Page 7 of Agony of Our Regret

“I’ve got nothing.” He held up his hands.

“You’d better not.” I narrowed my eyes playfully, then wrapped up my leftovers. “I’ll finish this later.”

The mood on the walk back was much lighter. We held hands and crossed the river. We nearly reached the front of our office building when he stopped.

“Okay, there is one thing.”

My stomach dropped, and I turned, waiting.

“We’ve been looking into the accident,” he ventured and paused. “Technically, the Society started first. Gavin and I looked through the file they already built.”

“I thought it was just a distracted driver.” At least, that was what they told me.

“That was the police’s report, but we wanted to be sure. The driver came back clear, but we did some more digging. There might be something there.”

I cringed. “Like what?”

“We haven’t confirmed it yet, but it's possible the Anti-Society paid the driver to hit you.”

I let out a half laugh, half cough. “You think the AS paid someone to kill me?”

He didn’t smile, didn’t even blink. “Yes.”

I glanced around, taking in the pedestrians surrounding us as if one of them was suddenly going to jump at us. “Why?”

“The circumstances around the accident were strange. Plus, we’re all paranoid at this point. Someone on Gavin’s team tracked the car using camera footage. It pulled out from its parking spot when you left the building and seemed to follow you for two blocks before it finally hit you.”

“It was driving through the city. That’s not reason enough to suspect––”

“I know.” He squeezed my hand. “It could all be a coincidence, but we want to be sure.”

I’d prefer to live in denial. The car happened to leave at the same time I did. Fine. Sure. The fact that it trailed me before hitting me was nothing to think about. We were just taking the same route. With me on foot.

I put my hand over my stomach. At least they weren’t targeting me because they knew I was pregnant. I hadn’t even known at the time.

“We know they know who you are,” he continued.

“But I’m in disguise.” I pointed to my hair and glasses.

He smirked at my lame joke. “Yeah, you’re a completely different person.”

I dropped my forehead to his shoulder. “Well, if they know who and where I am, does that mean I can go back to dark brown? Keeping up with my roots is getting old.”

He rubbed my back with his free hand. “That’s up to you.”

Suddenly, standing outside felt too vulnerable. “Let’s head in.”

We passed through the lobby, and he walked me to my office. “I’ll see you at five.” He kissed my cheek and headed down the hall toward the opposite side of the building.

I went to my desk and checked the time. With ten minutes before my next meeting, I went to the restroom and then to the conference room where Tessa, Daniel, and a few of the other members of the school committee already sat.

“Hi, Avalon,” Tessa greeted first, and the others joined.

I smiled and took a chair opposite her next to Wes, one of Noah’s dads. “How is everyone?”

Stacy, one of the other women I’d met when I first came to this committee, grinned. “Good. We’re glad to have you back. Are you healing up, okay?”

I nodded. “Still a little sore, but I’m doing much better.”

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