Page 11 of New Beginnings
“I can get information most people can’t. Anyway, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t you. The number came back to a burner phone. I wasn’t able to track down the owner because there was no video or purchase history for it.”
“A burner?”
“Yes. The number was disconnected when I called but it was on your phone records, multiple times within three weeks before her death.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Did you see a change in her?”
“No. Everything was normal. We were getting ready for the baby.”
I started the video from the outside again, and we watched Dani rush around the car.
“Pause it!” he said when the camera focused on her face.
I paused it. It was like she was staring straight at us. It was very haunting because she would be dead within the hour.
“She looks fucking terrified.”
She did. It wasn’t something I picked up all the times I combed through this footage. What the hell was going on?
I looked at him and the concern on his face was heartbreaking. Even though she was dead, he was still afraid for her. I hit play, and we watched her get in the driver’s seat, still on the phone, then she pulled away from the curb going in the opposite direction from the doctor’s office.
While some of my questions had been answered those answers only led to more questions. Who was she talking to, and why was she so scared?
MEMORIES
J.D. Stevens
My footsteps slowed, and my eyes gazed at the gray clouds filing the sky. The storm clouds gathered overhead just like in my heart. When I entered the doors of the funeral home behind Demon, the heaviness in my chest increased, like a stone had been placed on it, making it hard for me to breathe.
I didn’t see how the hell anybody could stand coming inside this place. It was like pain, heartache and grief mixed with the floral scent of flowers clung to the air, suffocating you. Like the pain families experienced was now ingrained in the very walls and floors of the building and the funeral home tried to replace the heavy feeling or cover it up with so many flowers that it made you nauseated.
“How may I help you?”
My eyes landed on an older man shuffling his feet as he approached Demon and me. He looked like he had one foot in the grave. His dark suit did little to hide his frail frame andhis pale skin was full of wrinkles and brown liver spots. The thinning white hair he had combed over the top of his head done little to hide the large bald spot.
“We’re here to view Danielle Tyler Stevens and Luca Austin Stevens,” Demon said. “And to pick out the coffin.”
My heart squeezed inside my chest. I saw both Dani and our son at the hospital. They had done a c-section, hoping to save him and her, but they both died. Luca dying within minutes of him being removed from Dani’s stomach and Dani flatlined a few moments later. They tried to revive them, but it didn’t work. I’ve tried to tell myself that she left us so Luca wouldn’t be alone. She was an exceptional mother until the very end.
The old man looked at me then back to Demon before he walked to a desk that was sitting against the wall near the door. He opened a leather-bound book, licked his gnarled finger, and flipped through the pages, then ran it down one of the pages.
“Ahh...here it is.” He closed the book. “Right this way gentlemen. Which one of you is the husband?”
“Me.”
He nodded. “Someone has already brought clothing.”
My brows drew together in confusion. I know I hadn’t done it.
“Kira,” Demon muttered.
“Thanks.”
He nodded. “She wanted to spend some time with her and Luca alone and figured she’d take some of the burden off you.”
I was glad she’d done it because I hadn’t even thought about any of that shit. I’d been out of it since they died, and it was one last thing I didn’t have to worry about.
