CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

THE WATER FLOWED around us, swirling into colorful eddies until the stream dissolved into a torrent of memories, sights and sounds. Our life together rose and receded in waves, each crashing surge bringing a new moment—some happy, some sad, each tugging at me to stay and relive them forever.

Diving deeper, I swam with every ounce of strength. Steadily I pushed into the void until I found what I’d been looking for—a familiar rhythm. The beat of my Evie’s heart, the pulse barely strong enough to carry me. From chamber to chamber, vessel to vessel, I quietly copied the sequence from my own DNA to hers.

The work that had kept me from enjoying her presence for the last four years. The research I’d put before her on so many occasions. All of it had been a father’s desperate attempt for a second chance.

“Evie, come back to me.” I opened my eyes, having done all I could do.

I shot a hand over to Marisol, checking for a pulse. I tried to connect with her, knocking at the door of her mind, but she was gone. I’d lost her. As usual she’d been right. In the end it was never even.

“Daddy?”

I choked, immediately sobbing. “Evie. Oh God, Evie. Forgive me.” Without her consent I had forced my cure on her. God forgive me.

“Daddy, I knew you could do it.”

A shadow crept over us as Adel approached gingerly. I looked up at her, down at Evie, and then at Marisol’s lifeless body. “I would have lost you if it hadn’t of been—”

Evie saw Marisol for the first time, “Dad?”

I shook my head. Scooting closer, I lifted Marisol until I embraced her battered body along with Evie. “She fought for you. She fought for us both.” I placed my lips next to Marisol’s ear, brushing her hair gently out of the way. “Your father would have been so proud.”

“Jim.” Adel barely whispered my name.

I gazed up at her silhouette, the sun directly behind her head.

“There are more casualties. Could you—”

“Of course. Lead the way.” I rose with Evie still cradled in my arms.

“You can put me down.”

I shook my head. “Maybe, but not for a long time.”

Adel picked up her pace, weaving through the rubble.

“Dad.”

“You promised you’d try to be my little girl.”

“I love you.”

I breathed deep, understanding both the breadth and depth of the words my daughter had just given me. Perhaps for the first time, I understood the spiraling nature of the gift when equally and selflessly felt. “I love you too.”