The Wicked Trilogy by S. Massery
Second Epilogue
Bonus Epilogue from Wicked Promises
Caleb
I’ve thoughtabout this moment every day for the last five years.
Margo kneels next to the for sale sign staked into the grass next to the driveway. I have no doubt she’s waited for this day, too. To leave our ghosts behind and just… go.
But then she straightens, letting me help her to her feet, and gives me a look.
A look that has danger written all over it.
“What?” I ask.
You’d think by now I would know every expression.
“Do you feel comfortable just… selling it?”
I lift one shoulder. “No. But what’s the alternative?”
She glances back at the house. The setting sun has cast it in an eerie, twilight-blue glow. The sky behind it is a riot of warmth—an odd disposition.
“Some other family will live here,” she continues. “And they might be affected by the ghosts of our past. Hell, maybe that’s why our lives went to shit—”
“You’re blaming ghosts?” I wrap my arm around her shoulder, shaking my head. “They didn’t teach you that in your sociology classes, did they?”
We’re back in Rose Hill for a week before we go back to the city and graduate college. Time has flown by, but there have been some highlights and lows over the years.
The first high: we attended my mother and uncle’s trials. They were found guilty by a jury for conspiracy to murder and a list of other charges. Margo’s dad sat next to us on the prosecutor’s side. He and Margo clutched each other’s hands through it all.
The satisfaction of that day was unparalleled—until college. Moving into the apartment with Margo, letting her decorate, finally being able to give her everything she deserves. Watching her awe as we overcome challenges.
Our first low came from Amberly. She wouldn’t stop calling, asking us to visit. And when we finally did go see her at the rehab facility… it was to sign paperwork to have her body transported to the local morgue. She stockpiled enough pills to overdose and went through with it without giving us any sort of answers.
There was a small, unimpressive funeral, and her ashes sit on a shelf on our bookcase. Her death was a shock, but Margo moved past it with surprising efficiency—in part, I suspect, due to Lenora.
Keith, Lenora, and Robert stuck closer to us after that. I almost expected the Jenkinses to pack up and move to Brooklyn with us, but they stayed in Rose Hill. Keith has been living in one of my apartments—our apartments. He has a job. He has his life back.
And that’s impacted Margo in the most magnificent way.
Margo pinches my arm. “You lost in your head?”
I shrug off my sappy thoughts. “If you don’t want someone else to live here, what’s the plan? Bulldoze it?”
“Or we could burn it.”
I snort. “You want to set it on fire.”
“All of our stuff is out,” she argues. “You’ve had the furniture in storage since we decided to put it up for sale. And…” She shrugs. “Yeah, I want to watch it go up in flames.”
I look from her to the house, contemplating.
“It just has bad memories,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around my waist. “It’s another box I’ve tucked into the back of my closet.”
She’s continued seeing her therapist, even after aging out of the system. The two seemed to understand each other, but it’s resulted in the occasional odd phrasing.
“Okay.”
Her gaze goes to my face. “Really?”
“Yeah. Let me just…” I pull out my phone and shoot off a quick text. The reply is immediate.
Eli: WTF? Dad says there’s a ton of factors. Controlled burn? Demolition? Endangering your neighbors’ houses?
Well, that’s not going to happen.
“We’re going to get in trouble,” I warn her.
“Or…” There it is again. The glint in her eye that I can’t read. “We sneak back in the middle of the night and just do it then.”
Jeopardizing everything. I can see it now—the things we’ve worked so hard for, snatched away on arson charges.
“I can’t let you,” I say. “We’d get caught.”
“Not if we had alibis,” she murmurs. Her attention has gone back to the large house. The lawn has been taken care of, sloping down toward us. The fence hiding the backyard and the guest house was repaired last spring.
“A fresh coat of paint, and we won’t recognize it.” I tug her away. “I think this is just your way of trying to get over the past. What would your therapist say?”
“That I have a fear of change and abandonment,” she answers. “And our world is one big bucket of change. Or haven’t you noticed?”
I step in front of her, my back to our old home. I inspect her eyes, the purse of her lips. The way her chest moves as she breathes. And lower, to the slight swell of her belly.
“We’re in this together,” I declare.
We only found out about the baby a few weeks ago. And actually, we plan on spilling the beans to her family tonight, at the dinner we’re running late for.
