Page 163 of Secrets Hidden In The Glass

She swallowed. “All right.”

He clicked on the attachment and a grainy, pixilated image of the jewelry she’d seen in her dreams filled the screen.

Pressing a trembling hand to her lips, she stared at the intricate S and swirls on the locket. “She wore that. She wore that, Nate, and it was in the woods.”

“I know.” He tucked her damp hair back from her temple. “I’m going to ask Bob to take me out to where he thinks he might have found it—”

“I want to come.”

He shook his head.

“Nate—”

“That’s the last thing we need right now. Anywhere you go, the press follows.”

“I don’t care about them.” She huffed out a breath, struggling to rein in her already raw emotions. “I’m sick of living my life hiding.”

“I get that and I’m sorry. I can sneak off with Bob. The three of us can’t.”

She nodded, knowing Nate was right, even if she didn’t like it. “This isn’t good. This can’t be good, right?”

“I think we need to see where each clue takes us.”

“But most likely it’s not good.”

He clenched his jaw. “No, probably not.”

Her shoulders sagged in defeat.

“I need to talk to Sanchez. I’m going to take the locket—show him and keep it with me at the station.”

She hesitated then nodded, even when her first instinct was to tell him no. For years, she’d been looking for a connection with the woman who had abandoned her. Now she had to give the one thing she possessed to Nate.

“I’ll take good care of it.”

She bobbed her head again, pressing her lips firm and blinking back tears.

“Hey,” he said quietly, sliding his fingers along her jaw.

“I don’t know what to do,” she blurted out. “How to feel or what all of this means.” She paused when her voice broke. “For so long I’ve longed for her—to know why. So often I’ve hated her.” She pressed her hand to her heart with her shame. “There’s this darkness—an emptiness. Right now, I don’t know if I’m devastated or angry.”

“You’re allowed to be both.”

She shook her head. “This whole thing has damaged something inside me—since I was a little girl—and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to fix it.”

“You’re not damaged, Callie. You should be but you’re not.”

“I push everyone and everything away. When it gets hard, I let myself go numb. I’m not entirely sure that’s healthy.”

“You’re getting through.”

“I just—every time I think I’m adjusting, we get a new surprise.”

“There are going to be more. I wish I could say something different but we both know I can’t.”

A tumultuous journey she’d started that couldn’t be taken back. Not that she wanted to… Or, she didn’t think so… She looked at the computer screen, then at Nate, and stood in a rush, more than finished with the whole thing. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

He put the screen to sleep and stood next to her. “So we won’t.”