Page 44 of Help Me Remember

Page List

Font Size:

“I am.”

“Did something happen with Brielle when we left?”

Yes, but I can’t tell him. I want to, but how can I tell him when she doesn’t remember any of it? It wouldn’t be right. I also don’t want to hear a single one of his opinions on it.

I have no disillusions that they’ll handle us hiding our relationship for almost a year very well.

However, I have to tell them about the ring and then lie about it.

“Brielle is fine. She was a little shaken up. She found an engagement ring in a drawer.”

Holden’s eyes widen. “What?”

“Yeah.”

“And she didn’t remember anything?”

“Nope.”

He leans back, swirling the amber liquid for a minute. “I would’ve thought something that big would have triggered a memory.”

“It didn’t.”

“Wow.” He pauses. “And you don’t know the guy?”

“What guy?”

He huffs. “The guy who gave her the ring she wasn’t wearing. Maybe she didn’t say yes.”

No, she said yes. She said yes so many times her throat hurt. She wasn’t wearing it because no one was supposed to know for a few more days.

“Maybe.”

“Dude, you’re like the most observant asshole I know, and you have no clue who the hell Brie was with?”

“It’s not like I stalk her.”

“No, but—”

“It doesn’t seem like Addison or her mother know either, why is that?”

Holden rubs his temple. “I don’t know. I guess none of us ever really know what people are hiding, but it’s crazy.” He shakes his head and then his eyes flash to me. “Do you think it’s whoever killed Isaac? Maybe Isaac found out about it, confronted the guy, and that is what got him killed?”

“It’s possible,” I lie to my best friend. “But I have no idea who killed Isaac.”

The more likely scenario is that Isaac would have killed me when I told him. No one in the world was more protective of Brielle than he was. He hated her boyfriend in high school and wanted to rip Henry’s throat out whenever he saw him.

“No, but if she said yes to the guy, you have to admit that it is completely possible that Isaac didn’t handle the news well, especially if she’d been hiding it from him.”

I smile. “No man would ever be good enough for Brie—definitely not to him.”

Holden chuckles. “I felt bad for her when we were kids. Can you imagine what Elodie would’ve endured? It’s sad she won’t get to know that.”

“She still has us, and we’re much older and more cynical now.”

“No shit. I don’t know, being old and cynical has its drawbacks too.”

“How so?”