When I cleared the small hill and saw the other side, my trembling hand flew to my mouth.
The helicopter wasn’t there to pick us up. It had been dropping him off.
He was in jeans and a shirt and he was walking towards me, a quirky expression on his face as he squinted into the sun.
I don’t know what came over me, but I ran. I ran straight for him, my legs not moving fast enough. Until finally. Finally I threw myself into his waiting arms.
I hit him so hard he stumbled back a few steps, but somehow managed to keep us both upright.
‘Hey,’ he said, exhaling.
Then, unable to control the overwhelming influx of emotions, I suddenly pulled back and pounded him on the chest. ‘I missed you! I don’t work right without you anymore!’
‘Shh,’ he soothed, holding me tightly even as I heard him chuckle. ‘I got here as soon as I could. I would never have missed the funeral.’
‘Why didn’t you call?’
He clasped my face in his hands and forced my eyes to his. ‘They had Sebastian and me under lock and key. First for questioning to clear our names, and then to work out all the responsible parties. After that, we stayed to discuss the future of the company and the tech. We could have fought it, but we needed them to trust that we were on their side and … I agreed to all of their conditions as long as they agreed to stay away from you.’
I sucked in a breath. That answered my question about why no one had come for me.
Quentin shrugged, seeing my confusion. ‘Gus’s statement and the files pretty much explained your role in full. You broke the law a lot, but given the outcome, the President has issued you with a full pardon.’
‘So I’m not in trouble?’
He shook his head.
‘And what about you?’ I hedged. ‘Are you just visiting or …?’ I wanted to believe it was finished, that we could be together, but I was too scared to hope.
He bit back a grin. ‘Actually, I’ve come to oversee my investment.’
‘The ranch? So you really bought it?’
He nodded.
‘With what money? Didn’t you and Sebastian give up the company?’
‘We did. But that doesn’t mean the family didn’t own a number of other lucrative and fully legal businesses that we continue to have interests in. We’ve donated the majority of the family wealth to help with the clean-up, but some companies we’ll maintain to generate additional funds, which will go towards helping the families affected. The ranch … Well, it’s a working ranch and its profits will go towards good causes too and …’ His smile widened as he looked around. ‘I’m fairly certain I promised you paradise.’
I swallowed thickly and looked down.
‘Maggie?’
‘I killed them, Quin. Your dad. Mine. I shot them and … I’ll never be able to undo it.’ I needed him to know this. To realise that every time he looked at me, he’d know that I was the one who killed his father.
‘Would you undo it if you could?’ he asked softly, his hand going to a stray lock of hair and tucking it behind my ear.
I shook my head. Because no matter what I had to live with, watching all those people being released from their prisons and seeing the cure rain down on so many innocent victims, I couldn’t deny that I stood by my choices.
‘Neither would I. I wouldn’t undo any of it, not from the minute I met you.’
I nodded quickly, trying to hold back the tears. ‘Please tell me you’re back. Please tell me you’re staying.’
His finger lightly lifted my chin. ‘I’m back. I’m staying.’
And then I was in his arms again, his lips on mine and thousands of people who appeared to genuinely care were whistling and cheering.
Despite my attempts to keep him kissing me forever, he finally managed to pull back with another chuckle. ‘I’m still going to have to travel back and forth to check on the businesses, but Sebastian is going to take the lion’s share. And I figured Charlottesville worked as well as anywhere else, with Georgetown, Washington and Lee, and the University of Virginia all a short chopper ride away.’
I looked at him as though he was crazy. ‘I’m not getting a helicopter to university.’
He shrugged and smiled. ‘We’ll see.’
The funeral broke my heart all over again. But with Quentin at my side, it was bearable. He held my hand as I sat stoically with my family, listening to the service. He knew I couldn’t manage much more and he didn’t push.
More than a few surprises waited for me at the funeral. To start with, even though it was a private service, they had set up masses of security to keep the general public out. It turned out Gus had become a modern martyr, something that would have highly amused him.
The turnout to the service was pretty much a who’s who of not only American politics, but leaders from around the world.
More importantly, when I looked around at my family and beyond them to Liam and Jacob, Master Rua, Ivy, Morris, many of the kids from school, and then spotted Grace and Alex standing at the back, I realised that perhaps Gus, Quentin and I hadn’t been as alone as I’d thought. I squeezed Quentin’s hand and he smiled warmly.
The service was tastefully tasteless in many ways, exactly how Gus would have liked it. At the end, Quentin and I stood at the exit doors and shook everyone’s hand and thanked them for coming.
Ivy and Morris hugged us both and promised to visit the ranch in the coming weeks.
When Alex approached, he surprised me by drawing me into his arms. ‘I’m sorry about Gus.’
I nodded.
‘For what it’s worth, I think my sister loved him.’
‘I think he loved her too.’
