Page 57 of The Talk Around Town

Gabe grabbed Emma as her knees gave way, catching her as she fell. He scooped her up and turned around.

“Okay. Move, everyone! Let me through.” He spotted his mother just behind him. “I need your office,” he said, and hurried toward the bakery as the crowd parted before him.

Emma’s heartbroken sobs into his neck dampened his skin with her tears. Her arm snaked around his neck as if she was afraid to let him go.

What was she talking about? Who was dead?No one had been hurt as far as he could see.

Gabe hurried through his mother’s shop, around the counter and into the office at the back. The one-way mirror showed people following them into the bakery as he glanced up. He shook his head. They all meant well, but they were the nosiest lot he’d ever met.

He sat down on his mother’s sofa and cradled Emma on his lap. His mother wouldn’t let anyone past the front counter who didn’t need to be there. He stroked Emma’s hair back from her face.

“Now tell me what’s going on. I need to know. Who’s dead?” he asked softly over her sobs.

Emma’s hand rested on his chest. Her fingers curled into the material of his shirt as she tried to talk past her tears. “I was in a car accident three years ago. A truck hit my little hatchback. A drunk driver.” Her words halted for a moment, caught in her grief. “They’re dead. They’re both dead.”

Emma pulled back to look at Gabe, her face a mess of tears. “M-my husband Alex, and my daughter Sasha. She was only one. One,” she whispered. “I killed them, Gabe. It’s all my fault. If I’d bought the car Alex wanted they’d still be alive.”

Emma collapsed against him, heavy sobs shaking her. He glanced up at movement in the doorway to see his mother and Darby standing there, their sad faces mirroring the shock he felt.

Alexwasher husband.

He was also dead, and Gabe had run away without finding out the truth, because he’d been so worried about being the one getting hurt.

How will she ever forgive me?

Gabe stroked Emma’s hair. His mother and Darby stepped back out of view, toward the front of the shop. “Why didn’t you say something? You didn’t need to go through that alone.”

“I didn’t want you all to know I killed them.” Emma spoke into his shoulder, her voice muffled. “I wanted you all to like me, not feel sorryfor me. I wanted a clean slate, a new start. I was driving. I was responsible for their safety, but I was too busy arguing with Alex.

“It started about the car, then I told him I knew he’d been cheating. He had a girlfriend. The whole time I was pregnant he was seeing someone else. He said I was ugly, that he would never have gotten me pregnant if he knew how fat I’d get. I told him to move out. I-I didn’t see the truck run the red light.”

Emma heaved in a shuddering breath. “It hit us on his side and mangled the car. A metal pole went through my side.”

Holy Mother of God.That was what the scar was from.

Gabe tightened his arms around her, holding her close, trying to ease some of the pain. He didn’t know if he was helping or not but it was the only thing he could do.

“I’m so sorry. I know that doesn’t help, but I am sorry. No wonder you freaked out. You said you had a daughter?” he asked gently.

He wouldn’t mention the scum husband, a man who obviously had no idea what he’d given up by cheating on her.

She nodded into his chest, settling more comfortably against him. “Sasha. She was so little. She was everything to me. Her photo is in the locket on my keychain.”

Gabe kissed the top of her head and pressed his cheek to her hair. He’d seen the locket. Had never thought to ask what was in it.

“I’d like to see it, when you’re ready to show me.”

Emma nodded again. “I wish I’d done what he’d said and gotten the car he wanted. If I’d been paying attention, I would’ve seen the truck. Now I have to live with the fact that I killed my own family.”

Anger at the truck driver swelled. It wasn’t fair that she had to go through this alone, that she had to bear the pain and self-recrimination.

“It wasn’t your fault. How could it be? The truck ran the red light. It hityou. Okay, you weren’t paying attention. We’re all guilty of that at some point. You certainly didn’t expect a truck to come from nowhere and plough into you. You’re not responsible for other people’s bad choices, no matter how it affected you,” Gabe said, his soft words muffled against her hair.

He sucked in a gasp.

She wasn’t responsible. And neither was he.

Realisation hit him hard. He wasn’t responsible for Sami. She hadmade her own choice, and now he needed to let it go. He looked down at Emma. Seeing her pain and self-blame for something she could never have controlled had opened his eyes to the truth. It was something people had been telling him for years, but he couldn’t see it. Until now.

---