Behind Every Lie(80)

“No, it’s fine. Actually, I’m glad you called. I was in court all day and then in the office. I only got your message a little bit ago. I’ve been worried about you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying you’re sorry, Eva,” Andrew said, not unkindly. “What do you need?”

“I need a ride to the detective’s office. I was on my way there, but I stopped by Jacob’s and I left my lights on and now the battery—” My voice cracked. “I need a jump.”

“Sure. I have some jumper cables in my car. I’ll bring them to you.”

“I’m at Mom’s now.”

He hesitated, but didn’t question me. “I’ll be there in a few. And remind me when I get there to give you the ID number you need to pick up your ring.”

“From the hospital?”

“No, from Detective Jackson. He called me asking where you were yesterday. He’s cleared your ring from evidence he found at the scene.”

I looked at my bare hand, where my engagement ring should’ve been. Something jangled at the back of my mind.

A knock came at the door. “Somebody’s here, I’ve gotta go.”

“See you in a few.”

When I opened the door, Jacob was standing on the porch hunched against the rain. The wind tossed his hair around his face.

“I’m sorry.” He looked like he was in physical pain, his face twisted and gray. “I didn’t handle that very well.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not okay. The way I acted—I’m not that guy. I should’ve done better. And I get why you couldn’t tell me. I really do. I should’ve—”

A brilliant flash of hot white light split the sky behind Jacob. Forks of lightning etched into the inky canvas of night, burning into my retinas. A second later, the horrific crack of thunder boomed across the charcoal sky. It permeated the air, reverberating throughout my body.

My brain lit up, neurons fizzing and crackling in a dizzying swirl of white light, my mind suddenly falling back, back, back.

Jacob was speaking, but I couldn’t hear anything because I was back there, the night Mom was killed. The lightning from that night and the lightning from right now fused, illuminating what had been hidden, as if the veil had been pulled aside, and I was seeing it all for the first time.





forty-three

kat




that night

“I OPENED THE WINDOW, SEB,” I repeated. “Not Rose. Do you remember how hot it was that day? I set fans in the upstairs windows, but the one in the playroom was too large to put a fan in, so I opened the window and left the fan on the desk. And then I went downstairs.”

Tears dripped down my face as the image of my daughter’s small, broken body accosted me.

“It was an accident.” For so long I’d blamed myself, the self-hatred hulking like a tumor under the skin. Now I felt it soften and dissolve, washed away by the truth.

It was an accident.

Sebastian stared at me, as if unable to comprehend my words. “It’s your fault.”

He stood slowly, his body bulky with rage. I tried to stand too, but staggered, the tea dropping from my limp fingers and splashing onto my feet. The living room tilted precariously, but Seb grabbed me by the front of my shirt and yanked me upright. His face was twisted with loathing.

“You bitch.” Seb pointed something at me then. It glinted in the light, a sharp flash. I blinked, trying to clear my hazy yellow vision. He pressed the object to my cheek. It was a knife. One of my knives.

But he didn’t stab me.

The punch sent me flying backward, my cheekbone smashing against the floor. My glasses skittered under the couch. My vision erupted in red stars. Blood exploded inside my mouth, the taste of iron, hot and bitter.

I gasped and gagged, rolling onto my side as I cradled my throbbing cheek in my hand.

A voice inside my head screamed at me. Fight. Escape. Run. But I could barely stand, let alone get away. I was trapped. Gut-wrenching fear gripped me, my breathing ragged as a dark, rising panic wrapped its bony fingers around my chest.

I was going to die.

I turned and looked into Sebastian’s puffy red eyes and made a decision. He could kill me, torture me, maim me, but I wasn’t telling him anything.

The words tightened in my stomach, flying up my throat and bursting from my mouth. “Go to hell, Seb.”

The next thing I knew, Seb’s boot was heading toward my face.

And then everything went black.



* * *



I had no idea how long I’d been out—a minute, an hour? The rain was a torrent, the storm settling around the house as if it were under siege. My shattered cheekbone was pressed to the floor. Halos shimmered across my vision. The squeezing knot of my heart thudded like a trapped bird. The tips of my fingers and toes were numb.

Something was very wrong with me.

“Good to see you’re awake,” Seb said. He grabbed me under my arms and threw me back into the armchair, then sat on the couch and stared at me. “Doesn’t look like you’re going anywhere.”

I moaned and clutched my chest. The pain was dreadful, making me nauseated. I could feel my life seeping away, slowly circling toward the drain.