- 15.
Tristan was arrested for murder.
The court seized all his assets and sentenced him to life in prison.
He would spend the rest of his days in the darkness of a prison cell.
Rachel was dend too.
Cole Hawthorne, seemingly unfazed, returned to his business.
He sold the company, donated all the proceeds to charity, and moved to Gull Cove, living in the same small apartment I once lived in
Every morning, he would drive to the beach to watch the sunrise, always bringing along that stuffed panda.
I thought everything was over.
But a year later, Cole visited Tristan in prison.
I saw him slip a small bag of something into his pocket–a bag of fertilizer.
When he left the prison, I noticed a single tear fall from his eye as he looked up at the sky and whispered:
“Lana, I’ve avenged you.”
Tristan died in prison.
The cause of death: food poisoning.
As he died, he was still staring toward Gull Cove
- 16.
Everything was over.
I asked the system softly, “It’s done, right?”
“Not yet.”
The system’s response was unexpected:
“Let me take you back. Ten years ago, before you accepted the task to pursue Tristan Wilder…”
The system’s cold voice echoed in my mind.
Before I could respond, a blinding light flashed in front of my eyes, making me dizzy.
When I opened my eyes again, I found my soul hovering outside the window of an ICU room.
Inside, a much younger Cole Hawthorne sat slumped in a chair by the hospital bed, his face drawn and weary. In his hand, he held a photo.
It was a picture of the two of us, me and Cole, when we were teenagers.
C
We were standing together, arms around each other, smiling widely with the vast ocean stretching out behind us.
What?
When did Cole and I take a picture like that?
Had we known each other back then, all those years ago?
My gaze shifted past Cole and landed on the figure lying in the hospital bed.
It was me.
