Page 57 of The Fix
She loved him. There was no question, no doubt.
And soon, very soon, she was going to have to say goodbye. He would do everything in his power to make sure she and Cyrus were safe, she knew that. But she also understood that he had another life to begin somewhere else. Watching him leave was going to hurt so damn bad.
Maybe this brief reunion had been a gift to both of them from the universe, a greater beyond that knew how right they were, even if their timing never quite meshed.
She pulled into her dad’s driveway twenty minutes later, and she and Cyrus walked to the door.
The doorbell chimed inside, and a minute later, Gigi answered.
“Cami, Cyrus, I didn’t know to expect you.
” But by the way Gigi rushed to hug Cyrus and ruffle his hair and the warm smile she gave Cami, she knew they were welcome.
And in that moment, she was more grateful than ever that her dad had found this sweet woman.
“Sorry to just show up like this, but something came up, and I was hoping my dad could watch Cyrus for an hour. I’ll be back as quickly as possible.”
“Oh, no need to rush. Your dad ran to the store and won’t be home for another twenty minutes or so, but I’m happy to hang out with Cyrus. We still have the second half of Forrest Gump to watch. He’d never seen it, can you imagine?”
“A travesty. Thank you for remedying it.” She winked at Cyrus, who smiled back.
Gigi set her hand on Cyrus’s shoulder to usher him inside. “Thank you so much, Gigi. Cyrus, I’ll see you soon. Save your appetite for dinner.”
Cyrus spun around and gave Cami a huge hug, and she sucked in a surprised-but-delighted breath as she embraced him back and ran a hand over his soft hair.
She got back in her car and pulled out of the driveway. As she drove, she dialed Rex but got sent to his voicemail and left a quick message for him to call her back.
She turned the corner out of her father’s neighborhood, toward the one she never thought she’d visit again.
Her heart thumped swiftly, nerves fluttering like the wings of the tiny creatures she’d made her life’s work.
She had a deep feeling she wasn’t going to like whatever news Seraphina had for her.
Cami turned up the driveway that led to Hollis’s family home.
She’d held her breath, hands gripping the steering wheel as she entered this neighborhood.
It’d been so difficult, but she’d felt surprised and relieved that it was healing, too, in a way she hadn’t expected.
She’d seen her mom and her sister everywhere as she’d traveled down these still-familiar streets, wishing that she’d done it sooner.
The vivid memories here were what she’d been so terrified of, but she’d discounted the power of the good ones over the bad.
The Barclay estate was still a gorgeous property, and though Hollis didn’t live here, it was clearly being maintained. The lawn was pristine, the shrubs were nicely trimmed, and when she drove through the open gate, she saw the eye of the security camera turn her way.
Perhaps Seraphina didn’t want Hollis to know about their meeting, but Cami’s visit here was now captured on film, so his fiancée wasn’t taking any measures to keep it secret forever.
She was surprised to see a limo parked in front of the three-car garage, but when the driver turned his head toward her behind the tinted glass as she pulled next to it, it made her feel even better that there was someone else here.
A butterfly fluttered past her windshield as she shifted to park and turned off the ignition.
She got out of her car, eyes held to the bright creature, and stood watching it with some amount of wonder.
It was an eastern tiger swallowtail, Elle’s favorite, and she stood still as it grew closer and then landed on her shoulder.
Tears threatened as she held her breath and then turned to watch it flutter away, down the path toward the back patio.
Cami followed, losing sight of it when it flew behind an oakleaf hydrangea.
She heard the soft clack of what sounded like shoes on stone and leaned around the house to view the area.
There was Seraphina on the other side of the pool, and for a blink, Cami saw the flutter of tiny wings right behind her before, again, the butterfly disappeared.
Seraphina had her arms crossed and was chewing on her lip as she paced one way and then the other, clearly nervous and troubled.
Cami stood there for a moment, using Seraphina’s distraction to gather her resolve.
She sensed that she should be prepared for whatever the woman was going to tell her.
And as she hesitated, this feeling descended, stronger than it’d been as she’d traveled the streets of this neighborhood.
She felt them, her mother and her sister, and she supposed that wasn’t surprising considering where she was, but the weight of their presence seemed more real than simply the memories running rampant in her head.
And though she couldn’t exactly describe it, that feeling gave her courage. And some strange certainty.
She glanced at the pool house, remembering that long-ago day she’d first spoken to Rex before she even knew for sure she was pregnant with Cyrus. She had this mad desire to sprint back through time and grab him and avoid all the tragic in-between, all the pain and the sorrow.
If only life worked that way.
Somehow, though ... years later ... here she was once more, under circumstances she’d never have imagined. And again, she felt this odd pause inside, similar to the one she’d felt eleven years before, the one she’d described to Rex on that deck in California.
The thought made her realize that she hadn’t called Rex again as she’d intended.
She’d been scared to travel to this neighborhood and then overwhelmed once she’d gotten here, and she hadn’t picked up her phone.
She took it from her purse just as Seraphina looked up and saw Cami, and the young woman lifted her hand in greeting.
Cami waved back, and then, instead of calling Rex, she opened her texts to shoot him a quick message about where she was.
She very suddenly felt the air change behind her, the hairs on her neck rising as she began to turn. But before she could, sudden electrified pain radiated, and blackness dropped over her.