Page 76 of Please Remember

"Maybe you were leaving to go home and saw Allie walking to her Jeep. You wanted to say something to her, but Allie said something mean that set you off. You were already emotional, it was raining, and it was a perfect combination of events. Her words with everything else instigated the violence, and you hit her," Shields says. "Then, when you thought you'd really hurt her, maybe even killed her, you panicked knowing how much trouble you'd be in. She saw you, so you couldn't just leave her in case she wasn't dead, so you loaded her up in the back of her Jeep and drove her to an abandoned house where you kept her locked up in the basement."

Parsons nods. "That would give you the perfect opportunity to have Jax all to yourself."

"Simply getting rid of Allie didn't give me Jax, you moron," I snap. "In fact, it took five years before he even considered asking me out. That's alot of time and effort to put into trying to get a man. Injure and kidnap his girlfriend to lock away in a basement while spending years trying to get him to notice me. Yes, that sounds like something a totally sane person would do."

"That's assuming we believe you're completely sane."

The man gets under my skin, and Shields jumps in before I can tell him where to shove his assumptions.

"You've been in love with Jax since you were a kid, right? Aged twelve, maybe thirteen? You spent more time watching him in love with Allie than it took you to convince him to date you."

"Have you even considered the fact Allie's pulling one over on all of us? That she's faking all of this? That she did it to herself?"

"And why would she do that?" Parsons asks.

Everyone keeps asking me this when it's pretty fucking obvious. "To get his attention. To get attention in general," I say. "She and Jax weren't as happy as they wanted us to believe, and I heard Allie was at risk of losing her job. That, combined with relationship problems creates a pretty decent reason to want to disappear."

Tilting his head, Parsons narrows his eyes at me. "If they were having such problems, why would Jax go to such a big effort to propose to her? If you truly thought they weren't that happy, that she might need to get his attention, you'd have no reason to go home and cry yourself to sleep. They wouldn't make it down the aisle just like you didn't."

This asshole.

"And unhappy people don't typically plan over-the-top romantic gestures," Shields adds.

"Just because Jax was proposing doesn't mean Allie was happy. The rumors were that she was about to lose her job because she slept with her boss. Her married boss. And when he refused to leave his wife forher, she threatened to tell HR about the affair. She was going to tell them he abused his power."

He sighs. "If she wasn't happy, why were you so sure she'd say yes when he proposed?"

"Have you ever had a room full of people expecting you to say yes? Of course, she was going to say yes in the moment."

Looking in the folder in front of her, Shields shakes her head. "Allie's boss was female. There's also no indication Allie was at risk of losing her job. In fact, she was shortlisted for an upcoming promotion. Everyone at the company gave extremely high praises about her. The bank even offered up a reward for any information leading us to find Allie."

Frustrated, I slap my hands on the table. "Of course, they'll sing high praises of heraftershe's gone missing. Who's going to say someone was a raging bitch when they’ve just disappeared off the face of the earth, especially in the company parking lot? Come on, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out."

"You don't watch a lot of police dramas, do you?" Parsons asks.

"No, I'm more of aGrey's AnatomyandScrubsfan," I say with a sneer.

Shield and Parsons exchange a glance as she says, "Well, that's interesting."

"Why is that interesting?" I ask.

"If you did watch police dramas," Parsons says, ignoring me, "you'd realize that nothing stays hidden in a police investigation. Nothing."

"When Allie hit her head on the parking curb from the lot behind the bank, she left blood evidence. Concrete is extremely porous, and even with the rain and the amount of time that has passed, there were traces of her DNA left there. The same person who forced her to slam her head into the concrete block had some medical training to tend to herwound in the basement she was locked in. Not a professional doctor, but someone who knows some about the medical field," Shields says.

Looking through his own folder, Parsons glances up at me. "You're a certified nurse's assistant, aren't you? You have first aid training? Basic medical training?"

"I think it's time we end this interview," my lawyer says.

"Finally," I say, leaning back in my chair.

No way is Allie going to pin this on me. I had nothing to do with it, and they’ll figure it out soon enough. If not, I might have to share what I know about Natalie. Assuming she doesn’t show up and confess to save me soon.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Allie

Lying in Jax's arms, I stare up at the ceiling. I've been back to my old self for about a month now. My old boss offered me a job again, and I've moved forward and tried to come to terms with my lost time.

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