Epilogue
“Igot an offer from Genevieve!”
Bryce had raced all the way to the bookstore to tell Thea. She’d found her with Mikey in the basement, setting up today’s podcast. They’d started a new series, titledPartners in Crime: a chatty, fun, and less sinister turn onPerfect Crimes, where they told stories of survival volunteered by listeners — not just of murders and assault, but grief, graduations, marriages. A celebration of the way people could overcome things rather than paying homage to killers who didn’t deserve their evil to be immortalized by fanatics with an affinity for the sick and twisted. They even had guest appearances from the likes of Thea’s mother and Officer Shaw, and Bryce had told her own story here with Thea’s encouragement.
It hadn’t healed their wounds completely, and Bryce still felt sick when she thought of Peter and everything he’d put the people of Stone Grange through, but it was made easier each time she came here and remembered that they’d survived. And she had Thea now, in more ways than she ever had before. She was finding her happiness. Finally.
At the news, Thea gasped and jumped on Bryce without warning, ecstatic laughter bubbling in her chest. “My girl’s going to have her very own documentary.”
Bryce grinned wryly, face crinkling when Thea pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Well, she’s not the only one.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had Genevieve listen to our new episodes and she loved them. She wants the two of you working for her!”
“Are you kidding?” Shock cleaved its way across Mikey’s features, and then crawled their way to Thea’s too — but her smile didn’t meet her eyes, and Bryce frowned.
“You don’t want to?”
“Of course I do,” tutted Thea. “But this isyouropportunity, B. I don’t want to take away from it.”
“You’re not taking away from it. You’re sharing it with me.” Just as they shared everything. Just as they always would. There was no one Bryce would rather do this with than Thea, and to tell her as much, she kissed her tenderly.
It earned a disgusted groan from Mikey. “Stop being all cute and in love in front of me.”
“But wearecute and in love,” Thea grinned, ruffling his hair, before turning back to Bryce. “What about Liv? They want you to travel for it, right?”
“There’ll be breaks between filming.” Despite her words, Bryce still chewed on her bottom lip nervously. It was something she’d gone over with her sister a million times already, almost emailing Genevieve to retract the offer a handful of times out of sheer worry that she was making a mistake. “I’ll only be away two weeks at a time, and it’s the summer after her graduation. I need to start trusting her to do the right thing — especially if she gets into Berkeley.”
Liv was still waiting to hear back from the colleges she’d applied for, but of course Berkeley had been at the top of her list.
Thea squeezed Bryce’s hands in reassurance. “My mom can watch out for her, too. She won’t be alone.”
But Bryce didn’t think she’d need Thea’s mother after all. Since the night of the drive-in, Liv had been much more responsible. Bryce had put it down to worry, since Liv had been terrified when Bryce had told her what had happened — even more so when she’d visited Thea in her hospital bed. Peter Keane was awaiting trial, on three counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted murder; he was still recovering in the hospital. Bryce hadn’t heard anything else of him since. She preferred it that way. Peter didn’t deserve her time. He didn’t deserve any of her.
Officer Shaw was still making her own recovery, with a few fractured ribs and a broken leg. She would testify at Peter’s trial and had been lauded as the town’s new hero. Bryce often saw her around in her booted walking cast and they always smiled and waved, though they didn’t have much more to say to each other than that.
What had happened had changed everyone in Stone Grange, but not necessarily for the worst. Neighbors were friendlier. Even Gus had given Bryce paid leave from work those first few weeks after. What had happened had been awful and sickening, but it was survivable, and with plenty of counseling and community support, they’d all shown it.
Bryce and Thea had shown it.
“So we’re doing this, team?” Mikey asked. It was the first time Bryce had seen him happy — really happy — since Hannah’s death.
“We’re doing this,” Bryce grinned. It had been a long time since she’d felt this weightless, thisright,and as they clutched hands and celebrated that morning with a new podcast episode, Bryce knew things were going to be okay.
She had her partners in crime by her side and a future to live. She had everything she needed — and she would never take it for granted.