Page 83 of The Devil's Torment

Except I didn’t love Nicholas. Oh, I thought I did, but it was more obsession than love.Now, it’s love. My feelings now don’t compare to my feelings back then, but there’s little point in telling Beth that.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, my temples pounding. “Beth, you faked your own death. Who the fuck does that?”

“A girl who’s frightened and desperately unhappy and knows that being trapped in a loveless marriage would slowly crush her to death.”

“Yet you’re happy formeto be the one trapped in a loveless marriage.” A snort shoots out of me. “How touching.”

She frowns. “What do you mean? You love Nicholas. I watched the two of you as you exited that church. It’s obvious you love him.”

God, Beth. The innocence. It’s not obvious to Nicholas. “Yes, I love Nicholas, but he doesn’t love me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he’s kind, caring, and he likes me, and we enjoy spending time together. But love? No, Beth. And you know what’s worse than being trapped in a loveless marriage? A marriage where one side would die for the other because they love them so fiercely, but the other party doesn’t feel the same way.That’storture.That’sbeing slowly crushed to death.”

“You’re wrong, Vic. I know what I saw. It’s right there in his eyes. He loves you. Trust me.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I do. It’s my life. I’m the one living it.” I rub my forehead. “We’ve shifted off track. I want to know how you made us all think you were dead.”

Cupping her coffee mug with both hands, she brings it to her mouth and sips before setting it back down. She keeps her hands around it, though, as if she needs a touchstone to steady her. She’s not the only one. I feel like I’ve been thrown into a tumble dryer and it’s aimlessly tossing me around.

“The night I heard you tell Imogen how you felt about Nicholas, as soon as I got home, I locked my bedroom door, turned on some music to drown out my voice, and called Joel. That’s his name, by the way.” Her eyes mist over, and her lips form a small, secretive smile. “I told him I had a way out. Between us we devised a plan to kill me.” She lifts her gaze to me, her eyes filled with sorrow. “I am sorry, Vic, to you most of all, but I thought I was doing the right thing. You have to believe me.”

“Beth, Jesus Christ. We thought you were dead.Dead.We buried you. I spoke at your funeral, blaming Nicholas for killing you. I was convinced he said something to you that night to make you get in that cab alone. I cried for you. Igrievedfor you. I’m still grieving, yet you’re sitting here, breathing the same air as me.”

I shove my hands beneath my thighs in case I break something. Hot fury fills my veins. The cruelty of what she did is something I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from, no matter what her reasons were.

A sob breaks from her throat, strangled and filled with pain. I harden my heart in case I end up comforting her. I don’t want to comfort her. I want to hit her, rail on her, scream at her.

“The taxi driver. That was Joel?”

She nods.

“And the woman we buried. Who the fuck is she, Beth? Because somewhere out there is a family grieving a missing loved one.”

“She didn’t have any family. We checked.”

I cover my face with my hands, incredulous. This is like something out of a crime novel.

“Joel’s brother, Max, is a coroner. He knows people. We brought him in on our plan, and he agreed to help us. There was this girl who came under his jurisdiction. She died of exposure. Homeless. Terribly sad, but we checked, and she didn’t appear to have any family or anyone who would miss her. Max agreed to keep her in the mortuary until we could put our plan into action.”

Propping my elbows on the table, I plant my hands on top of my head and take several deep breaths.

“Beth, have you heard yourself? You do know you’ve committed a crime? That all of you will be in terrible trouble if this gets out.”

“I know the risk I’m taking coming back, but I don’t have a choice.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “What does that mean?”

“Let me finish first. I owe you a full explanation, then I’ll tell you why I’m here.”

“I can’t wait.”

Beth flinches at my retort, but I don’t care. This is all so… unbelievable. Horrific. I feel like I’m floating above it all, watching from a great distance.

“The night it happened, Nicholas called to invite me to go clubbing with you all. I instantly knew this was my shot. I called Joel, and he and Max loaded the body into the footwell of the car we’d stolen and hidden a few weeks earlier in preparation. He waited around the corner for my signal. You and Imogen were dancing, and Nicholas was too busy talking to Alexander to notice me sneak off. You weren’t supposed to see me sitting in the cab. You were only supposed to find out about it afterward, but I was in too deep by then. It had to happen that night. I was running out of time. As the cab rounded the corner, Max was waiting for us. It only took seconds for me to dive out of the cab and for Max and Joel to put the body on the backseat. We threw ourselves into Max’s car, and he floored it. A few seconds later, Joel remote detonated the bomb.”

I’m slap bang in the middle of a Michael Connolly book. I must be. This can’t be real. God, all that grief she caused, the heartache. The guilt I suffered through knowing I married her fiancé. At times it choked me until I felt as though I was drowning in it, yet it was all for nothing. I hadnothingto feel guilty about.

“But… but…” I jam two fingers into my temples. “They did tests. They all came back as your DNA. How is that possible?”

“Like I said, Max knows people. He arranged to have the results altered.”

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