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Back The Lighthouse Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. PART ONE
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. PART TWO
  13. 12
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 18
  18. 19
  19. 21
  20. 22
  21. 23
  22. 24
  23. 25
  24. 26
  25. 27
  26. 28
  27. 30
  28. 31
  29. 32
  30. 33
  31. 34
  32. 35
  33. 36
  34. 37
  35. 38
  36. 39
  37. 40
  38. 41
  39. 42
  40. 43
  41. PART THREE
  42. 44
  43. 45
  44. 46
  45. 47
  46. 49
  47. 50
  48. 51
  49. 52
  50. EPILOGUE

The room was a mess. Documents were strewn across the floor. Everywhere Ryan looked, every letter from the bank, every overdue bill, every red-stamped notice of demand—they were all out in the open, all in plain sight. And sitting in the middle of the room, adrift in the white sea of paper, was his father. His head was bent low with tears running down his cheeks, and in his trembling hands he held one of the letters. Even from across the room, Ryan could make out the scrawl of Tom Tippenworth’s signature and that dreaded word emblazoned across the top of the page: FORECLOSURE.

30

30

Huddled together on the lantern room’s cold concrete floor, neither Amy nor her mother spoke, not for a long time. The outside world seemed to fade away. Time itself ceased to feel real. Only the rotation of the lamp gave any clue to the seconds passing by. Each time the beam swung over their heads, Amy sank deeper and deeper into her mother’s arms, praying in her heart that this reunion wasn’t a dream, wishing she could bottle this moment and make it last forever.

“Is this real, Mom? Are you actually here?”

“I’m here, Amy.”

“I’m not losing my mind?”

“No,” her mother said, smiling. “You’re not.”

“Are you . . . a ghost ?”

“No, I’m not a ghost. I’m really here, sweetheart, here with you now.”

Amy didn’t want to open her eyes in case doing so might bring an end to this beautiful, impossible dream. She had so much she wanted to say, so many questions, but the sensation of being held in her mother’s arms made it impossible for her to speak. Tears kept coming thick and fast. It took a long time before she dared to believe any of this was actually happening.

“Mom, can you explain what’s going on? Have you come back . . . for good ?”

“I wish that were so, Amy. Since I left you, I’ve felt your pain. I know how much you’ve been hurting. But I won’t lie to you—I’m not back for good, and I can’t stay with you for very long either. I can’t hide up here forever.”

“Hide? What do you mean, hide?”

“I need you to listen carefully because there’s something important I need to tell you.”

Amy felt a lump catch in her throat. “What is it?”

Her mother tucked back a strand of Amy’s hair and gently kissed her on the forehead. “What I’m about to say isn’t going to make a lot of sense, but I want you to know that I love you very much, and that we’re going to find a way through this, okay?”