Now I stared down the aisle at my friends and family: Lien-hua’s two brothers, Nianzu and Huang-fu, were there, as well my mom and Sean’s wife, Amber.
Brineesha sat beside Ralph, beaming, and holding his hand. Tony tugged at the tie his mom had made him wear. He looked as uncomfortable in it as his father looked in his.
Margaret had come; Doehring had brought his wife and two daughters; Agents Farraday and Cassidy were here, as well as Metro SWAT Commander Shaw, and any number of other officers and agents Lien-hua and I knew.
Since her father was dead and my dad never had any daughters, she’d asked him to walk her down the aisle.
Honored, he’d accepted.
And now the procession began and they started toward us.
Lien-hua tried to hide her limp, but it was still there, healing, as so many things do, with time.
Traditionally, Chinese brides wear red, and in her crimson dress she looked absolutely resplendent.
I thought back to the toast Tessa had given at the picnic on that traumatic night Lien-hua was abducted: “Dum vivimus vivamus.”
While we live, let us live.
Yes. This brief moment that we have, this vaporous gift reaching only the span of a heartbeat. Yes. While we live.
Let us live.
My daughter, the free-flying raven, had asked us what it would look like to live in awe of every moment.
I’m not certain, but I’m going to try to find out.
Epilogue
“So you were caught at the fence.”
Giovanni looked across the table at his latest in a long string of lawyers. “Yes. I have a life sentence, what do I have to lose?”
His lawyer was silent. “You were still cuffed and in leg shackles. How did you—”
“We all have our secrets.”
“Well, there are some things we’re going to have to talk about.”
“No doubt.”
The gentleman filed through a sheaf of papers but said nothing. Giovanni was as patient as prison teaches you to be if you’re going to remain sane, but when his lawyer didn’t speak, he finally said, “What is it you’d like to cover first?”
The man pulled the paper clip off the stack of papers and set them aside, then held it up and smiled. “How to use this.”