Woman on the Edge(69)
Quinn babbles at the small mirror in front of her. As always, I’m overcome with love for her. Ben and I look at each other, no words necessary. We’re the lucky ones.
Quinn raises her arms for me to pick her up. I hold her so she’s facing Martinez.
The detective beams. “She’s beautiful.”
“She looks exactly like my sister,” Ben says. “My sister was a good person.”
“A good person who trusted the wrong people. It can happen to anyone.” Martinez locks eyes with me, her expression kind and gentle.
I have a recurring dream in which Nicole and I are on the platform. I grab her arm and pull her toward me, away from the tracks. I hold her close to me and whisper, “I’ll help you.” And she doesn’t die. Instead, she cradles Quinn and points forward, to someone on the platform. But I can’t see who it is.
Martinez takes her leave. Ben and I stand at the door, watching her drive away. Quinn is in my arms. The air is unseasonably warm for March. The sun-dappled elm creates a canopy over the lawn. A haven for us all.
Ben takes my hand. “Are you happy?”
All I feel is affection, warmth, and gratitude for this man. “I’m happy, yes,” I say. “But you should put the toilet seat down once in a while.”
He laughs, and so does Quinn. I’m so lucky to have them. I’m lucky to be alive, and free. And to finally know the truth. I no longer blame myself for Ryan’s immorality, his greed and lies. I’ve learned that good people don’t always recognize evil, because we don’t understand it.
I won’t go back to social work ever again. But not because I don’t like it. I’ve decided to do a master’s degree in counseling psychology online. This way I can get my degree and spend as much time as possible with Quinn.
Ben is back at Mount Zion, at the newly minted Nicole Markham Emergency Department, and now that he’s settled—now that we’re settled—he’s devoting time to fixing a lot of the hospital’s problems. The profit margin this year should finally be above the bottom 25 percent of safety-net hospitals, which will ultimately enable Ben to hire three more ER doctors and two triage nurses, and add a rapid medical exam area to decrease wait times and increase patient flow.
Breathe took a severe hit on the stock market, but Lucinda Nestles, executive chairperson of the board, was appointed the new CEO. She admitted that Tessa had fed her information about Nicole’s instability. She felt awful for perhaps exacerbating Nicole’s panic by sending a letter asking for her resignation. Just another unwitting player in Tessa’s game. She’s managed to sell more shares to new investors, and though the turnaround is slow, Breathe will recover. Quinn’s shares are held in trust by us. Though neither Ben nor I are financial experts, we are learning, because we’re both wary of putting our faith in a broker.
Quinn squirms, the way she does when she wants to feel her feet on the ground. She’s now using all the furniture to pull herself up to stand. Before we know it, she’ll be walking. We head down the steps onto the wet grass and I hold our independent, strong-willed girl upright. Then I turn to Ben. And I kiss him.
He cups my face in his hands and kisses me back. Quinn pulls her hand out of my mine, and I open my eyes. Ben and I turn our attention to our daughter. She reaches for something flying in front of her.
It’s a butterfly with purple details on its wings. It comes so close to Quinn’s cheek that it might have even touched her.
Then the butterfly soars above all of us, up and away.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Woman on the Edge took over six years to write, revise, and publish, with an incredible team of people. I could never have seen my dreams realized without them, so please bear with me because I have so many to thank and finally have the chance. If I’ve missed anyone, please forgive me. I promise to catch you in the next book.
My fierce, tireless super-agent, Jenny Bent, plucked this book from the slush pile and saw into my soul what I wanted it to be. Then, draft after draft after draft, she taught me how to turn my idea into my debut thriller. Because of Jenny, my wildest wish came true when she sold the book to Nita Pronovost at Simon & Schuster Canada, whose brilliant editing transformed my manuscript into a novel I never knew it could be. Nita and editor Sarah St. Pierre gently guided me, word by word, enhancing my voice and story in ways I didn’t know were possible. I am so grateful and so lucky to work with all of them. I actually want Nita and Sarah to now follow me wherever I go, editing my every sentence, because what they can do with my words is magic.
Simon & Schuster Canada is based in my city of Toronto, and the offices have become my home. The entire editorial, marketing, publicity, and sales teams are incredibly hardworking and dedicated, and I’m indebted to president and publisher, Kevin Hanson; assistant to Kevin and Nita, Sophia Muthuraj; VP of marketing and publicity, Felicia Quon; senior publicist, Jillian Levick; marketing associate, Alexandra Boelsterli; associate director of publicity, Rita Silva; director of sales, Shara Alexa; assistant editor, Siobhan Doody; marketing manager, Jessica Scott; and director of sales, Mike Turnbull, for everything they do to make sure as many readers as possible know about my book, while keeping me laughing all the time. Thank you to copy editor Erica Ferguson.
Huge thanks to Sarah Hornsley at The Bent Agency, who was also instrumental in shaping the book and finding it a home in the UK with the loveliest, most supportive editor, Sherise Hobbs at Headline. I’m honored to be with Headline, which publishes so many of my writing idols. The minute I saw the cover for Woman on the Edge, my jaw dropped, because I could never have envisioned something so spectacular. Huge thanks to uber-talented cover designer Caroline Young. And so many thanks also to assistant Faith Stoddard; my eagle-eyed, genius UK copy editor, Penelope Price; Jo Liddiard in marketing; Rosie Margesson in publicity; Frances Doyle in sales; and Rebecca Bader, sales director. And to Rhea Kurien, who I only had the privilege of working with for a short time, though it was wonderful.