristan turned to her with a cold smile. “I am the living example of why they should . Oh, your family does already.” He gestured toward the row occupied by Merissa’s aged mother, sister, and the nieces and nephews she had never met. Good for them.

Alexa rose from her seat in the front row suddenly. She walked up toward him, throwing an icy glare at Merissa over his shoulder, and slipped her hand into his. Tristan intertwined their fingers and Alexa met his gaze. Her face softened. She squeezed his hand, conveying through her eyes that he didn’t have to face this alone.

He loved her so much.

He turned back to the crowd. “As I was saying, you already know my parents’ history. My mom didn’t steal my dad from Merissa, and my dad rejected Merissa’s love because he had already found it with my mother. But Merissa here was jealous… heartbroken if I dare to say, and eventually, she was revenge-driven. She trained in witchcraft with a bunch of dark witches and wizards who live in secret, and with the powers she earned, she reappeared at our doorstep and… cursed me.

“It might feel like I am telling you the plot of the latest fantasy book I read, but this is a true story—she cursed me. I was only three then. And the curse itself wasn’t fairytale-like that could be broken by true love—” He spared a look down at Alexa. “—No, it made my body a conduit that attracts lightning. If I were inside a building when lightning struck, my whole body would burn with pain, and anyone who touched me would feel harmless shockwaves.

“But if I happen to be out in the open…” He took a deep breath, shuddering at the reminder of the agony. Alexa’s other hand came to rest on his arm, running up and down, making him relax slightly. “The lightning comes to me. It strikes me directly. The agony is unexplainable, one that would kill any human on the spot. But I was cursed to endure it; without dying, without any physical damage. And if anyone tried to save me or touch me during this process… they would die on the spot.” He paused to let his words sink into the now-silent crowd before saying, his voice cracking, “Including my mom.”

A few gasps rose in the air.

“She didn’t die because she had a really bad fall that caused her head to bleed. No. We forged the lie to cover up my curse—that my mom died trying to save me when she saw me lightning-struck in our backyard that fateful day.

“I have been completely isolated from the world ever since. I barely left my house. Some of my neighbors didn’t even know I existed. Some people were surprised to learn I was the famous Dr. Knight’s son—because they didn’t know he had one. I wanted to lie low as much as possible, away from people. It wasn’t easy, but when you know you are dangerous and you don’t want the same fate as your mother to befall anyone, you just learn to adjust to your life.

“For years, I have been in the shadows, in solitude, until I met the love of my life.” He glanced at Alexa and brushed away the tear that ran down her cheek. “And for the first time, I tasted what life is truly like. But of course, it didn’t last long. A few months later, a certain boy visited us, claiming he knew about me and my curse—even a part of it I didn’t know.

“Merissa’s son.”

A sniffle reached his ears, and he glanced at Alexa’s mother Tiffany, sitting next to Cassie and crying into her kerchief. He had told her and Mr. White about Jude before the fake funeral began, as they had been at his house when he returned with Alexa. They were crushed by the news.

Despite everything Jude did to him and Alexa, he didn’t deserve to die. And Tristan was exposing Merissa today in an act of justice for Jude as well—the son Merissa had kept as secret, abandoned, and used for her gain before tossing him aside.

“Yes, Merissa had a son. And his name was Jude. She used him to lure me into her new trap. Apparently, her curse was designed to kill me when I got the first lightning strike after my twenty-fourth birthday. Merissa offered to lift my curse, said she was guilty and regretted ruining my life and causing my mom’s death. I didn’t want to believe her at first, but I had one chance at forever with the girl I loved. So I was willing to set aside my hatred and take Merissa up on her offer. That summer, Jude and I went to South Africa, with no one else accompanying us—as per her condition.

“Turns out, it was a trap. Merissa wasn’t done with her vengeance over my dad. She erased my memories of Alexa and sent her son back to erase me from Alexa’s and her family’s memories—as well as erase Alexa from my dad’s and my relatives’. She also made my dad and I forget the crucial part of my curse—my death. Merissa wanted me to die in my loneliness, and for my death to befall my dad as a shock so it would destroy him completely.

“She promised her son a reward for his service—my girlfriend. Alexa had been his ex before she and I got together, and he fell for the offer. But when things didn’t go as promised, Jude realized he was being played by his mother. He confronted her and got her to spill the truth. He felt betrayed, and he threatened to ruin all her plans. But Merissa couldn’t let that happen. Her revenge was more important to her than the son she had reconnected with only a year before. So she eliminated him.”

Tiffany’s cries filled the air, joined by Merissa’s mother.

“He is lying!” Merissa exclaimed. When Tristan turned to her, there was fear in her eyes.

