Page 16 of His

“Yeah, it is.”

“But what did he thank you for? And why did you ask how she was doing?”

Astor takes a long sip of his whiskey.

“You paid to have her lip fixed, didn’t you?” I drag a hand through my hair. “Geez, Astor.”

“I did it for you. I couldn’t stand not knowing you were safe. So I made Josh an offer, he accepted, and has been checking on you twice a day.”

“Twice a day? Every day?”

“Yes. It’s not what I wanted, of course, but I had to know you were okay.”

When I don’t speak for a long moment, Astor slides his whiskey on the table and turns his full focus to me.

“Ask…Ask, Sabine. We can’t ignore it. The only way we’re going to work through this is if we communicate about absolutely everything.”

I nod, knowing he’s right.

I set down my drink. “When you’re not dropping letters on my front door, you’re with her, is that correct? Your wife.”

“Yes.”

“How is she? Valerie?”

“Not good. Her health is waning and her mental health is even worse. She doesn't leave the bed most of the time, and doesn’t speak to anyone aside from me.”

“Does she know?”

“About us? No. She’s suffering from short-term amnesia. She remembers everything before the incident and everything after waking up in the hospital. She doesn’t remember anything that happened inside the hangar.”

“Valerie has no idea you were willing to end your life for another woman?”

“No.”

“Will she eventually remember?”

“The doctors aren’t sure. It’s trauma blocking.”

“So is she happy? Or complacent, at least? Does she just think everything’s good?”

“No. Since the incident she’s been having terrible nightmares, calling out for Chloe and asking why.”

“What do you mean, why?”

“It’s almost like she’s calling out to someone, asking whoever that is, why it happened. Maybe she’s asking. I don’t know. But when I ask her, she doesn’t remember the dream or calling out. But she’s definitely obsessing over Chloe’s death, all of a sudden. The doctor said it could be the new drugs she’s on—she’s on a ton of new medications—or it could be that the recent trauma has brought everything back up.” He drags his fingers through his hair. “Every time we speak about Chloe it ends in a fight.”

“Because she thinks her death was an accident and you don’t.”

“Right.”

“Do you think you’ll ever be able to let it go?”

“Let go that I believe my daughter was murdered?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know. I just wish I knew either way, definitively.”

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