Enshrouded in the dim light of underground parking, I grab my purse and the tray with two coffees and two juices. I spare a glance for my boxed-up possessions in the backseat of my car; they wouldn’t all fit in the trunk.
I stop at the gift shop before the elevators and spend a small fortune on a stuffed lion and a stuffed camel, bringing them up to the kids’ room along with the drinks. Jordan sits between their beds, waiting, and all three of them stop talking and look up at me as I stop by the end of Timmy’s bed.
“Chels,” Jordan says, looking up at me with a heavy expression.
The kids eyes light up in juxtaposition to his when they see what’s in my hands.
“I brought you two something.” I hold up the stuffies.
“Aunt Chelsea?” Bella asks.
My chest expands, and I nod. I take her the lion and wrap my arms around her gently. She does the same to my neck and I choke back tears.
“Timmy, this is your aunt Chelsea.” Jordan says from behind me. “She’s here to help us out, okay?”
Bella lets me go and focuses on her lion. I shoot Timmy a smile and give the camel one last squeeze before setting it on the bed beside him. “It’s nice to meet you, Timmy.”
He looks at me with curiousity and says nothing.
“That’s yours.” I point to the camel, but he continues to stare at me.
“He’s on some meds, Chels,” Jordan whispers. “He can’t really do much right now, but he’s comfortable.”
I nod awkwardly.
“You should sit with him,” Jordan takes a seat on Bella’s bed.
I take a deep breath and settle in gently beside him, grabbing the camel again. He stares at it intently.
“Hello, Timmy. I’m mister camel.” I contort my voice to sound squeakier, bouncing the animal up and down across my lap, as if he’s walking toward him. “Will you be my friend?”
Timmy nods with a smile. I tuck the camel into his hand and he squeezes it with his little fingers.
“What do you say?” Jordan asks.
“Thank you,” both the kids chime in, and Bella finishes with “Aunt Chelsea.”
“You’re welcome.” I smile at them.
Jordan stands and nods toward the door. “We’re just waiting on some tests for Timmy and then we’ll all go to the children’s hospital in the city. The doctor discharged Bella, but I want her to stay with me, so she’ll come with us. You’re doing so good, honey. He’s a brave one, isn’t he Bella?”
Bella nods, beaming at her brother.
“We’ll be right back,” Jordan tells them, and I follow him to the door.
He holds up two fingers to the kids, pointing at his eyes and then theirs.
“Yeah, yeah,” Bella says as we continue on, stopping just before the doorway to the busy hallway.
“She’s so big,” I whisper.
He nods. “Thanks for everything you brought last night. Sorry I wasn’t awake—”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Listen, Bella’s coming with us for now, but I don’t want her staying at the children’s hospital the whole time. Do you think, at some point, you could take her home and stay with her?”
“To your house?”
He nods. “Yeah, of course.”
Of course he means their home. I was worried he wanted me to bring her to my non-existent home. I exhale a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Okay, thank you. I really want to be with her when she goes home for the first time, but I have to stay with Timmy.”
“I understand.”
“Chelsea…” He struggles to find the words, “I’m hoping you could maybe stay with us. Just for a while—at least until Timmy is released—but even after, I’d like you to be there…”
I nod, but he purses his lips and glances back at the kids. “Listen, if you need time to think about it, I understand. You have your own life. A fiancé.” He runs his hand over his scruffy chin. “You know, he came to see me a few days ago.”
“What?” Cam told me he messaged him on Facebook. “He saw you in person?”
He shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at his shoes. “Yeah. He asked me to come to the memorial. To be there to support you. I thought you knew.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Why did Cam lie about it?
Jordan frowns and looks up at me. “You didn’t tell him where I live?”
I shake my head, no. How did he find out?
He sighs. “Well, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t do it. Didn’t feel like the right time for an overdue reunion.”
I shake my head again. “Jordan, I never expected you to come.”
I also never expected Cam to sneak around and meddle in my personal affairs.
“Well, your fiancé wanted you to have family support, and I’m sorry—”
I press my hands on my hips to stop them from shaking. “He’s not my fiancé anymore.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that—wait—when did that change?”
“It’s not important. I can tell you later, okay?” He nods. “So, he came and asked you to come to the memorial? Did he say anything else? Ask anything else?”
“I wasn’t going to let him in at first, but he said he didn’t feel like he was enough of a support to you on his own, and that you weren’t doing well. He said around the anniversary you struggle, and it would mean a lot if I could hear him out. He really cares.” He gives me an apologetic look as soon as he finishes.
That’s why Cam was so disgruntled and shocked when Jordan didn’t come. He thought he’d pled my case well enough.
“So,” Jordan glances back at the kids. “When you’ve had some time to think—what I mean is—let me know when you decide if you can stay with us for a while.”
I nod, staring at them. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
But it’s not safe. Not until I find out who’s doing this and stop them.
