The Final Victim (55 page)

    
"It's better this way,"
Mimi had said when Charlotte confronted her and she admitted that
Gib
had indeed fathered her son.
"Jed's suffered enough pain. He'll never have to know."

    Charlotte may not necessarily agree with Mimi's decision, but who is she to judge?

    She herself has made mistakes.

    Everyone does. It took three years of therapy for Charlotte and
Lianna
to come to terms with their own, to forgive themselves-and each other.

    To learn to communicate, to trust,
to
take chances again.

    So
Lianna
will go off to college next month.

    
As for Charlotte…

    If she hadn't gotten to know Mimi and
Jed,
hadn't seen the strength of their love in the face of death-defying odds, she might never have dared to take the biggest chance of all.

    A young child's sudden squeal reaches Charlotte's ears, and her heart skips a beat.

    She darts an anxious glance at the shoreline to see Cameron, gleeful as his robust father swings him into a wave, holding tight to those capable hands.

    
Don't let go
, she thinks, watching as the wave washes over father and son.
Not yet
.

    "Don't worry, Charlotte. Jed's got him."

    In the next chair, Mimi is smiling reassuringly.

    "I know he does… I just…" She trails off.

    There are some wounds that never fully heal.

    Some you carry with you forever, with only time- and love-as balm.

    Mimi touches Charlotte's arm gently. Mimi knows. She came harrowingly close to losing someone she loves desperately.

    But that didn't happen. Charlotte paid for the trips to Europe, for the experimental treatment that saved Jed's life and has since saved countless others.

    The only thing that makes
Grandaddy's
crime bearable is the final irony that his secret, sizable contributions funded Dr. Petra Von Cave's research for all those years-and ultimately provided the cure for
Kepton
-Manning disease.

    
Grandaddy's
estate covered the vast, ongoing cost of cleaning up the former chemical waste dump on
Achoco
Island. Tidewater Meadow was torn down; it will be years before the site is safe for habitation. Its residents have scattered, most to other islands.

    Maude Gaspar is one of the few who stayed. She lives with her daughter and son-in-law now, in the little canal-side cottage that's bursting at the seams. She's content to care for Cameron and his baby sister, Jeannie, while their parents work, and study-and labor on the new four-bedroom home they're building near the beach.

    But it's slow going. Jed is busy with another job, one with good pay and benefits: overseeing the ongoing renovation of
Oakgate
.

    The brick slave cabins have been torn down, that patch of marsh filled in. A memorial garden marks the spot where
Phyllida
Remington Harper's remains were found, along with those of Odette's sister,
Pammy
Sue Krupp. Brian came from California with his son for the garden's dedication. Charlotte was glad they came, and glad
Phyllida's
life insurance policy paid off the
Harpers's
debts.

    Charlotte created a trust fund for little Wills, who has no memory of his mother or
Oakgate
, no comprehension of the Remington legacy. Perhaps in the end, he's better off.

    Inside the mansion, beyond the enduring brick facade, countless walls have come down.

    There are more windows, to banish the shadows and let in the sunlight.

    Central air-conditioning was added, the duct-work filling what was once a secret passageway from the second floor to the basement.

    The entire third floor has been reclaimed as attic space for countless antiques: Remington relics Charlotte can't bring herself to part with.

    Maybe someday she'll go through them.

    But this isn't a time to revisit the past; it's a time to look ahead.

    On the second floor of the old plantation house is a brand-new master suite: the honeymoon suite, Phil insists on calling it, though the newlywed period officially ended with their first wedding anniversary last month.

    
A year already.

    It took longer than that for Charlotte to agree to their first date. Gradually, she learned to trust the handsome detective, to recognize that his concern for her and
Lianna
had shifted from professional to personal.

    Their wedding last June was in the fragrant rose garden behind
Oakgate
, with
Lianna
crying happy tears as maid of honor and Williamson at his partner's side, as always, grinning proudly as best man.

    Who would have imagined that behind the crusty facade was a human teddy bear?

    It just proves what Charlotte learned in the most tragic way possible: that no book should ever be judged by its cover.

    In her life, the chapter involving Joseph Borger is closed. He'll be in prison long after her cousin
Gib
is released-most likely for the rest of his life.

    For Charlotte and
Lianna
and the
Johnstons
, a new chapter has begun.

    Survivors need a fresh start, just as houses sometimes do.

    
Adjoining the master suite at
Oakgate
, the cozy room that was once Gilbert Remington's study has been done over in shades of pastel blue.

    
Baby blue.

    With luck, the white nursery furniture will be delivered by the Fourth of July, as promised…

    A long shadow falls over the sand.

    Charlotte looks up to see her husband standing over her, his brown skin glistening with droplets of seawater, mocha-colored eyes twinkling down at her. "Hey, how's the beach ball?"
'Just fine."
She smiles as he gently pats her enormous stomach and is met with a reassuring kick from their son's tiny foot.

    "It's a boy, Mr. and Mrs. Dorado,"
the obstetrician said the day she gave them the amniocentesis results.

    It's a boy.

    
A son.

    A son who will one day soon be rocked in his mother's embrace, and swung high above the surf in his father's hands, and who will ask his big sister a million curious questions when she comes home to visit.

    But for now, for one last summer,
Lianna
is home- and soon, the baby will be, too.

    
Home at
Oakgate
.

    Pressing her thumb to her eyebrows, Charlotte shields her eyes to cast a reassuring gaze out over the ocean.

    Yes,
Lianna
is there, just beyond the breakers, floating serenely in the sparkling blue sea beneath the golden summer sun.

    And above her, a lone white gull soars to the heavens.