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Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Also by Silas House
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. Part One
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. Part Two
  27. 1
  28. 2
  29. 3
  30. 4
  31. 5
  32. 6
  33. 7
  34. 8
  35. 9
  36. 10
  37. Part Three
  38. 1
  39. 2
  40. 3
  41. 4
  42. 5
  43. 6
  44. 7
  45. 8
  46. 9
  47. 10
  48. 11
  49. 12
  50. 13
  51. 14
  52. 15
  53. 16
  54. 17
  55. 18
  56. 19
  57. 20
  58. 21
  59. 22
  60. 23
  61. 24
  62. 25
  63. 26
  64. 27
  65. 28
  66. 29
  67. 30
  68. 31
  69. Part Four
  70. 1
  71. 2
  72. 3
  73. Epilogue: The Everything
  74. Acknowledgments
  75. About the Author
  76. About Algonquin
  77. Copyright

He holds his son one moment longer, kisses his forehead. He knows that he has to go, right now. Over and over in his mind he tells Justin how much he loves him and he knows his son can hear him.

“Go on,” Asher yells to him, pushing him toward Zelda’s porch, and he jumps back into the Jeep, and then they are bumping back up the driveway in reverse. He watches as Zelda runs from the porch and collapses over Justin, covering him up in her body, kissing the top of his head.

The sirens.

Zelda takes Justin’s arm and is trying to pull him into the house but he won’t budge. He’s trying to run toward the Jeep. She knows what’s going to happen and she doesn’t want him to see, either, so she grabs him up and although he is kicking and screaming in her arms like a catfish on the hook, she holds on. Good old Zelda. Asher knows Justin will be safe as long as she is in this world.

Thank you thank you thank you, he says to her in his mind.

And then Luke is jerked out of the driver’s side first and then their hands are on Asher, two big old troopers at the same time, right there at the top of the driveway where the gravel meets the highway. They throw Asher to the ground, in the grass near the drive. He breathes in its green scent—Tennessee—and feels the sun on the back of his head and he is vaguely aware of a silver pain in his spine as the cop’s knee digs into his back while he latches the cuffs too tightly around Asher’s wrists. People are hollering: He’s unarmed. We got him! And walkie-talkies are crackling and somewhere far off he can hear someone hollering his name.

Asher closes his eyes and all he can say is what saved him over and over all these years. “Justin,” he says.

Epilogue: The Everything

Epilogue: The Everything

Justin spends most of his time down here by the Cumberland River. It’s the only place he can think straight, seems like. He lies back and watches the light coming through the lime-green leaves. He listens to the birds. Watches the water. Shady is always right beside him.

Sometimes he hears something scampering through the leaves and brush and he thinks it might be Roscoe coming back to him after all this time. Any day now he might dart out of those woods like nothing ever happened and they’ll pick right back up where they left off the way Asher and Luke were able to do.

You never know. It might happen. Anything’s possible.