He takes a staggered breath in and sighs deeply. “That’s a big weight off my mind. I know when it’s time for Bella to go home with you, it could be tough, and I just want you to be prepared for that. I can’t imagine how she’s going to feel, not having her mom to—to give her a bath, tuck her in… kiss her forehead goodnight…” His glassy eyes stare into mine. “How did you do it, Chels? How did you carry on after losing people you cared about?”
I shrug and shake my head, eager to get off the topic. “We’ve experienced loss before.”
“Mom was tough, but that was different, and we’re better off without dad. He was never going to get better, and for a long time, he wasn’t acting like a father to us. That was just a fact, but your friends—they were like extended family to you. That’s what Steve was to me. Molly—she’s my soulmate.” His voice shakes with the word and he covers his face with his hands as he sobs silently into them. “I wish it was me, Chels,” he chokes out.
I rub his back and squeeze his arm with my other hand without saying a word. His shoulders stop shaking and I gently release him, stepping back to give him space.
“She likes to—to have a story read to her. Before bed. They both do.”
“I’ll read her a story,” I whisper. “However many it takes until she falls asleep.”
He nods and gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Thank you. Our next-door neighbour, the one with the beautiful gardens, has a spare key for the house. I’ll call ahead and let her know you’re coming.”
She’ll tell him I’ve already been there… how will I explain that?
No. She doesn’t know who I am. I said I was just a friend. I guess she might tell him that, eventually, after I pick up the key, but I’ll deal with it then.
Jordan rubs his temple and yanks his hand away with a hiss, squinting as he remembers the gash on the side of his head. “I’ll give you a call when I think Bella’s ready to go home? Keep in touch ‘til then?”
“Sure.”
His quiet, somber expression makes my chest ache as he stares out into the hallway. His gaze falls to the tile floor as people walk by.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I can’t stop thinking… If I’d gone to the memorial, Molly and the kids would have gone to her folks for dinner that night without me, and then we wouldn’t have been driving on that road last night…”
“Hey, you can’t do that to yourself. This isn’t your fault.” I squeeze his shoulder. “You can’t think about what-ifs.”
He frowns and cocks his head to the side. “Don’t you?”
I swallow at the lump in my throat. “No. I don’t let myself go there, really. I think if you deal with what is—what you’ve got to work with—you find more productive things to focus on.”
And tucking away all the things I felt guilty of—ashamed of—made it easier for me to avoid blame. To deny it, even to myself.
He nods slowly as a doctor picks up a clipboard outside the kids’ room. Heather, the nurse, joins his side and gives me a friendly smile.
“Call you later.” Jordan says. The doctor joins Jordan, and the two begin discussing test results.
I head back to my car, checking my phone in the elevator in case Kellan has news, but there’s only a missed call from Cam. I can’t talk to him now—not yet—especially knowing how hard he tried to make things better for me. My emotions are all mixed up. I don’t want to add to his pain. Callie said enough.
The parking garage greets me with its usual glum dampness. I slip my cell phone back in my purse, and on the other side of the overhang, clouds roll across the gray afternoon sky. I get into the car and glance over my shoulder at all the boxes. Everything I own, the life I built, fits there. Maybe I can unpack a few things at Jordan’s.
I slip the key in the ignition, and as I look up, I’m faced with a white envelope tucked under the windshield wiper. I gasp, gripping the wheel, and turn over each shoulder, watching for any movement.
Did the blackmailer follow me here?
I check that the doors are locked—they are.
Maybe they’ve been following me the whole time. They have the video footage. They know what happened to Austin. What else could they want from me, except to see me suffer?
Chills crawl up the back of my neck. I scan the surrounding area again. I know I have to collect the letter, but not until I’m absolutely sure I’m safe.
Maybe they want to know where he’s buried. If they had that on video, they would have included it. I don’t know exactly where John led us that night. I blocked out so much of it, but if I had to bet, I’d say Austin’s body is under the sand, between the road and shoreline. I’d guess it’s close enough to the place he died that if someone stood there at the bonfire, screaming like Ellie did that night, the sound would reach Austin’s makeshift grave.
I slip my keys between my fingers and pull the door handle, sliding out of the car slowly, watching over my shoulder as I round the door and reach for the envelope. I tug it out from beneath the wiper in one swift motion, bringing it into the car, and lock the doors again.
I slip the paper out, holding my breath as I recognize the same typed font with a different message.
They paid for what they did. Now it’s your turn.
Tell me the truth, Chelsea, or more will pay.
The house. Waterfront Road. Midnight.
I dig my phone from my purse and call Kellan, panic rising in my chest as I press the phone to my ear.
They want me to go back. They want me to tell the truth.
If I have the chance to come face-to-face with whoever killed Molly—tried to kill my whole family—I won’t let them walk away.