So, the woman wasn’t entirely unshakable.

“Prove it,” Tristan challenged her. “Where is Jude now, then?”

“He’s in South Africa, of course, running my estate. Unlike you, my son is not a hopeless cause!” She sneered at him.

“Well,” Tristan drew out, turning back to the crowd, who now looked bewildered. “How about you call him and let us all hear his voice? His stepmother is here with us, and she will recognize his voice for us.”

Merissa’s eyes ran over the faces of the crowd with a wild look in them, as though searching for Tiffany. When her eyes landed on the woman—Tristan didn’t know how she knew—a sneer curled her lips.

She turned back to Tristan. “I don’t have to prove anything.”

“Because there is no Jude to answer the phone?”

“Why are you suddenly concerned about him?” Merissa looked him up and down. “You never liked my son.”

“I didn’t, but I’m concerned for every victim of yours. I know how ruthless you can be.”

Merissa smiled coldly. Tristan matched it with his own, tugging Alexa closer to his side.

“Believe what you want. I don’t care,” she said to the room of people. “But I’m done here.”

“I’m not.”

Merissa stopped dead at the new voice. Tristan turned back and saw his dad standing on the other side of the coffin, the look on his face close to a murderous one. Something Tristan had never thought his dad was capable of.

Merissa turned to face him. Her face grew colder, and she lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him. “Albert.”

“No more games,” his dad said, slow and dangerous, walking around the coffin to join Tristan and Alexa. “This ends now.”

Merissa folded her arms, her stony expression cracking with amusement. “What makes you think you can stop me? You’ve seen what I’m capable of.”

“Yet you failed in what you spent all your years plotting,” his dad taunted. “What does that say about you now? A pathetic, desperate woman who killed her cousin because she was everything you weren’t. Would you ever learn your lesson, Merissa? Unless you love yourself and see your worth, you cannot—”

“I didn’t come here to listen to your philosophy!”

Dad crossed his arms, matching Merissa’s stance. “You didn’t come here to encounter your failure either—or to walk out of this building as freely as you came in.”

Merissa’s amusement broke out fully. “Are you threatening me, Albert?”

Dad didn’t answer her, but something else did. The sound of approaching sirens. Within moments, the police’s footsteps thundered up the stairs outside the hall.

Tristan glanced at the entrance and then at his dad. This wasn’t part of the plan. What was he doing?

But his dad was too busy glaring at Merissa to give him an answer.

A team of officers rushed in, their weapons drawn. Jude’s dad was leading them, fire in his eyes as he glared at Merissa.

“You fool!” she hissed at Dad. “You don’t know me yet!”

Alexa’s lips grazed Tristan’s ear. “She could take them all down. What’s your dad doing?”

“No idea,” he whispered back.

But at least this time, he was confident that whatever Merissa was going to do wouldn’t affect him or Alexa. They wouldn’t be separated again. He pressed her closer to his side at this realization.

“Merissa Pearson, you’re hereby under arrest for—”

Merissa acted swiftly. Her hand slipped into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small, ornate pouch. Tristan immediately recognized it for what it could be. He lunged forward to knock it out of her hands but was too late.

She flung a handful of shimmering powder into the air toward the officers and threw her head back, uttering a single dark word.

The powder glistened in the dim light for a heartbeat, and then it expanded, spreading like a thick, glittering mist. The officers and Jude’s dad gasped, instinctively reaching for their faces, but the moment the powder touched their skin, they began to collapse.

One by one, they crumpled to the floor, eyes wide in shock and frozen in their movements. The entire room fell deadly silent, save for the dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground.

“Tom!” Alexa’s mother screamed for her husband, jumping out of her seat, but Cassie and John held her back.

“Is asleep ,” Merissa hissed, her voice soft and almost mocking as she looked at Tiffany. “They’ll wake soon enough, but not before I’m long gone. But before that—” She looked around the room, her eyes challenging. “Anyone else?”

No one moved. No one uttered a word or dared to breathe.

“That’s what I thought,” she said in a highly satisfied tone and turned to Tristan and his family. Her eyes darkened over. “This isn’t over.”

Tristan so badly wanted to retort to her, but he held his tongue. He knew what she was capable of when she was riled up, and he didn’t want anyone else to fall victim to her spells like the police and Jude’s dad.

The battle is yours, Jesus.

Merissa made her way toward the door, stepping over the bodies. Tristan saw her digging her heel into Mr. White’s open palm, eliciting another cry from Alexa’s mother.

Every head turned toward her after she had walked past them. Her mother’s eyes lingered on her with longing, while her sister’s with pure disbelief and agony. They were no doubt wondering what kind of monster their sweet, old Merissa had turned into.

