Page 72 of Vengeful Lies

“Cemetery,” Essie repeated.

“Perfect. A cemetery is a place where people’s bodies get placed after they die,” he explained. Even though Essie had losther mother when she was a baby, they didn't talk about it much and he’d never brought her to visit Gretel’s grave.

Maybe it was something he should have done long before now.

There just hadn't seemed to be any point. Essie was so little, and she didn't remember her mom, she wasn't old enough to truly understand what death was, and he hadn't wanted to try to explain it, mess up, and freak her out instead.

Now it was time.

If he wanted to have any chance at reclaiming the future he’d probably already ruined beyond repair, he had to do this.

“Dead peoples are here?” Essie asked, eyes wide as she looked back out the window at the rows of graves they could see from the parking lot.

“Yes. When someone dies the people who love them, their family and friends, have a special service called a funeral, and then after that they bring the person’s body and bury it in the ground.”

Essie’s eyes widened further as she absorbed this new information. “They puts peoples under the ground?”

“They do, but the person doesn’t know it because they’re dead. It’s just their body, they can't think anymore, can't see or hear anything, can't speak or do anything,” he said, praying he was explaining this in a way that a four-year-old could understand.

“How do they get dead?”

“Well sometimes they get very sick, or sometimes they get very hurt, or sometimes they just get very old. And then they die.”

“Does everybody die?”

“Yes, eventually everybody will die.”

“Like my mommy died,” Essie said somberly.

“That’s right. Your mommy got very sick, and she died when you were just a baby.”

“Is her body under the ground here?”

“It is. I thought maybe we could visit her grave together and leave some flowers.”

Essie’s brow furrowed in confusion. “If dead peoples can't hear and they can't speak and they can't do nothing, then why do we bring Mommy flowers?”

“You know what? I don’t really know. It’s just what people do. Maybe it’s just a way to tell everyone that we haven’t forgotten them and we loved them very much.”

“Did you love Mommy lots and lots?”

“I did.”

“Do you still love Mommy even though she’s been gone a real long time?”

“I’ll always love your mommy,” he told his daughter truthfully. How could he not? Gretel and the sacrifice that she’d made was the only reason he had his precious little girl.

“Does that mean I won't ever have another Mommy?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you still love Mommy then you won't get married ‘gain, and if you don’t get married ‘gain then I won't ever have a new Mommy.”

When he’d lost his wife, Cade had been absolutely positive that he would never get married again. The possibility of risking his heart only to wind up going through the same soul-crushing pain all over again was too much.

But time did dull wounds even if it didn't heal them.

And maybe … he was ready to take that risk.

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