Page 111 of Tempt Me

Those words were Judas’s, but that had to be the person he fought with. Why couldn’t I have just gotten Judas to safety? We could have figured out how to help him. He didn’t have to be gone.

You wanted him to die for what he did to her. You’re the devil.

I ignored Joe’s jeers. I couldn’t believe he was right. I covered my ear and shoved my head in the pillow. The image of Judas appeared silent, with that relaxed smile on his face. He pulled a pistol out of his pants, pointed it at the ghostly figure of Joe, and pulled the trigger.

Joe blew up into scattered pieces of dust that slowly evaporated into a mist around me.

I blinked, trying to follow what happened. Judas’s translucent form smiled and fell backward, mirroring that pose from the cliff, disappearing with the sound of waves like that night.

I swallowed. I was losing my fucking mind. No wonder my brother wanted to have me committed.

Xenia’s beautiful form appeared, and she sat on the bed with me.

I cleared my throat and tried to smile at her.

“You finally found me, Daddy,” she whispered, a vibrant smile on her face.

She didn’t look pale. The color on her cheeks was that rosy pink. Her eyes were big, innocent pools, and her hair was like her mother’s beautiful springy black curls.

“I…” she wasn’t talking about a game of hide and seek. Maybe she never was. She was leading me to see what happened to her.

“I did find you, Little Flower. I found you.”

Xenia smiled, her skin glowed, and she faded into a light I had never seen before.

She reached her hand forward toward me, and she looked older than she usually did. I felt a warmth when she touched me—a whisper of wind and warmth.

“I can go home to Mommy now, Daddy. They need you here. But we can play again someday.”

I never got to say goodbye to my beautiful daughter…but now she was telling me she was leaving. She wouldn’t be back. Thiswas it. I could feel it in my heart as I looked into her beautiful eyes.

The sunflower in her hair began to bloom, the petals falling free and floating to the bed where our hands touched.

“I love you, Xenia. I…don’t know how I will do any of this without you. I love you so much.”

Xenia stood, tears streaming down her smiling face. “They need you, Daddy. Just like Mama needs me. You are so strong. I will always be with you, even if you can’t see me. You will feel me.”

I let my tears fall, staring at my daughter for the final time.

“I love you, Little Flower. Sleep tight.”

“Will you sing to me one more time, Daddy?”

I smiled through my tears and started a slow sound of her favorite song, “Tennessee Whiskey.”

Xenia disappeared into a ball of light, a golden orb. I could see Ariah reaching out to Xenia with her hands. She was safe, back with her mother, where she always belonged.

I stared at the wall again. For the first time in a long time, my thoughts were…my own. Joe no longer haunted me, and Xenia’s spirit was free to return to Ariah with the mystery of her death having been resolved.

I wiped my face from my tears and looked at the wall again.

Would my brother haunt me?

Nothing is keeping him here.

I knew he wouldn’t be in my mind except for my thoughts, but my hope was overwhelming. Fallon came back into the room and ran to me as best she could when she saw the tears streaming down my face.

“Pharaoh! Are you hurt? What’s wrong?”