He let out a breath, as if trying to release some of the pain we all carried with us. But it was impossible. ‘We’ll be at Eliza’s service on Tuesday, but you probably won’t see us,’ he said, turning to Quentin.
Quentin nodded with understanding.
‘Well,’ Alex said, stepping back and taking Grace’s hand in his. ‘We’re here if you ever need us. All you have to do is call.’ With his other hand he held out a card.
Preference Evolution
Head of Operations
I looked at him with a raised brow.
He shrugged. ‘You never know when we might come in handy.’
And with that and a brief hug from Grace, they were gone. Something told me I would never see them again. And that was okay.
Finally I picked up my hat and took Quentin’s hand, readying myself to face the world.
‘He would have liked that you wore that,’ Quentin said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
I imitated a Gus-like snort. ‘He would’ve hated it and told me I was trying to steal his look.’
Quentin laughed. ‘Probably.’ He gestured to the door then held out his hand. ‘Are you ready for this?’
I took a deep breath and let it out before taking his hand in response.
Together we stepped outside, instantly assaulted by camera flashes and reporters calling out their questions.
We kept our heads down and headed towards the field where the helicopter and my family were already waiting. Liam joined us on my other side and together we walked through the crowds as the press threw their questions out randomly.
‘What happens now, Mr Mercer?’
‘Ms Stevens, did you always know what your father had planned?’
‘Ms Stevens, is it true you were the one to take your father’s life and then later also shoot Garrett Mercer?’ I flinched at that one, but Quentin held my hand tight and pulled me close.
Then came the next question from a woman right in front of us. ‘Mr Mercer, we’ve now heard much of your turbulent relationship with Ms Stevens. We understand she was the one who informed you about the true goings-on of your family business?’
For some reason Quentin decided to answer. ‘That’s correct,’ Quentin said, slowing briefly.
‘And yet she also led you to believe y
ou yourself were a neg?’ the woman continued, looking as though she couldn’t believe her luck.
His lips pressed together. ‘She had her reasons, as the world is well aware.’
‘Of course,’ she said quickly. ‘But what now for the two of you? Are you still in love with her? Even after what she did?’
Quentin stopped completely, causing a hush amongst the reporters. He turned to me and smiled briefly before turning his blue eyes – more steel than ocean – out to the field of hungry press as though he was about to reveal the best-kept secret of them all.
‘One hundred per cent.’
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to:
Selwa Anthony – Agent and Trusted Advisor
HarperCollins Australia – Publishing House
Chren Byng – Associate Publisher
James Kellow – CEO HarperCollins Australia
Cristina Cappelluto – Children’s Publishing Director
Tegan Morrison – Editor
Kate Burnitt – Project Manager
Beth Hall – Proofreader
Amanda Diaz – Publicist
Tim Miller – Marketing and Book Trailer Wizard
Matt Stanton and Jane Waterhouse – Designers and Cover Masters
Elizabeth O’Donnell – International Rights
Amy Fox – Sales
Jacqui Barton – Education Manager
Janelle Garside – Production
Bianca Fazzalaro – Children’s Publishing Assistant
The Horseshoe Curve – Jim Fink
Matt – Husband (thirteen years: each one better than the one before)
Sienna and Winter – Kids (who are growing up way too fast)
Harriet – Always First Reader (and Friend!)
Family – Mum, Dad, Jenny, Phil and all of my siblings and siblings-in-law
As you can see, it takes many people to produce the final product we find on the shelves (or on our e-readers). I am extremely lucky to have such an incredible team to work with and if I have missed anyone’s name, please forgive me.
My final thanks is reserved for the readers and bloggers who make this awesome job of writing stories a possibility for me. Thank you for your time, and for your trust. I have loved delving into Maggie’s world and I hope you enjoy this conclusion to her story.
About the Author
An internationally bestselling author, entrepreneur and mother living in Sydney, Australia, Jessica Shirvington is also a 2011 and 2012 finalist for Cosmopolitan’s annual Fun, Fearless Female Award. Married for thirteen years with two beautiful daughters, she met her husband, former Olympian Matt Shirvington, at age seventeen. Jessica knows her early-age romance and its longevity has definitely contributed to how she tackles relationships in her YA novels, which include the series The Violet Eden Chapters (also known as The Embrace Series) and the stand-alone novel Between the Lives (also known as One Past Midnight).
Visit her online at
www.jessicashirvington.com
www.facebook.com/Shirvington
Twitter: @JessShirvington
Books by Jessica Shirvington
THE VIOLET EDEN CHAPTERS
Embrace
Entice
Emblaze
Endless
Empower
Between the Lives
Disruption
Corruption
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2014
This edition published in 2014
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jessica Shirvington 2014
The right of Jessica Shirvington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Shirvington, Jessica, author.
Corruption / Jessica Shirvington.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9860 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978 1 4607 0201 7 (epub)
For children (14+)
Science fiction.
A823.4
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Corruption Page 32