Page 100 of Falling Too Late

“I mean, yeah. Depends on the situation, though, and how identifiable the body is.” He paused. “What’s going on? Is this about Alex?”

How did I tell him that the best friend who I told him died was alive? How did I tell anyone?

“When he committed suicide, Jon was the one to identify him. Jon was the one to file the paperwork, get the death certificate. Jon did everything.”

“To get the death certificate, the death has to be reported, then filed with the local jurisdiction. . .”

“How are bodies identified?”

“Lots of different ways. DNA, dental records, next of kin.” He sighed. “Wren, what’s going on?”

He’s alive.

But I didn’t say the words. I wasn’t ready. If I told Mario, he would start looking into it, and I wasn’t ready for the truth yet.

My stomach filled with dread.

“I just wasn’t a part of the process and wanted to know about it is all,” I lied.

I could hear Mario expel his breath. “Just thinking about it because of the anniversary is coming up?”

“Yeah. Sorry to bother you with it, Mario.”

“Don’t apologize. Call me anytime.” He paused. “Aside from that, how was the dinner thing?”

I scratched under King’s chin. “It was. . .” I sighed. “It was a lot.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Nah. It is what it is. I’m good.”

“See you Wednesday.”

Mario ended the call. I laid the phone in my lap and looked around the porch. Sighing, I stood, turning and heading back into the house. Before I turned my phone back off, I made one more phone call.

“Riley, I need you.”

“Say that again?”

“You heard me the first time.”

“No, ma’am, because what I thought you said is,Alex is alive.” Riley’s red hair was in her signature braid, and it whipped back and forth, smacking her in the face as she vigorously shook her head. Her teal-blue eyes widened.

As soon as I’d called her, she sped over to my house. It was still dark out, but she didn’t hesitate. She was dressed in a T-shirt and sweats, with her clamshell slippers.

I nodded at her. “He’s alive, Ri.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. I want to believe that there was some kind of mistake, but. . .” I thought about Jon’s face at dinner. He’d been just as shocked as me.

“Fuck Jon right now. Tell me again. Alex called you a whore?”

I tried to remember the first time Jon and Riley met. It had to of been after Gloria got sick. The moment didn’t stand out for me. Jon, Riley, Troy and Gavin had worked together to get me moved out from the corner house and into this house. She never spoke badly about him, but she didn’t go out of her way to be friends with him either.

I never thought much about it, but what did she sense in Jon that I didn’t?

I sat back on the couch, groaning. “Not straight out, but he said I had been shacking up with Jon, the prick.” I was still so angry and hurt that he would say those things to me.

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