Page 13 of Sinner's Vow

But I think it means something that neither of us seems able to take them off.

She looks over her shoulder, back at me, and smiles. That smile pulls something out of me. Like an echo, it pulls at the back of my brain.

I can’t remember everything.

But that feeling is becoming familiar.

There was a reason I wanted to marry Kennedy.

We’re walkingdown a sidewalk and there are a million flashing lights. Kennedy’s lips are moving, however, I don’t actually hear anything. But the feeling of the night, the wonder I feel inside of me, it grows stronger and stronger by the moment.

Secrets. Confessions.

Our darkest truths.

I open my mouth. I let the words out. And I take in hers.

I take her words, I hold them in my heart, and I give her my own.

The sound of an alarm rips me from sleep with a harsh start. I slam my hand down on my phone and peer out into the dimly lit room.

It takes me a second to remember where I am. A hotel. Still in Italy.

Our show is tonight. And tomorrow we’ll be heading to another location.

Show. Heading out in the morning.

My brain tumbles back to the dream I was just having.

It was me and Kennedy, walking down the sidewalk in Las Vegas.

Only it wasn’t just a dream. Suddenly, I remember. And those words I couldn’t hear in the dream fill back in.

“I’m not as good as you might think,”Kennedy said as she shook her head.

“You gave up everything to take care of your mother,”I countered. “I had an aunt who got dementia. It wasn’t easy. Eventually, my uncle had to take her to a care facility because he couldn’t do it all on his own. You gave up everything and were there for her until she died.”

“But then I was relieved when she finally died,”Kennedy confessed, her tone rising in volume. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes closed. “I loved my mom, so much. She was all I had. But it was so, so hard. And exhausting and scary. So, when she went…” She shook her head again. “I shouldn’t have felt relieved, but I was.”

I stopped, reaching for her wrist. “That doesn’t make you a bad person. People can’t live forever in a constant state of distress.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she looked away. “We nearly lost the house a year before she died,” she continued, and from the look on her face, I knew she was about to say something bad. “Taking care of Mom was full time. I couldn’t go get a job because someone had to be with her all the time. And my savings were drained, so were Mom’s. So, I…”

My brows furrowed and I wrapped a hand around her hip, pulling her a little closer.

“I knew this photographer,”she said, her tone breathy and quivering. “He’d been trying to get me to model for him. He had this…personal collection. And he had money. He’d offered to pay me a lot of it to come do a session with him. He promised no one would ever see the images but him. So, when the money ran out and I didn’t know what else to do, I called him.”

Something grew hard in my stomach. I felt my free hand curl into a fist.

I’d met plenty of predators like this guy.

“I knew what kind of shoot he was going to ask for, but I still felt sick the entire time,”Kennedy said as two tears broke free. “And the look on his face, even from behind that camera… I hate knowing he has those pictures and can look at them whenever he wants.”

“Fuck,”I breathed as I looked away for a moment with an aggressive shake of my head. “Asshole.”

Kennedy nodded. “But I got the money. And it was enough to get us through to the end. There was still about a thousand dollars left after Mom passed. And when I sold the house, I made a little bit of money from that.”

“Well, what now?”I asked, looking back at her. I reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

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