Page 45 of In Another Lifetime

“You already know who it was. I can give you proof. You don’t have to believe me, but I can give you closure. And if you want me to leave… Then I’ll…leave.”

She took a long, fortifying breath. Tears rolled unchecked over her cheeks, and she shook her head, the desolation in her seeming real. She was a fucking good actress. That was for sure.

“Let me give you the evidence you need. It’ll point you the right way. Then I’ll go. I’ll go, and you’ll never see me again.”

“What evidence?”

“Evidence I hid because I was afraid for your life.”

“Stop it,” I growled through my teeth. “You’re not Melonie. The only thing you’re afraid of is repercussions for this.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t blame you for not believing me, though.” Her fingers scrubbed over her mottled cheeks, her eyes red from the tears she couldn’t just swipe away. She chewed the corner of her lip. The side of her fist tapped on the counter while she stared at the floor.

“When your parents died,” she started quietly, not looking at me, “I…Melonie…was pregnant. The grief—yours and Brennan’s and my reaction to it, as well as my own grief—and the overwhelming stress the entire situation caused me, caused my body to miscarry. We were the only ones who knew at that point. We hadn’t told anyone because it was our tiny, special secret. We had so many plans… And after that, you refused to try again. You said you couldn’t put me through that again.”

“Stop,” I whispered, the weak word having no force or venom. How many more punches would be thrown this morning. She was bringing up my deepest pains. Melonie, my parents, the child we’d lost…

“That morning, the morning of the murder, we had a fight. About getting pregnant. You found out that I’d stopped taking my pills. You were furious, and I was pretty pissed at you. We both went to work angry. And I told you… I told you I was angry enough to leave you.”

“No…” My head shook. I didn’t want to hear this.

“You called me on the way to work. You begged me not to leave. You said…we could figure something else. Then…” Her tight, little fist pounded fruitlessly in the air while she shook, blindly staring into nothing. “I couldn’t leave you. My body was damaged beyond any repair. But… I couldn’t…”

I swallowed around the rock in my throat.

But she couldn’t…leave.

Twenty-Five

Vale

“Melonie must have told you that,” Dayton accused.

I didn’t reply. He didn’t believe me, and I had little hope I could say anything to convince him at this point. If he couldn’t see past the suspicion, then he’d never believe me. I’d hoped he might for a moment, but clearly, he took everything I said as a lie. Which meant this was over. Everything I’d worked toward for the past five years…finished. Hopeless.

I’d known all along this might happened. I couldn’t blame him. Truth was, I wouldn’t believe it, either. And I’d always been the more open-minded about otherworldly things.

So this was it. Struggling to keep a breakdown at bay, I focused on what I had to do before I said goodbye. I’d give him what he needed then leave him to connect the dots into a logical picture.

“Can you trust me? For a minute anyway?”

He half-shrugged with a whatever shake of his head. Which meant no, but he wouldn’t stop me, either.

“This will seem weird. Weirder,” I told him.

“Doubt it.”

“Then follow me. We’re going into the basement.”

“Vale…”

I held my arms out to the side. “It’s not like I could hurt you. You can check if you want; I’m not armed. I’m not an ax murderer or something. Just trust me for five or ten minutes.”

“Don’t joke about murder,” he growled.

Okay. Fair. That was a stupid thing for me to say.

“Just… Come with me.”

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