Chapters (61)
Tommy stood over her coffin, said his good-byes with tears sheening his eyes, and laid his red rose beside the Winterses’. His father, mother, and three brothers formed a phalanx behind him, and Juliet stood beside him, holding her own red rose.
The line slowly moved until it was Mia’s turn. She looked down at the blanket of red roses that now covered the white petunias. She gently laid hers atop all the others and whispered through the tears streaking down her face, “I’m so sorry, Serena. You’ll be in my heart forever.” She turned slowly and was enfolded in Milo’s arms, then Travis’s. Most of the Guardian newsroom stood silent, ranging behind Milo.
When the service ended, Mia waited beside Gail and Sherlock for Travis and Dillon to get the car to take them back to the Winterses’ house. Sherlock lightly stroked her fingers over Mia’s face, wiping away tears, taking Mia’s gloved hands in hers. “You’re a formidable woman, Mia. It is my pleasure to have met you, to have worked with you. I only wish I had known Serena. She’d be so proud of you.”
Would she? What Mia knew for certain was that Serena would be her touchstone. She’d be forever the laughing girl walking with Tommy Maitland on Godwyn’s campus, their hands clasped as they swung their arms. She spotted Miles Lombardy, Alex Harrington’s senior staffer, standing alone beneath an ancient oak tree. She walked to him and took his hand. “Thank you for coming, Miles.”
He said quietly, “I am so sorry for what he did, what he might have continued doing if you hadn’t stopped him. Thank you.” He leaned down, lightly kissed her cheek, turned, and walked away through the rows of gravestones. Now, after seven years, Serena would have one of her own.
Beneath the brilliant blue sky, atop a hill close by, as Serena’s coffin was lowered into the ground, a lone bagpipe played “Amazing Grace.”
Acknowledgments
My continued thanks to the remarkable Angela Bell, FBI, Office of Public Affairs. You are always there for me with the right answer, the right person to fill me in on exactly what I need to know. Thank you.
To my right and left hand and half my brain, Karen Evans. I cannot envision life without you, so see to it, all right?
To all my amazing associates at Trident Media Group, particularly my agent, Robert Gottlieb, and the unsinkable Nicole Robson. Even in this very bizarre year when a pandemic blasted onto the scene and set the world reeling, no one at William Morrow and HarperCollins dropped the ball. My profound thanks.