Chapter 32-3

"I thought you were dead." Hadley shoved my hand off her leg, drawing in a breath that sounded like she was about to start hyperventilating. "Do you have any idea what that was like? Sitting around, about to have a baby, while for all I knew, you'd been dragged off into some altnerate dimension and left to die? Something God awful could have happened to you and I wouldn't have known." There it was. It was finally out in the open. And there was a part of me that wanted to get down on my knees, take her hands in mine and start apologizing profusely. But what good would that do? Apologies went a long way, but they never stood in the way of the truth. "I know," I said carefully. "I can't imagine what that was like." I didn't want to know what that must have been like either. I suspected I might have gotten the better end of the deal. Hadley gave this harsh sort of laugh, rubbing at the tears starting to streak down her cheeks. "No, I don't think you do. So would you just do me a favor and tell me the truth?" So I did. I told her everything. I started from the beginning, when Death had shown up while Lauren was in the hospital with flight tickets for Mom and the girls to Palermo. I wanted to skimp over the details when Havoc had appeared at the airport and dragged me off to the cathedral, right in the middle of my funeral, but she deserved the truth, as much as I wanted to hide it from her. She had gotten through this much on her own. She was stronger than what others might have given her credit for. When I introduced Lucrezia into the conversation and explained how she had been masquerading as my therapist, Agnes Schaffer, this entire time, looking out for me, Hadley's jaw dropped and she started coughing. "Lucrezia?" She gasped. "Are you serious? Death's wife seriously showed up to - " "Wait a second." I held up a hand to cut her off. "How do you know about Lucrezia?" "Death told me about Lucrezia years ago," Hadley said. "During my twenty-seven days. They didn't exactly, um...have a very happy ending." That much I could have figured out for myself, but I made a mental note to have her elaborate on their story later. I needed to finish speaking. I felt like I was going to explode if I didn't finish telling the truth. "And it turns out, Lucrezia is my, um..." I felt myself faltering. How exactly was I supposed to explain this next bit without sounding insane? I still wasn't even sure I believed it myself. The facts were there, but... "Your what?" Hadley demanded. "My aunt." Hadley looked like she'd just been clubbed over the head. "Your...aunt. Lucrezia is your aunt?" "That's what she said," I told her. "And it must be true, because she took my place." Hadley sat back against the pillows on the bed, the dazed expression on her face remaining. "Took your place...how?" Here was where it became tricky. "In high school, when I...well, when you made the deal with Death and everything?" Hadley nodded slowly, staring at me cautiously. "Yeah, I remember." "Death didn't exactly fill me in on the finer details, and neither did Havoc, but there was a...a debt. An unpaid debt, really, because you saved me when I should have stayed dead." It took a moment for Hadley to respond. "So...so, what? Havoc was a debt collecter?" she said, her voice cracking. "Maybe," I said. That seemed like a fitting title. "I'm not sure, Hadley." "So when you say Lucrezia took your place..." "That seemed like a loophole Havoc hadn't counted on," I admitted. "He was furious, but because Lucrezia and I come from the same bloodline, she was able to take my place and, I don't know, pay my debt? I don't think it would've worked if Death hadn't gotten me out of there in time." We didn't speak for a while after that. I could tell by the expression on her face that Hadley had already put two and two together and knew what the outcome would have been had Lucrezia not intervened. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees, watching as Milo slept soundly in his crib. His little hands were balled into his fists on either side of his head, and I watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. I was still having a little difficulty wrapping my mind around the fact that Milo was actually my son, but everything that the past few months had put us through, how dangerously close I'd come to the end, had all lead up to Milo's arrival. It was all that mattered now. I looked away from Milo when I felt Hadley's arms wrapped around me from behind, resting her chin on my shoulder. "So Lucrezia paid your debt," she repeated quietly. There was a funny note to her voice I couldn't quite place. "Yeah," I said. "She did." "And...what about Death?" There was yet another tricky question I had no idea how to answer. "I don't know." I laced my fingers through hers and squeezed. "He understood what she was doing, and why, but he's...he's heartbroken. He never stopped loving her even after four hundred years." "Poor Death," Hadley murmured. I didn't think poor Death even began to cover it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to learn the extent of what had happened to him over the centuries. It was obvious it had been more than enough. "Yeah," I agreed. "Poor Death." I had no idea if we would ever see Death again, or if we would ever be visited by anything supernatural again, but I would continue to be thankful for everything he'd done. A day wouldn't go by where I wouldn't be thankful. "Is it stupid that I have no idea what the hell what we're supposed to do now?" Hadley asked after a moment. "No," I said immediately. "I don't think so. Are we even supposed to?" As if on cue, Milo stirred in his crib and let out a cry, loud enough to break whatever spell had fallen over us. Hadley carefully pulled herself off the bed and went to Milo, leaning down to cradle him in her arms. "At the very least, this is good start to something new," she said humorously as she consoled Milo. "Yeah," I said, suddenly feeling too tired to even muster up a laugh. I had a feeling that was going to become the norm soon enough. But she was right. Milo was the start of something new. Something good.