The ceremony didn’t last long. The minister who performed the service wasn’t too happy with the weather. And that was fine with Laurel. Myles took the kids back to the car to get them out of the rain; Peyton took Brady and the baby. Soon, it was just the three of them—Laurel and Virgil and Rex.
“I wonder if she did it,” Laurel said to them. “Wouldn’t you like to know, once and for all?”
Rex shoved his hands in his pockets. His withdrawal symptoms had left and his color was returning. “And if she did?”
“Then we haven’t lost anything, have we? That means she never really loved us as a mother should.”
“And if she didn’t do it?” he asked.
“Then I let her down. Then I should’ve forgiven her.” She looked at Virgil. “We both should’ve forgiven her.”
Rex and Virgil exchanged a meaningful glance.
“What?” Laurel said. “Do you two know something you’re not telling me?”
“It’s time,” Rex murmured, and Virgil hobbled close enough to take her hand.
“We haven’t lost anything,” he said, and pulled her into as much of an embrace as he could in his current condition. “But you’ll always have me.”
She’d have him, Rex, Myles and the kids. And she’d have her freedom. At last. Ink was currently in the hospital under heavy guard, but he’d soon be heading back to prison. And after what he’d done, he’d never get out. The bodies of four men had been discovered behind the cabin where Ink had been hiding. She couldn’t believe she’d survived his visit to Pineview.
It might take some of her friends and family a while to get used to calling her Laurel instead of Vivian, but she’d earned the right to go back to her original identity, to meld all the separate people she was into one complete person. She felt lucky to be able to do it.
As Virgil and Rex moved back to the cars and the loved ones who were waiting, Laurel tilted her head back and twirled in the rain.
IN SECONDS
Copyright © 2011 by Brenda Novak, Inc.
All rights reserved.