She takes a deep breath. “You’re right. We’re graduating, and I don’t have a job and I’m pregnant and you’re changing careers. Totally fine.”
I roll my eyes. “When you say it like that, you almost sound rational with your worry.”
She pokes me. “Don’t even start.”
I catch her hand, raising it to my lips. Our marriage was quiet and small over the winter break of our first year at college. We had a handful of people at our sides.
The ring on Margo’s finger is sapphire. A little outside of tradition, but it reminds us of the bracelets that are safely locked away in a picture frame hanging above our bed.
We’re full of memories of the past.
“We should go,” she mumbles. “And definitely not set the house on fire.”
“It’s going to be a great home to a new family,” I remind her. “And yes, we’re about twenty minutes late to our own party.”
“Good thing Lenora and Robert are just around the corner.” She presses up on her toes and kisses my cheek. “Let’s go give everyone the surprise of their lives.”
* * *
Margo
I don’t knowwhen the restlessness started, but it’s taken ahold of Caleb.
He tried to hide it during our last semesters at Columbia and NYU, but once graduation inched closer… Well, I always knew how to read him. And what I saw in him was something akin to agitation.
And then he finally came out with it: he didn’t want to live in his father’s shadow. His dad built an empire and then sold it. The company that Prinze Industries took over was his dad’s whole world… until money got the best of him.
He confessed that he wanted to make his own name. And his chosen path? Law.
Eli’s dad had more of an effect on him than I realized.
So, anyway. We’re picking up our lives and moving to Boston, where Caleb was accepted into Suffolk Law, and I’ll start an internship at the Museum of Fine Arts. How long I’ll be able to keep it up is anyone’s guess, seeing as how another Asher will be joining us in a few months. My original plan was to get my master’s in social work. That has been sidetracked, but something tells me I’ll be happy even without it.
But right this moment?
I climb out of the car. Dad’s car is already in the driveway, and the lights glow on the Jenkins’s porch. Waiting for us, no doubt.
“Nervous?” Caleb extends his hand toward me.
I swallow. “Me? No. Why?”
“Because you look like you’re ready to run away.”
Well, maybe.
“We’re married.” He leans in close. “I think they assume we have sex.”
I rear back. “Caleb Asher, don’t you dare.”
He chuckles, snagging my hand and tucking it under his arm. We walk to the house, and I press my lips together to keep from smiling.
They’re going to freak out.
“They’re here!” Robert calls, yanking the door open. He smiles. “About time.”
“We stopped by the house,” Caleb says.
Robert nods. “Hope you’re hungry. Len made enough to feed an army.”
We go into the kitchen, where Lenora is talking to Iris. Her and my dad have been getting closer, and while it was definitely weird at first… it’s normal now.
Hanna comes barreling toward us. I have just enough time to drop Caleb’s arm and spread mine.
She crashes into me. “Finally! Oh my god!”
I pat her back. She’s shot up in recent years, and now she’s taller than me. Her fingers tighten in my shirt, then she steps back.
“Guess what?” She bounces on her heels. “I got into NYU! And MIT! And Brown!”
My mouth drops open. “Wow, Han.”
It’s easy to forget about the ten-year-old girl I met in foster care and focus on the seventeen-year-old in front of us. Her life has been anything but easy.
“Have you decided on what to study?” Caleb asks.
“Engineering,” she says. “Which is why I’m leaning toward MIT.”
I narrow my eyes. “And it’s just lucky that we’re moving to Boston, too?”
“Pure coincidence.” She winks.
“Margo!” Lenora calls. She hugs Caleb first, then pauses in front of me. “You look happy. And you’re graduating. Oh, I could just burst into tears, I’m so excited for you.” She cups my cheek.
I try not to let my smile wobble. Oh god, I could blurt it out right now.
I’m pregnant.
Telling Caleb was hard enough. There were a lot of tears and pacing on my part. Tears on his part, too, although he staunchly disagrees in mixed company.
“Your father is outside. He volunteered to grill.” Lenora wiggles her eyebrows.
Caleb grins. “That man knows how to cook. I wish we had known that sooner.”
