The End Justifies

[Elle Joyner]

She held him for a minute, shaking her head, whispering softly that she wasn't going anywhere. It was the movement in the corner of her eyes that caught her attention, as Thomas rose again, moved from his desk to the massive window behind him, overlooking the city. It was funny, she found now that they were at the cusp, now that it was almost officially over, she didn't hate him the way she'd expected.


She felt sorry for him. He'd allowed himself to be so corrupted by power, by money, by greed that in the end he was left with nothing. Taking Dillan's hand, she looked up at him, "Let's go." She said, "I don't wanna be here, when they come. I don't need to be."

 

[NRTupper]

Dillan looked over at his father, for just one brief moment he felt a stab of loss. But that man wasn't the father he thought he had. He squeezed her fingers and led her out.


He let out a sigh as they stepped clear of the office.


"I was thinking," he said quietly, "I like the idea of living further north. Near the mountains... maybe having a simple life. Money is all well and good but, I like the idea of having to work for what I have. Maybe I could try out of the police force... we could use your little fortune to buy a modest house... far, far away from the wealth and prestige of this place. What do you think, Jordan? We could bring Killian, make him babysit."


He slid his arm around her waist as he guided her into the elevator.

 

[Elle Joyner]

"I think I like the sound of that. Somewhere small... where everyone knows who you are. And we'll find Killian a girl. Someone who can keep him tame." Her arms looped around him and she lay her head on his chest. When the gunshot rang out, she didn't jump... she didn't move. She'd left it there, the gun and the clip on the floor with the small sense of knowing exactly what Thomas Blaithe would do with it.


He was a coward... he always had been, and in the end, she'd known that rather than facing himself, facing the people whose lives he had ruined, he would find a way to escape. There would be no trial, except to overturn Malcolm Cartwright's conviction, posthumously, and she and Dillan could finally be together... really, together.

 

[NRTupper]

Dillan flinched at the gunshot, burying his head in her neck. It wasn't what he wanted... He held her close.


He wanted to put this all behind them, and now they could without fear of retaliation, finally.


He wondered how much she remembered but realized it didn't matter. Whatever she knew, whatever she remembered, she was who she was in her soul and it was that, ultimately, that he'd been attracted to from the first.


"I love you, Jordan," he whispered.

 

[Elle Joyner]

And she loved him. Every day of her life, every second of it... And despite it all, despite Thomas Blaithe's attempted suicide, which left him in a coma for months, despite both Nancy and Thomas's subsequent sentencing to life behind bars, despite the pain of knowing even though he received his exoneration, she would never really know her father, it was a good life.


Four and a half months after they left the Hamptons, Malcolm Franklin Blaithe joined their family, and a year later, he become the big brother to a beautiful girl, Alice Rosemary. Killian never settled down, or at least that's what he'd like people to think, but his wife, Cheryl tells a very different story.


Dillan never lost his limp and Jordan never regained all of her memories, but the life they made together was a beautiful one and that was something both of them would cherish forever. They would never tell their children the entire story, but every day they were reminded how lucky they were that Jordan never really got the vengeance she was after.


Confucius once said, before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. And in a lot of ways, Jordan and Dillan did die to their old lives... but so rarely does the end so perfect justify the means...