Page 84 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Then I’m going to go force her to wake up,” I grumble.

“I don’t think that’s how comas work,” Gabriel says.

“You’re so smart,” I tell him.

“I swear I could have cracked the fucking Enigma code and you wouldn’t be impressed, but Gabriel can say whatever and you act like it’s amazing,” Matthew mutters.

I pat Matthew, proud of him for understanding. “And Gabriel said you weren’t very smart.”

“I never said that,” Gabriel says. “You do realize you’re going to need proof that the cases are connected before anyone believes you.”

“You’d think after me proving everyone else wrong so many times they’d just believe me the moment I opened my mouth, but strangely… they don’t.”

“Do you ever think it’s your execution? That maybe if you were a bit more like Gabriel, they’d immediately believe you instead of getting defensive in the hope of proving you wrong?”

“I like it when they try to prove me wrong. I like the tears,” I assure him.

As we head out, Gabriel looks at his phone. “Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My parents had a major water line issue that’s going to take days to get repaired. They’re not going to be able to have Thanksgiving at their house. My mom asked if it’d be okay if we have it at mine.”

I hesitate. “Tell her I’ll host it at mine.”

Matthew does a double take. “You were literally prepared to get shot so you wouldn’t have to go, and now you’re going to host it at your house?”

Gabriel gives me such a sweet look. “Hon, your house is a mess right now with moving. Thanksgiving is in a few days.”

“Nah, movers moved everything and set up the house today,” I say.

“Didn’t youjustclose on it? How’d they already move everything in?”

“When you’re rich, anything is possible.”

“Why… do you want to have it… at your house?” he asks suspiciously.

“So I can prove to your mother that I’m a worthy spouse so she makes you move in with me.”

“That’s just fucking weird, man,” Matthew says.

It takes everything in my power not to push Matthew back in the hole. I bet I’d even find the strength to cover it all alone.

“Your housedoeshave a ton of room… and it’s so open. Matthew, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? You mentioned your family lived on the West Coast… are you heading there?”

Matthew stuffs his hands in his pockets as he walks. “Nah. I’ll visit for Christmas, but it’s a bit much to travel when so much shit is going on here, and I’m planning to go in a couple of weeks.”

“You can come; I insist. Liam will love to have you there. I bet it’ll make him more comfortable to have a friend attend,” Gabriel says, and because he smiles, I have no choice but to agree.

NINETEEN

Liam

“You weren’t kidding when you said you had everything handled. I asked you to wait so I could help,” Gabriel says as he looks around the house where I have tables set up and the meal prep done.

“He lied to me,” Matthew whines from where he’s lying on the couch. “He said it started at nine.”

“What kind of fool would even think that Thanksgiving lunch would start at nine?” I ask.

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