Page 72 of In Her Shadow

“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was one of the confectionery kind.” He smirks when his eyes fall to the empty box of chocolates that are on my bedside table. Despite me giving him the cold shoulder, Ren has done everything physically possible to make this past week bearable for me, and I haven’t made doing that easy for him.

“Tell Lance I’ll be right down.” I wait for Otto to leave before I heave myself out of bed and put on some guest-appropriate clothes. I’m so big now, even Ren’s t-shirts fail to fit me, but I do manage to struggle into a stretchy summer dress before I make my way down the stairs.

“Eloise! You’re looking well.” Lance looks a little surprised as he watches me waddle down the stairs. I’m assuming he wasn’t aware that I was pregnant. I haven’t seen him since the night Ren punched him outside the restaurant.

“That’s a polite way of saying I’m fat.” I pout. “I’m a whole week late,” I explain when I finally reach the bottom. Lugging six pounds of baby around is proving to be no easy task.

“Shall we find somewhere to sit?” He glances around him, looking as overwhelmed as I was when I first saw this place.

“Sure.” I lead him through to the living room, starting to wonder how he even knew how to find me here.

“Nice place you got here.” He glances around the living room. “I think it would be easier getting past security at the White House, though.” He laughs nervously.

“Lance, it’s good to see you, but what is all this about?” I lower myself onto the couch, waiting for him to explain. I need to hear him out and get him gone before Ren comes back and kills someone else.

“Are you going to the funeral tomorrow?”

“Her funeral is tomorrow?” I stare back at him in shock. Being mad at Ren means I haven’t asked any questions about how he handled things back at the cabin, but I was sure he’d have ensured no one found the bodies we left behind. I don’t know how Lance would know when her funeral was unless the police are involved. The thought suddenly makes me panic.

“I know she was with you when you were taken, Elosie.” He lowers his voice to a whisper and makes me even more nervous.

“I…I... This is all so fast.” I have to hold my tongue and remain calm.

“See, what's confusing me is that I saw her body. I saw what he did to her, and yet nothing's being done. I’m here to get her justice,” he explains

“No.” I shake my head when I realize what he’s saying. “You can’t arrest Ren, you can’t blame him. He was protecting us. What Katelyn was gonna do… It was so wrong—He only shot her because he was trying to protect me.” The words blurt so fast my brain can’t keep up with them. I may be furious at Ren for what he did, but I can’t lose him.

“Shot her?” Lance frowns at me, and I slam my hand over my mouth when I realize that I’m saying far too much.“Eloise, I was helping Ren look for you both. He went cold on me after he went to your apartment. I figured he’d found something, so I went there to check it out for myself. That’s how I found the address to the lake cabin,” he explains, looking confused.

“You went there?” I start feeling dizzy.

“I must have been a few hours behind, because when I got there, there was no sign of you or him.”

“You called it in.” My chest squeezes tight when I realize this is the end for me and Ren. He’s going to jail before he even gets to meet his daughter. Has Ren known all this time that the police had found the bodies? Is he trying to find a way to fix it?

“I should have, but I didn’t,” Lance confesses, looking disappointed in himself. “Not once in my whole career have I done something like this. But when I saw you weren't there, I walked away from that scene and went home. I’ve been thinking about it every day since. It took me a lot of work, but I found this address and I’m here to–”

“You can’t arrest Ren for shooting her!” I interrupt him. “Please, Lance, he did it for me.”

“Shooting who?” His head shakes.

“Katelyn, who else? You said you saw her body.”

“Sweetheart, you're getting confused. I haven’t seen the coroner’s report, because for some reason it’s government classified, but the girl I found dead in that cabin had clearly died from the stab wound. She still had the knife inside her, and I saw no other injuries. Certainly not any bullet wounds. I just assumed she’d gotten into a fight with the dead guy that was there, too. I came here to ask you if he was the guy who took you, and if you thought anyone else was involved. I’m getting nothing at work. I can’t even find a record of the bodies being found, yet there's a funeral happening.” He cocks his brow suspiciously. “Eloise. Are you telling me Ren killed Katelyn?” He crouches down to my level.

“No.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “Ren didn’t kill her. Like you said, I was just getting things all muddled. Must be the hormones." I open my eyes and try to smile, though on the inside I feel like I’m drowning.

A stab wound. No other injuries… That would mean I killed Katelyn.But I heard that gunshot, I know I did. Not to mention the fact that Ren admitted it.

“I just don’t like how this is shaping up. I think there are some seriously powerful people involved in all this. The bodies not being called in, the government-locked files. It’s all suspicious, and I hate thinking that you’re in the middle of it all. Can you remember anything about the guy who took you? Did he say he worked for someone? Did he say what he was looking for at your apartment? Was he connected to your father?”

“That's a lot of questions, Lance.” I tuck my hair behind my ear, when I have no idea how to answer him.

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I want to get to the bottom of this. You're a good person, Eloise. You deserve to be happy.”

“Is her funeral really tomorrow? How do you know that and I don’t?” I ask. Lance had no connection to Katelyn, and he said himself that nothing was reported. He’s right to be suspicious, I’m no crime expert, but surely a funeral wouldn’t happen this fast if a murder investigation were happening

“It’s at Westburn Cemetery at two pm. When me and Ren were looking for you, I found out she had a grandmother and called her to try and get information.” I sense from the way he drops his eyes to the floor that he’s sparing me from what he learned from her. “I gave her my number in case she thought of anything that might be useful, and she called me a few days ago to tell me about it. She’s too frail to make the trip herself; she told me the funeral had been taken care of by some anonymous donor, and when I asked her if she knew what happened, she just told me that Katelyn was in a better place.” He huffs out a frustrated breath. “I had no idea you didn’t know about it, like I said, I came here because I’m worried about you.” I can tell from the look on his face that he’s being genuine

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