November 1st:
I’m back. I’m doing a lot better. And I’m ready to tell Luc and Tessa my truth. I’ve already told it to Zack, he showed up at the retreat I was at. Tommy and Dare don’t know yet but even Oliver, my counselor, is affiliated with the organization Zack works for. I know that Zack has plans to shut Kruna down and with my testimony a part of their case, I’m sure they can do it.
The girls are meeting me at Venetia for lunch. The restaurant is closed so it’ll be just us. Tia and Angel are coming too, to support me. I hope that Luc and Tessa can handle it. I hope that I can handle it. I’m ready to live again, putting my past behind me but not burying it.
Dex knows my truth. Either Tommy or Dare told him. He picked me up at the airport. He’s cute. He’s tall, blond, he’s sweet. He’s my age. He’s seen me at my worst. Well, my worst post-Kruna. They had him guard me for a few days before I went away and that was rough but he is a good guy, I can tell. Dex wants to take me to dinner. But one thing at a time.
I know telling Luc and Tess that their father bought me as a sex slave and had me befriend Tessa as a ruse will hurt them but I know them and I know it won’t take them too long to forgive me. And maybe someday soon I can be Shayla again. Like I said to Angel, she might not feel like Angie any longer but coming out the other side, she doesn’t have to keep being Felicia, either.
Dare
I have my dream girl. She’s beautiful. She’s mine. She worships the g
round I walk on and I do the same for her. She wears sexy lingerie, can’t get enough of me in the bedroom, and she wants kids, too. And Pop gave her to me. Crazy. No settling for me.
Every day she seems a little less broken. There are still moments where I see it, see what they did to her, but I also see the future and it is bright. As bright as her piercing blue eyes.
I had my brother back, too. He and I were running Ferrano together and we were still cleaning up but it was already on its way to being something that we’d either be able to sell for a decent price and a clearer conscience or it’d be something we could pass onto our kids without setting them up for lives of crime. I’ve also enrolled in pilot school, which is part-time, but leaves that option open, for down the road.
I’ve got a lot of money in the bank. I’ve got my health. I’ve got good friends, even if one of my best friends is a double-crossing fed.
But I also had a missing sister-in-law, which Angel is distraught about.
I had to tell my brother that Zack had played us. Zack had been awesome. He had helped us through some really rough times. Tommy was shocked that Zack played us but in hindsight, we figured it’d all happened for a reason and the fact that he was in our lives meant that there was a chance we’d actually find our way out of the world of human trafficking.
I had to break the news to Angel that we’d have to go to Kruna for their partner summit and that I’d need her to come with me. She’d be able to give me information while we were there that would help with Zack’s case. It’d be the beginning of the end. Kruna was told I’d killed Jason Frost. But the organization Zack was freelancing for still had him under lockdown. They were still pumping him for information.
I’d been thinking about whether or not to turn over Frost’s laptop. It had information to help bring them down but it also had footage of my wife being broken and raped and abused. I was having a hard time reconciling what to do about it. The best thing I figured I could do was to talk to Angel about it and see what she wanted to do. For now, Nino had it somewhere safe.
It wouldn’t be easy. We were gonna be putting our lives at risk by double-crossing the Kruna scumbags. A lot of people would be brought down if the people Zack was working for got their way.
But like I’d vowed to myself, I’d un-break her and I’d gift Kruna’s demise to her, if I could. I wanted to find a way to succeed at both and the un-breaking part was already well on its way.
When we got home from the hotel the day after the wedding, we chucked that flat iron down the garbage chute together. I was looking forward to watching more of her spirit shine through. Soon, when things were settled, we’d take our honeymoon in Italy and then head to Iceland, where we’d do the tourist thing and also see my Ma (she couldn’t make the wedding as her husband was in palliative care) and then visit some of my cousins. And I was also looking forward to the honeymoon and life after that honeymoon because after we got back I’d be buying us a house with more than a few bedrooms in it for our future babies and somewhere in that house, maybe in the basement, I was absolutely going to be installing a mechanical bull.
The End (for now…)