Page 47 of Undo Me

Elise Adair huffed audibly and glided to the table. “We’re drawing this out and it’s killing me. I am not a patient woman.” No one argued when she picked up the amazingly preserved letter and carefully unfolded it, studying the shaky handwriting. “It’s to Isabel. From Catherine.”

Elise’s eyes began to water, and Bethany tapped her fingers lightly on the table, drawing the older woman’s gaze. “Out loud might be better. If you don’t mind.”

“I’m not sure you’re right about that. But okay.”

They all listened raptly as Elise read Catherine’s letter. The young Creole woman was obviously distraught and riddled with guilt over the events she had unwittingly set in motion as she wrote her confession to her dead friend.

Catherine had been a paid companion to Isabel, instructed by her father to inform him of Isabel’s movements, a fact she’d been okay with until they’d grown up to become true friends. But she still needed the money.

When Isabel fell in love with Marcel, Catherine truly believed he would break her heart and leave her as he left everyone else. But in the letter, she wondered if she would have fought as hard to break up their relationship if she hadn’t been selfishly worried about her own future.

Antoine had tricked her. Used her concern to hatch a plan that would put Isabel in a compromising position, forcing her to marry him. Catherine only found out later what he truly was. A twisted practitioner of dark arts, a remorseless murderer. She hadn’t had any idea what he’d planned to do to Isabel.

When she’d realized Isabel wasn’t where she was supposed to be, where Antoine had promised she would find them, she’d finally told Marcel, but she’d rightly assumed he hadn’t gotten to her in time.

She’d been grief-stricken when the bodies of Isabel and her brother were found.

The group was silent as Ben’s mother finished reading. “Marcel’s mother and mine commissioned the tomb for you and Emmanuel. I begged Marie Laveau herself to deliver retribution, and since Antoine was never seen again, I have to believe she answered my prayers.

“I expect no redemption for my crimes. They are too great. You and your brother slain, Marcel missing and presumed dead, all for my poor judgment and disbelief in the oldest and strongest magic of all—love. For these offenses and the trust I’ve broken, neither I, nor any of my line, shall find lasting happiness in love until this debt is repaid. That is my vow to you. My vow to God. When we meet again, may it be as friends. For in my heart, I will always be yours. Catherine Toussaint.”

Elise was visibly shaken as she read the last line, looking toward the mambo with damp eyes. “Oh, Annemarie. This is when it happened.”

“The last piece of the puzzle.” Everyone turned to Allegra, who was staring at Bethany while her hand squeezed Michelle’s shoulder. “Don’t you see? If you’re Isabel and Michelle is—was Catherine, then the debt has been repaid. Her sight helped us follow Emmanuel and find Bone Daddy. She got rid of Antoine and helped Marcel save you.”

“She did. And Marcel got there in time. He didn’t have to watch Isabel die.” Bethany smiled through her tears. She stood and Michelle practically dove into her arms, both of them hugging each other, crying and laughing together.

“I’m sorry I used to be a backstabbing bitch,” Michelle whispered.

“I’m sorry I was a stupid, thoughtless debutante,” Bethany responded. “We’re so much cooler now.”

“Damn right we are.”

“Fate is a funny thing.” Mambo Toussaint wiped her eyes with a nearby napkin. “Michelle was always obsessed with Isabel’s treasure, Ben bought the house for Michelle, and together, they made sure Bethany came back to fix all that had been broken. Including the Toussaint curse.”

Ben leaned over and kissed the mambo’s cheek. “I’ll show you how to sign up to that online matchmaking site later, if you’d like.”

She whacked him in the stomach and everyone laughed. Everyone but Bethany, who felt the walls closing in on her again. “Not everything is fixed. Some things can’t be.”

“What about the Gate of Guinee?”

Bethany looked at Elise with a frown. “The Gate of Whozee?”

Mambo Toussaint shook her head. “It’s too dangerous, Elise. They could just as easily decide to keep her over there as let him go. Although it does seem more and more like he is one loophole they might be okay with closing. A Loa but not a Loa.”

Not a Loa?

“What are you talking about?” Bethany’s teeth were clenched, but her heart was pounding with hope. “If there’s the smallest chance I could get him back, anything I can do, you need to tell me what it is.”

“Bethany’s right, Mama. If it was Ben, I’d want the same thing.” Michelle tilted her head, listening to something only she could hear. “Emmanuel says they’re talking about the gateway to the other side. That there’s a way for the living to travel there, and he’s going with you so you won’t be alone.”

“Okay, Bethany. This is not the weirdest thing you’ve ever done.”

True, she was wearing a strong-smelling pouch of protection around her neck, held a piece of rum cake in her hand, and was currently walking all over the city looking for a nonexistent cemetery gate while talking to the ghost of her brother from a past life—but surely, she’d done worse.

“If you look for the gate, it starts looking for you.”

That’s what the Mambo had said. Every native of the Crescent City knew about it, but it wasn’t on any of the tours, and for good reason. It was the actual gate to the other side. If you were determined to speak to the dead, ask them a question, you could find it. Of course, there was every chance you would die horribly, or be held there as those you loved died, leaving you in a state of eternal purgatory.

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