Page 98 of Mangled Memory
“It doesn’t make sense how you landed there…” I leave the sentence dangling as I step to the edge again, staring down at where the EMTs and helo staff said my wife was found. I’ve seen the pictures. Those images are seared on my brain. They haunt my nightmares. What the fuck though? How did she get there?
“Christian?”
I return to my wife and zoom out on the image. “You werefound here.” I circle the area with my finger so she can see. “Walk with me and I’ll show you, but…”
“But what? You’re scaring me.”
She steps with me back to the ridge that drops below our toes. I hold her around the waist and eventually take a large step back with her when she leans too far over for my comfort.
“I don’t understand why you’re not speaking in complete sentences.”
“Because, Princess. I’m putting two and two together and getting zero.”
She scrunches her brows together, two lines forming between them in confusion. She looks so young when she does that. I glimpse who she was as a teen… or who our daughter will be, and my mouth goes dry.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re beautiful, that’s all. Sometimes it catches me off guard and takes my breath away.”
“Riddles, incomplete sentences, and compliments. My day is complete. You still never answered me.”
I look over the vista again and finally say what my head and heart don’t want to be true. “There’s no way you tripped and fell, Ayla. The momentum it would take to get that far… and that far off course, isn’t physically possible without you taking a running leap. And?—”
“And I’d never do that.”
“And you’d never do that.”
Ayla
So I was pushed or hurled over this ledge. Someone tried tokillme.
I’m shaking. It’s as if I have had an adrenaline surge at thesame time my blood sugar bottoms out. I’m vibrating with rage but rooted to the spot.
“Whoa. Come here.” It’s the coaxing in his voice that brings me back to the present. But that doesn’t matter. I can’t move.
Someone tried to kill me. I mean, I knew it. I know it, but there was always that thought that it could’ve been me. I might’ve tripped. Could’ve fallen. Had a clumsy moment and hurt myself.
But that didn’t happen. Someone was okay forcing me over a cliff’s edge, in the dark, and left me here.
“Baby.” The caution in his voice rattles me, but I can’t look away. It’s a car wreck when you know you shouldn’t look—the blood, the gore, the tragedy—but your eyes stray, because they can’t not. “I’m coming to you.”
I think I nod.
“You’re safe.” Quiet footfalls greet me.
“I’m stuck.” I choke on the words.
“You are safe.” Strong arms surround me. The moment they do, my legs stop working, and I collapse.
“Baby.”
“K-k-k-ill.” My voice quakes. “Someone… tried… to kill me.”
He says nothing but holds me tight. The fear and sadness overwhelm me. “Who would do such a thing? Why me?”
The longer he holds me, the more secure I get. The more secure I get, the clearer my brain becomes. Two things are certain. First, it wasn’t my husband. He was just as shocked as I was, just as confused seeing it in person. That was no act. And second, I’m pissed as hell that someone tried to end me, and in trying, made me forget some things that should never be forgotten.
“I’m. Fucking. Pissed.”
