Author's Note: I can hardly believe it, and I wasn't expecting it to end so soon, but this is the last chapter. This ending is quite different from the original novel, but I think it suits these characters better than Fitzgerald's ending does, so here it is. This has been a lot of fun and I'm really grateful to everyone who took the time to drop a line. If you're looking for something else to read, go check out Amour Fou by Brunette, because it is beyond amazing. Seriously, everyone needs to read that story. You will not regret it.

XXI.

Before she walked away

Lucy entered her house with dry eyes and a steady heartbeat, still wearing the bright yellow dress that had seen her through so much grief and anguish. She left Evelyn's apartment half an hour ago, shortly after Rick arrived, and before she departed she embraced Evelyn like a sister, feeling much closer to her now that they truly had something in common at last. Evelyn was no longer the aloof, intelligent woman who had looked upon Lucy with a critical eye, but a lost girl who desperately missed her brother. She allowed Lucy to leave early, though she asked her to come back soon, and Lucy made no promises. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep them.

She entered her lovely white house on silent footsteps, feeling light and airy aside from the heavy handbag that thumped against her side. It contained her ticket to freedom, for she had booked passage to America the moment she left Evelyn's place, and as soon as she fetched Gabriel she would be out of Cairo, gone from the city that had given her too many awful memories. She had friends and family in America who might take her in, but she wouldn't starve if they didn't. She couldn't lose her money if she and Beni weren't actually divorced.

She crept up the stairs and into the nursery, where the nursemaid kept watch as Gabriel played with his wooden blocks upon the floor. He was already so smart, building small houses and towers with his toys, and Lucy knelt to the floor so she could drop a kiss upon the top of his head. He looked up at her with light blue eyes, so much like his father's eyes, and Lucy was sorry that she had created such a sweet little boy with such a cruel, horrible man.

"It will be all right now, my darling," she whispered to Gabriel. "I'm taking you away from him."

She rose to her feet and smiled at the nursemaid, as if it were a perfectly normal morning in a perfectly normal, ordinary life. "Agnes, I'm taking Gabriel out for a stroll. Would you get him ready for me, please?"

"Of course, ma'am," said Agnes. She was so lucky, safe and ignorant in a world that concerned the baby and nothing else.

"Wonderful," said Lucy. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

She slipped out of the nursery and down the hall, making her way to the master bedroom. It was still morning, and she knew exactly where Beni liked to spend his idle morning hours. Ever since they were married he had a habit of lying in bed late, simply because he could, as if being lazy was a requirement for the very wealthy. Lucy didn't bother to knock and entered the bedroom, ready to face one final demon before she fled from a life that could no longer imprison her. It was time to say goodbye before she walked away forever. Her traveling trunk still lay upon the floor, her belongings scattered exactly where she left them, and a lump in the bed told her that Beni was still resting, too wrapped up in his own selfish desires to bother cleaning up. She wasn't surprised.

She sat down on the side of the bed, close enough to reach out and touch him on the shoulder. "Beni."

He groaned and rubbed at his eyes, then blinked up at her with a confused expression that rapidly gave way to a smug little grin. "I knew you would be back."

"I didn't have much of a choice," she said. "Jonathan's dead, Beni."

"Oh, yes," he said sadly. "I heard the news. How tragic this must be for you."

"Don't pretend that you care. You're glad he's gone, isn't he?"

"If I am, then I have a right to be. You are my wife, till death do us part."

Lucy scooted a little closer to him, forcing herself to take him by the hand. Touching him made her skin crawl, but she could bear it for just a little while. She could pretend that she still wanted him, that she could forgive him for his sins, knowing that freedom was just around the corner.

"Well I'm here now," she said. "You've won, and I've got nowhere else to go."

"Didn't I tell you I was right, my dear?" he said. He brought himself to a sitting position, still clutching her by the hand, and gave her a satisfied smile. "Didn't I tell you that Carnahan was nothing?"

"Yes," she said softly. "He was a liar, right from the start."

"But I have never lied to you, have I?"

"No." She moved ever closer, making him believe every sweet lie that fell from her lips. "You've always been brutally honest."

He released her hand and put a possessive arm around her, relaxing his grip when she didn't struggle or try to pull away. "Why don't you be a good girl and kiss me, and we will forget that anything ever happened?"

"All right," Lucy whispered.

She straddled his lap and kissed him, thinking of the boat that waited to set sail. She pretended to enjoy his lips against hers, thinking of the wedding ring she had tossed into the street before entering the house, and slipped a hand into the purse she had brought with her. Her fingers brushed against the boat ticket and settled on something colder and more solid, something that she had swiped from Rick's house when Rick wasn't looking, and she held to it tight as she kissed her husband one last time.

Beni pulled away from her, his face lit up in a satisfied grin. "You see? That was not so bad."

"You're right, Beni." She raised the gun and pointed it between his eyes. "Not bad at all."

He gaped at her in shock, frozen with sudden fear as he stared into the barrel of her weapon. "What the hell is this?"

"You're a fool, thinking I could come running back to you," said Lucy, her voice trembling.

"Lucy, you don't know what you're doing." Beni's words came out in a high, breathless whine, and he looked so much like the street rat she remembered that Lucy almost lost her nerve.

"I know exactly what I'm doing."

"I will treat you better from now on, I swear. I will love you, if only you will—"

"Stop it!" Lucy cried. "You had him killed. I know you did!"

"Only because I can't bear to lose you," Beni whimpered. "Please, Lucy, I am your husband. The father of your baby. Think of our little boy!"

"I have been thinking of him," she said, fighting to keep the gun steady in her nervous hands. "Gabriel will be better off without you."

"Then I will go away. I will leave and never bother you again. Please, Lucy, have mercy on me."

She couldn't take his pleading anymore. He was so pathetic, such a slave to his own greed, and she remembered a time when he wasn't so cruel. She remembered a time when he was just a poor pickpocket, using his wits and his quick fingers to survive, and she felt sorry for him then, just as she felt sorry for him now.

Lucy lowered the gun and set it on the bed between them. "There," she said. "You really win this time."

"Thank you, my dear," he said, a cruel smile on his lips.

Beni snatched up the gun, ready to fire at her, and Lucy reacted with a strength she didn't know she had. She slammed into him before he could shoot her, knocking him against the headboard, and she heard a sickening crack as his head struck the wood. The gun rolled out of Beni's limp fingers and Lucy stared at him numbly, gazing into a pair of lifeless eyes that would never see her again.

"Till death do us part," Lucy said softly, feeling faint.

She was free at last.