For perhaps the first time in the past few months, it was warm in Alexander.
The teddy bear was a comforting softness in Jane’s hand as she kneeled before her mother’s grave.
It was a magnificent piece of stonework, purchased with stolen funds from Jackson’s accounts. The inscription had been chiseled out of the marble by a careful hand, lending the stone edges to artistry. With her fingers, Jane traced the letters.
Here lies Jackie Mackenzie, battling until the end.
There were no more tears to shed. Jane’s heart lay still, her chest empty.
“We won, mom.”
A mellow breeze drifted through the graveyard, stirring autumn leaves between the plots. The morning sun shined through the surrounding trees, its orange light matching Jane’s hair.
Ryder was standing some distance away, gazing patiently at the love of his life. He would wait forever, so long as it gave Jane peace.
With one final pat on the bears singed head, Jane lowered it to the grave. Its dark eyes gazed back at her with a promise. It would safeguard her mother’s resting place.
“Be my eyes, okay?” Jane whispered.
Slowly, she stood, and returned to the mouth of the graveyard. Ryder followed, his steps matching hers. Silently, he held her hand.
Victoria was leaning against her father’s SUV, for once dressed in mute colors.
“Just came to bring you the car,” she said, a thin smile on her lips.
“Why don’t you come with us? There’s enough space for three,” Ryder said.
Victoria shook her head, a sigh escaping her. “I’m gonna wait for my dad. They say it’ll only be a few months, with Beatrice’s confession. He’ll be out of prison in no time.”
Jane nodded. She’d expected as much. Like every other moment in her life, Jane wished things could have gone differently.
Instead, she reached her arms out, and took both of Victoria’s hands, one of which hung from a sling. “Thank you, Vicky. For everything.”
“Just don’t forget me. You’d better come back and get us, wherever you end up,” Victoria joked, a sliver of mirth reappearing in her voice.
It was the tightest embrace Jane had ever given, the realization that she would miss her first and only friend a splinter in her chest. “We’ll come back for you, I promise.”
Ryder shut the passenger-side door with a click, the familiar scent of Watson’s cigarettes still clinging to the interior of the car. Jane leaned back against the cushioned seat, sighing.
There were no words, yet they both shared a question. Where to next?
Receding in the distance, ever shrinking, Alexander Township waved its final goodbyes, muted in the tint of the windows. Jane watched as everything she knew faded away, an uncertain future speeding towards her. Ryder squeezed her hand, pale and cold within his own.
“I love you,” he repeated, once more.
Head held high, eyes determined, Jane Mackenzie smiled. There was no more fear. No more anxiety. No more lies.
Because there, in a small town, in the heart of suburbia, sat a girl. No longer lonely.
