Chapter 64 A Choice
They were quiet for a moment.
Then Aiden said: “I’ve been thinking about the contract.”
Ariella’s stomach tightened. “What about it?”
“It expired two months ago. We’ve been married for a year, but the legal obligation ended in February. We just… never talked about it.”
“Because we were in trial.”
“And now we’re not.” He turned to face her. “So I’m asking: do you want to stay married? For real this time? Not because of a contract or a crisis or anything except choice?”
Ariella’s heart was pounding. “Do you?”
“Yes. Absolutely yes. I want to stay married to you. I want to figure out college together and argue about whether to live in Portland or somewhere else and build something that’s ours, not my father’s or anyone else’s. I want…” He took her hands. “I want everything. With you. If you want it too.”
“I want it too.” The words came easily. “I want to stay married. I want to choose this, choose us every day. Not because we have to, but because we want to.”
He kissed her, soft and certain.
“Then we’re really married now.”
“We were really married before.”
“But now it’s just ours. No contracts. No obligations. Just us.”
“Just us,” Ariella agreed.
They stayed on the roof until the cold drove them inside, talking about futures that finally felt possible. About schools and careers and where they might live. About whether they wanted kids someday or just a quiet life with books and bread and each other.
Normal things. Beautiful, boring, normal things.
The kind of things they’d never had time for before.
A week later, Marcus brought final news.
“The FBI has decided not to pursue murder charges against Winters at this time. The evidence is circumstantial. Key witnesses won’t testify. And with him already serving thirty years, the prosecutors don’t think they can build a case strong enough to convict.”
“So he gets away with murder,” Ariella said flatly.
“He’s spending the rest of his life in prison. That’s not getting away with it.”
“It’s not justice for Ethan. For Catherine. For the others.”
“No. It’s not.” Marcus looked genuinely sorry. “But sometimes this is how it ends. Not with perfect justice, just with whatever justice we can get.”
Ariella wanted to be angry. Wanted to fight. But she was so tired of fighting.
“Okay,” she said finally. “Okay. We tried. We did everything we could. If the FBI can’t make a murder case, then…” She stopped. “Then we have to let it go.”
“Are you sure?”
“No. But I’m done anyway.”
Aiden pulled her close. “We’re done. Both of us. Whatever happens next, we’re not part of it.”
Marcus nodded. “I’ll let the FBI know. And Ariella, Aiden, you should be proud. You exposed a criminal who’d been operating for years. You gave voices to victims who’d been silenced. That matters, even if it’s not complete.”
After he left, Ariella and Aiden sat in silence.
“Do you think Ethan would be okay with this?” Ariella asked. “With us stopping?”
“I think Ethan would want you to live. To be happy. To stop carrying his death like a burden you need to avenge.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I knew my mom. And she’d want the same for me. She wouldn’t want me to spend my whole life fighting her battles. She’d want me to build my own life.”
“So we just… move on?”
“We try. And if we can’t, we’ll figure that out too. But we try.”
That night, Ariella took out Ethan’s journal, the one she’d been carrying since he died. She read through his entries, looking for something. Permission, maybe. Or closure.
Near the end, she found an entry from two weeks before he died:
Ari’s been stressed about college applications. Keeps saying she can’t afford to go anywhere good. I wish I could tell her she’s brilliant enough that money won’t matter. That she’ll find a way. That she’s stronger than she thinks she is.
If something ever happens to me, I hope she remembers that. That she’s allowed to be happy. That she doesn’t have to carry the world on her shoulders.
She’s going to do amazing things. I just hope she believes it.
Ariella closed the journal with shaking hands.
“Thank you,” she whispered to a brother who couldn’t hear. “For believing in me. For trying to protect me. For being the best brother anyone could ask for.”
She took a breath.
“I’m going to try to be happy now. I hope that’s okay. I hope wherever you are, you’re at peace. And I hope you know I’ll carry you with me. Not as a burden. But as a reminder of what love looks like.”
She set the journal on her shelf, next to photos of them together.
Then she went to find Aiden and start planning a life beyond grief.
A life they chose.
Together.