We both go quiet. The reason we didn’t know sooner is because of my mother. She monopolized the kitchen. Now that she’s gone…
Once we moved to Brooklyn after high school, Sunday dinners with Dad became a tradition. What started with takeout morphed into experiments, which quickly became masterpieces.
“You’re going to come up to Boston with us, right?” I ask her, looping my arm through hers. We head toward the back door. “To help us settle in?”
“Of course. We’re lucky you only decided to go two hours away, opposed to across the country.” She sighs. “It’s going to be hard on your father. He got to pack up and move with you to the city, and now…”
“I’m—”
“Margo,” Dad greets me.
Oh my god. I almost just blurted it out again. I look around for Caleb, because we need to tell our family stat.
“I’ll go grab you a drink, Margo,” Lenora says.
The door bangs shut behind her, and then it’s just the two of us.
I hug him, closing my eyes and breathing in his familiar scent. How are we supposed to leave them for a new city? It’s like leaving pieces of our life behind.
“You okay, honey?” Dad whispers into my hair.
Nope. “I’m just a mess as usual,” I answer in a low voice.
He rubs my back.
“I’m good.” I pull back and smile. “You don’t want to burn the food.”
He shakes his head. “Dad duties above all else. They’d understand.”
My eyes fill with tears. “You should tell Caleb about dad duties. He’s…”
He stares at me a beat, and I bite my lip.
“Wow,” he murmurs. “You’re pregnant?”
I nod.
He hugs me again, squeezing the daylights out of me, and I hold my breath until I realize that the rumble in his chest is uncontained happiness.
“You’re going to be an excellent mother,” he says softly.
Well, that does it.
I press my hand over my mouth, trying not to cry, but the tears escape anyway.
“Are you all right?” Lenora asks from behind me.
I straighten, swiping at my cheeks. “We’re good.”
“Just enjoying a father-daughter moment,” Robert says.
“And burning the food, no doubt,” Iris says from the door.
Caleb and Robert are right behind her. Caleb hands me a glass of water and cracks open his beer. Hanna joins us a second later.
“I’m not burning the food,” Dad grumbles. He opens the grill and inspects the steak. “Looks like I have perfect timing.”
I glance at Caleb.
His eyebrow jumps, taking in the expression on my face, but I just shake my head. We should wait until we’re all sitting…
“We have news,” Caleb says.
Okay, maybe not.
“Besides the fact that you’re leaving us for Boston?” Robert asks.
“We’re going to visit,” Lenora tells him. She shakes her head. “Continue, Caleb.”
I grab Caleb’s arm. We should’ve done something cute, like gotten them little cards that say, You’re going to be a grandma! Or a box with little baby shoes. Or—
“I’m pregnant!”
It feels good to actually blurt it out.
Caleb grins at me, completely unsurprised by my outburst.
Everyone else…
Chaos ensues.
Everyone seems to have the same reaction, but totally different. Lenora starts crying on the spot, her gaze stuck like magnets on my stomach. Robert is quieter, but he has a wide smile—it matches Dad’s.
“We’re excited. Even if we’ll be in Boston…”
“Don’t you worry about that, honey,” Robert says. “I’ve always wanted to be a grandfather. And after Josie…”
He glances at Lenora, who covers her mouth with her hand. She nods at him.
“We love you,” he finishes. “And if you need help, we’re a phone call away.”
“That went better than expected,” Caleb says. “But, um, Keith? I think the burgers are burning.”
“Dad duties above all else,” Dad and I say at the same time.
He grins, kissing my temple.
“But we need to eat,” Hanna points out. She steps up to me. “Am I going to be an aunt?”
I don’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”
It’s bad enough her sister abandoned her—Claire was released from the juvenile detention center when she turned eighteen, then she vanished. A blessing in disguise.
Hanna has us. And Iris. And the Jenkinses.
It took me and Caleb a while to grapple with the fact that I considered Hanna my sister, and she actually was Caleb’s half-sister. And she was living with Caleb’s aunt, who has been dating my dad.
Confusing?
Yep.
But after a while, it just became our new normal.
Behind her, Dad calls, “The burgers aren’t that burned…”
We all laugh.
I reach for Caleb, and he’s right there, pulling me into his side. And for an instant, I can see our future: a little baby in his arms, a smile on his lips.
Happiness.
Forever, this time.
