Grace raised the bat—
Then saw him.
It slipped from her hands.
“Ethan…” she breathed.
“Grace…” Tears streamed down his face. “Why? Why?”
He collapsed to his knees, grief from seven hundred days pouring out in broken sobs. Grace knelt before him, cupping his face.
“Forgive me. I had no choice. They were going to kill you. They were going to kill all of us.”
Inside, the reunion was overwhelming. Ava and Lily clung to their father, sobbing into his chest while he held them as if afraid they would vanish again. He breathed in their familiar scent, kissed their foreheads again and again.
Later, after the girls fell asleep on the couch, Ethan and Grace sat at the small kitchen table.
“I need the truth,” he said quietly. “That crash… those graves. Who did I bury?”
Grace shuddered.
“Do you remember Marcus Cole? Your partner at Sterling Builders?”
Ethan’s stomach tightened. Marcus—the financial mind of the company. For two years, he had been Ethan’s support system, helping him survive the tragedy.
“What does Marcus have to do with this?”