Page 100 of You Know Why

“Everything’s fine. Here, I bought you some peanut M&M’s. Your favorite.”

“You can talk to me, you know.”

“Funny, I think I said the same to you a while back.”

School started. Andrew wrote and called. Chloe got sick again.

This time, innocent of any bad decisions, she went to her mother, who promptly took her to the pediatrician. The doctor decided that since no one else in the family was sick, she’d developed a food allergy. They came home with an elimination diet. It was posted on the refrigerator, so the instructions were easy to follow.

Chloe felt fine so long as she avoided all the triggers. After three weeks, they started adding things back in. She had no problems until she ate peanut butter. She threw up so much that she had to go to the ER and get fluids.

She was careful from then on. No peanuts, no peanut butter, and the doctors said she’d be fine. But every once in a while, she’d eat something innocuous and get violently ill. It happened at least once a week. Her hair started to come out in clumps. Her joints hurt. She was having trouble concentrating at school, and her grades started to drop. Her blood pressure was all over the place. She caught every illness, colds, flu; her resistance was down.

The doctors were baffled. They did testing for autoimmune diseases. Nothing showed up.

It was incomprehensible. She’d have weeks without issue, then bam, down for the count.

Andrew came home for the holidays, and she could barely get out of bed. It was awful, not being able to spend time with him. She spent almost his whole break with her head in the toilet. She couldn’t even go to his parents’ for the annual holiday open house.

Then the holidays were over, and he left, and Eden tearfully left for college, and Chloe started feeling better. She was far from perfect, but she could at least get around. She went back to school, and it felt like being with strangers. Having a chronic illness was hard as a teenager.

By the time spring break rolled around, she was feeling almost back to normal. Excited because Andrew was coming to visit. He was the one thing that kept her going through the horrible time, him and Eden. She’d been an absolute rock.

Chloe was so grateful to have a sister who loved her so much. They’d managed to put away all their animosities and spent all of Eden’s free time together. They streamed movies and made popcorn and brought books home from the library to discuss. Eden braided Chloe’s hair and wiped her brow when she felt feverish.

When she went back to school, Chloe missed her big sister so much. People often say that sisters go through a stage of competitiveness and grow out of it. They’d hit theirs and gotten past it. Even their mother was surprised at their connection. They talked about everything. Went everywhere together. Chloe was always careful not to encroach on her sister’s time, but Eden encouraged the interruptions.

Chloe gave Eden her heart. She shared her dreams and desires with her. They imagined what their futures would be like. Their children playing together. Timing their lives, their pregnancies. Maybe even getting a house big enough to accommodate both their families, or at the very least, buying houses next door to one another.

But when Andrew came home, Chloe got sick again. It was so incredibly frustrating. She’d spent weeks dreaming about them being together again, and now she could barely get out of bed.

Eden drove back from school to nurse her. She took her to the doctor for blood tests and even pretended to get along with Andrew before leaving for Atlanta to prepare for her finals.

The last night he was in town, in a rare moment alone, he remarked on Eden’s attentiveness. Chloe told him the story of them going to the CVS, of the negative test. She hadn’t mentioned it before, and he was shocked. Both that she hadn’t told him, and that Eden was being so accommodating to her. “It’s like she had a personality transplant,” he said.

“It was the hospital, I think. They really straightened her out. And the medications, too. She told me that it was so clear to her that she’d made a stupid mistake. She doesn’t know what she was thinking, other than she felt left out.”

“I can understand that,” he said. “It had to be hard, seeing life passing her by. I’m glad you two are so close. It makes me feel better knowing you’re not here alone with her being mean.”

She kissed him then. “You’re the best, Andrew. I knew you’d understand. I’ve missed her since she went back to school. It’s too quiet around here. Mom and Dad are working all the time, and being sick so much . . . I don’t know. Not a ton of people like to hang around when you’re not well.”

“But Eden’s been here?”

“She comes home a lot to take care of me. She’s been an absolute godsend.”

Bombs Away

Brooklyn

The subject is consistent in his denials of the murder.

The subject’s polygraph examination indicates no deception.

This investigator concludes that there is not enough evidence to proceed further with charges against the subject.

I turn the pages slowly. These are professional interpretations of my husband’s words, captured forever. Or at least, someone who used to be my husband. Pretended to be my husband.

These are the words of Andrew Locke, not Trey.