No one in the room took their eyes off her. When she stopped at the door abruptly, everyone’s breath hitched. Some even turned away, pretending they hadn’t been looking.

Then it happened.

Merissa collapsed to the floor.

No one gasped except for her mother. The older woman shook herself out of her other daughter’s hold and ran toward her fallen one.

“Merri?” She knelt at Merissa’s side and cupped her face. “Merri, can you hear me?”

Dad sucked in a breath next to Tristan and walked down the aisle, sidestepping the bodies, toward Merissa and her mother.

“Do you think—” Alexa didn’t complete her thought, her hold around Tristan tightening.

“Let’s see,” he whispered, rubbing her shoulder.

Dad reached Merissa and crouched beside her. He took her wrist and then touched his fingers to the base of her throat. He stared at Merissa’s face; there was no pity or sorrow in his eyes. But only satisfaction—the kind you get only from justice.

Then his head turned. His eyes met Tristan’s across the room. And Tristan knew.

“She’s gone,” he whispered, his voice low with disbelief.

Alexa exhaled. “Oh, my…”

Tristan couldn’t tear his eyes away from Merissa’s lifeless body. After everything, after all these years, after the threat she had made just before she walked away, she was stolen from the surface of the earth. Just like that .

Merissa was over.

I gave her many chances to turn to me. I have been patient. But she has already chosen her path. She knew good and evil, and she chose evil. Over and over again. So I let her master have her.

Tristan’s heart swelled at the pain in Jesus’ voice. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was hug Him.

You trusted me to fight this battle even as she walked away after proving herself untouchable. You didn’t doubt me for one second. I am well pleased with you, my beloved son.

Tears pricked Tristan’s eyes. He didn’t fight it, or the smile that pulled at his lips.

I’ve learned my lesson, Jesus. I’m not doubting You ever again.

* * *

Alexa yawned into her hand, and her head slumped to Tristan’s shoulder. They were at his house, in the living room, surrounded by his family and hers. Except for her mother. Tiffany was still shaken by the news of Jude, and her husband had taken her home.

Therefore, she had missed out on the news of her daughter’s engagement. Alexa wished her mother was here, Tristan knew, but she also understood her mother needed to be alone. With her husband.

Tristan’s family decided to hold a mini-celebration for the two of them—and for his coming back from the dead. Couldn’t count that one out. His cousins were even celebrating ‘evil Merissa’s’ death, but he told them death wasn’t something that should be celebrated, even if she was their enemy. So they dropped it.

Merissa’s body was taken to the hospital as soon as the police officers and Mr. White had regained consciousness. The burial was tomorrow.

Cassie and John huddled together on a loveseat and occasionally looked at him and Alexa. They weren’t the only ones. He and Alexa were in the spotlight tonight, and it was slowly starting to wear on his angel.

He looked down at her as she stifled another yawn, and pressed his lips to her hair, smiling. “Sleepy?”

“Who?” She craned her neck to meet his gaze innocently. “Me?”

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I didn’t hear anyone else yawn here.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.”

“You know you don’t have to lie to me, angel.”

“I just don’t want to leave yet,” she said, her lips forming an adorable pout he so badly wanted to kiss then and there.

But he restrained himself and raised an eyebrow instead. “Who said you’re leaving alone?”

Her eyes lit up, every trace of sleepiness leaving them. “You’ll come with me?”

“I thought, after two years, it was obvious I want to spend every minute from now on with you.”

She smiled, straightening up. “Let’s go then.”

Tristan stood and hauled her up along with him, eliciting a soft giggle from her. “Alright, family,” he addressed the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to them. “Alexa and I are going to her house. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You’re not just going to drop her off, are you?” John asked, arching an eyebrow, the protective-brother look entering his eyes.

“No,” Tristan replied with a deadpan expression. “We have a lot to catch up on.” He turned to Alexa. “Don’t we, love?”

She placed a hand on his chest and smiled. “Of course, darling.”

“Alright, alright. Take this elsewhere, or I will vomit,” Daphne commented, faking a gag but smiling.

That was all Tristan needed to hear. He teleported them to her room right away.

“Oh, dang,” Alexa muttered. The room was pitch dark for her.

“You forget I can see in the dark, Lexa.”

“Of course, I didn’t,” she protested immediately. “I just didn’t—”

He cut her off by capturing her lips with his and kissing her soundly. She giggled, and his kisses grew even more playful. But there was no mistaking the fire that ignited in his bloodstream with the passion. His heart burned for her, as fierce as it had on that day he saved her life. Then he kissed her deeply.

