Helena Ross died four years after the death of her husband and child. She was laid to rest in New London Cemetery, alongside her daughter. Her gravestone was simple, picked out shortly after her terminal diagnosis, the marble imprinted with only her name, years of life, and two words: I’m sorry.
Before she passed, she wrote me a letter, one now framed in my study, right next to the first letter from her that I ever received. Helena was not an easy woman to love, but she touched my life in a way that few people ever have. I will miss her in my life. I will miss her stories. I will miss her rare and hard-earned smiles.
I wish you could have known the woman behind her stories. This novel gives you a glimpse, but it doesn’t show you the person that she became after this story ends. When I met Helena, she was a tightly-wound ball of grief and guilt, her focus on one thing: telling this story. She wanted to confess her crimes and explain her motivations. For many of you, especially for faithful Helena Ross readers, this book will be a disappointment. There is no happy ending hidden in this epilogue. There is no solution for the sadness that you may be feeling. Most of Helena’s novels were written to entertain. This book was written for an entirely different reason. This book was for her. It was both her punishment and her absolution.
Since her death, I have delivered several messages from Helena, final words that she never had the chance to say.
This message, by far, is her most important. You, the reader, are the most important recipient of all. Thank you for listening to her story. Thank you for supporting her work, even if you don’t support her final decisions.
We are authors, and our lives are not the ones we live, but rather the characters that we create. This character was her truest to date. Whether you love or hate her, I hope that she made you feel. I hope that she touched your heart. I hope that, when closing this book, you will appreciate the life in these pages.
Helena, when you read these words in Heaven, know that you are loved and deeply missed.
Your friend,
Mark Fortune
The End