Page 47 of Written in Sin
“Oh, he knows.”
Ash raises a brow. “That doesn’t worry you?”
Charlotte starts unwrapping a sandwich. “It was the cherry on top. I told him right before I ended the call. I got to watch the realization on his face in real-time. I mean, how would he even spin that?” She starts to mimic a deep voice. “Honey, it’s nothing. I just paid a super-hot Dominatrix twenty-five K to call me a pathetic little pig.” She takes a bite. “The best part? I refused to sign an NDA. And he still went through with it.” Ashley laughs and leans against the railing looking at the tourists walking below us on the street. I stretch, already ready to be off from work even though my shift doesn’t start for a few more hours.
“Since she works until eleven”—Charlotte gestures to me—“maybe we could go to the overlook after? I doubt the leafers will be out at midnight.” I feel her elbow digging into my side. “Maybe Rylan can come.” I roll my eyes. “What?” Charlotte tilts her head. “He owes us. We did most of the work last time.”
Ashley starts fanning herself dramatically, and I look at her. “You know, she could always offer you a turn.”
Ashley scrunches her face in distaste. “Absolutely not. I get nervous making eye contact, and I know she’s into some weird shit.”
Charlotte scoffs. “Like what?”
“Hm, I don’t know. The brotherly love glove?” Ashley answers.
Charlotte laughs, “Oh come on, I washed it beforehand!”
I hope one of them will fill me in. “Excuse me?”
Ashley leans against the table. “One time Charlotte found a pocket pussy?—”
Charlotte interrupts, her mouth over half full. “Double open-ended pocket pussy.”
Ash waves her hand. “Whatever, anyway she had these brothers and she used it on them. At the same time.”
Charlotte finishes pushing the last bite of sandwich in her mouth. “Not brothers.” She swallows. “Just best friends.”
“Still pretty kinky,” I say while bringing both fists up, trying to gauge how hard it would be. Would you grip it over or under? Ash interrupts my movements.
“One came before the other and she used his, ya know, to jerk the other off.”
As if Ashley didn’t just tell a story about one of her sexcapades, Charlotte looks back at me, completely unfazed. “Soooo, tonight?”
I plop into a chair. “Maybe.”
I hear Ashley laugh. “That’s not a no.”
Charlotte wiggles her eyebrows in my direction. “No, it’s not.”
Epilogue II
Zedediah
Iexhale the cold and bitter menthol laced smoke. One habit of many that I’ve picked up over the time during our separation. I toss the cigarette butt onto the sidewalk before crushing it under my boot. I underestimated my girl. I thought it would only take me a few days to find her. So the fact that we’ve been playing hide-and-seek for over two years now is infuriating.
I thought distance made the heart grow fonder? This has just pissed me off.
She hasn’t changed her look or her name, so I don’t understand how she has been able to hide from me for so long. I brush strands of hair out of my eyes before tucking the envelope I’ve been safekeeping into my coat pocket, and watch her stroll through downtown. Was my obsession with her—no,ismy obsession with her just as sick as his was? I wish I would’ve kept him alive, if only to drive a blade under his skin before filleting him. Especially after learning so much. I didn’t know what would come next after finding her. If I’m being honest withmyself, I still don’t. But as it turns out, I can be very innovative when something matters enough, and she does.
There isn’t a home we can go back to. Fenris’ Beulah land rests in its final form of ash. Fire and brimstone. But, not knowing doesn’t matter anymore because here she is.
She’s exactly how I remember her yet entirely different at the same time. Something about the way she carries herself, speaks of the life she now lives. The life I wasn’t supposed to bear witness to. She’s written herself a new story that no longer includes me. The expression on her face holds the new Catarina. Which I guess is fair, I also have a new expression on my face—her final gift before abandoning me. The sight of her stirs something primal in me. I lift my phone, tightening my grip before hearing the shutter as I snap her picture. I adjust myself when the blood starts surging through my body, directly to my dick. She thinks she escaped me. I smile at the thought of her believing she’s free. My father deserved what he got; his blood was always destined to stain her hands. But she didn’t run from him. She ran from me.
Over seven hundred days of dead ends. Of staring at walls, hearing her distant laughs through the silence, and seeing her dimples when I close my eyes. I’ve kept chasing pieces of her, but the more times I lose, the more I’ve questioned if she was even real. But here she is. In the flesh.
I’ve been anticipating this moment, waiting for my turn to break her the way she broke me, and I’m done waiting. She’s bound to me by sin, and soon, she’ll remember exactly what that means.