He hoisted her up, and she wrapped her legs firmly around his torso. He walked them toward her bed, sat her down on it, and continued kissing her. He didn’t want to stop. His hands caressed her waist with the desire to slip beneath the fabric and feel her bare skin again. But she wasn’t wearing a t-shirt; it was the knee-length black dress she had donned for his fake funeral.

And he wasn’t going to let that desire be satisfied now. He knew he needed to stop.

He pulled away and lowered his head to the crook of her neck, resting it there as he panted for breath. “I nearly got carried away.”

“You know,” Alexa began, “if we get married, nothing is stopping us from being… together , together.”

“ Together , together.” His lips twitched in amusement at her choice of words. “Don’t I know that already, darling?”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“I am ready when you are, but I heard your sister making big plans for our wedding with my dad.”

She groaned. He chuckled against her neck. Her hands clutched the collar of his shirt.

“But if you want us to elope…”

“Elope?” She laughed. “As tempting as the offer is, I’d rather not cross my sister if she is indeed planning our wedding. Being my maid of honor has been her dream since our childhood.”

“Then I shall not dare tamper with that,” he said in a fake British accent.

“That you will not, my knight,” she copied his accent.

“Oh, my angel.” He pulled away to look at her.

“Can you turn on the lights, please? It’s unfair that only you can see me.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Of course.”

“The fairy lights will do!” she said as he stood. He turned on the lights strung over her walls and watched as her gaze adjusted to them. They landed on him, and she smiled like he was the moon itself.

He walked back to her, and a chuckle escaped him as his eyes landed on the large teddy bear sitting on the far end of her bed, the one she had won at the carnival. “You still have Miss Lightning?”

Alexa followed his gaze and laughed sadly. “Of course, I do. I had everything you gave me all these years—but you.”

He sat down in front of her and gathered her hands in his. There were so many emotions in her eyes and so many things in her mind.

“Only last night I cried myself to sleep, feeling like I’ve lost my place in this world,” she whispered. “But tonight, I am with you. Again. Found and home. I still can’t believe you are here, Tristan.”

“I know.” He sighed, his heart swelling. “My story was one I always thought would end drastically in one way or another. Then you became a part of it, and for the first time, there was hope for me. But then, it was taken away, and yesterday I believed that drastic end I’d always expected was my fate all along. However, what seemed to be the end of everything—it was only the beginning.

“It still feels surreal that I’m here with you.” He cupped the side of her face. “And that makes it even greater because each time I look at you, I’m thanking Jesus in my heart, over and over again, for this new life. For His second chance.”

“Oh, Tristan…” She cupped his face. “Me too.”

“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Alexandra Ford. To serve Jesus together. To make you happy and make all your dreams come true. To see the world, a dream I’ve had since I was a boy that I couldn’t imagine fulfilling with anyone but you at my side. And to build a family of our own in God’s perfect timing.”

He brushed away the tears that slipped from her eyes.

“When you told me to go and see the world…” Her lips trembled. “I was crushed .”

“So was I,” he confessed. “But I wanted nothing to stop you from following your dreams, not even my death.”

“You were the only dream I ever wanted to follow, even when you were stolen from my memories.” She looked at him in the way he had thought he didn’t deserve to be looked at. Loved. Seen. Understood. But that was before. Now, he soaked in everything that was her and what she gave him. “You are the only dream I want to follow. And I will follow you to the ends of the earth, Tristan Liam Knight.”

“I know.” His voice was thick with emotion, his tears falling freely. “I know, my angel.” He pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead before whispering, “I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” she asked softly.

Instead of answering right away, he pulled her into his arms, holding her close. Then, he told her about his encounter with Jesus from the beginning. He had been saving this part for when he got her alone.

Alexa listened in awe. He could tell she was overwhelmed by each revelation, and her joy of knowing he had reunited with his lost family warmed him to the core. But nothing prepared her for the moment he told her about her dad. She couldn’t stop crying as he recounted every word her dad had spoken and, most of all, the blessing he had given for them to marry.

They stayed up through the night, talking, making up for the years they had lost, and kissing until they were breathless. As the first light of dawn crept across the sky, Alexa finally drifted to sleep in his arms. When Tristan’s own exhaustion set in, he gently laid her on her bed.

“Don’t—” She grabbed his arm as he pulled away, her eyelids half-open.

“I’m not leaving you, darling. Never again,” he vowed, stroking her hair. “I will be right here when you wake up, alright? And we will make breakfast—or lunch, depending on what time we’ll be up—together, dancing around the kitchen.”

A sleepy smile flitted across her face. She hummed. Tristan smiled back and kissed her forehead.

After two years of separation, he yearned to stay with her for this one night until they got married. So he went downstairs, carried a couch to her room, and settled down on it, watching his sleeping angel with a smile until sleep claimed him too.

Oh, how he loved her.