Page 146 of The Dearly Departed

His expression contorted into a shit-eating grin as he rose from the couch to stroll toward his desk. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Analise hung her head, the confidence in her stance slipping minutely to reveal something uncertain beneath. She grasped her hands over her stomach, her fingers fidgeting.

Her lips parted, and I listened as her breath whispered out beneath the ticking of a grandfather clock.

"I-I'm—" Her quiet stammering was so hushed that I wasn’t sure Gerald could hear as he began to speak boisterously.

"You know, when I married Virginia, I wasn't sure I was prepared to be the father I needed to be to her daughter," Gerald said as he grabbed something from the desktop. "And I will admit, I haven't been the greatest stepfather I could be. I've done some things I'm not proud of. But little did I know then …"

Analise lifted her gaze to my face, and I swore I could see the barely imperceptible shake of her head and a subtle movement of her lips. What she was trying to say, I didn’t know … or maybe I was seeing things, wishing for it, as Gerald lifted what appeared to be a remote, and a TV came to life above the fireplace.

And there, on the screen, was the still image of me in the library, the moment I'd met Analise. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was in my hand as I stood before her, suddenly aware that I wasn’t alone.

The man in that picture had no idea how much his life was going to change that night, and I wished I could climb through the screen and warn him. He could’ve made different decisions, could’ve changed the trajectory of the events that would impact every aspect of his life.

My eyes flitted toward her, the terrified woman before me, and I thought, Or maybe he wouldn’t have done a damn thing if it meant missing out on her.

I found you, Anna, I wished I could say to reassure her and alleviate the fear in her eyes. And everything is going to be okay.

Gerald pulled me away from my thoughts as he continued, "My sweet little girl became a very important asset. And I knew in this moment … in this very moment right here …" He came to stand beside her and gripped her chin in his greasy palm. She didn’t pull away, she didn’t flinch, but she squeezed her eyes shut with a pained expression written plainly on her face. "She was going to be my key to getting you exactly where I wanted you."

He lifted the remote, and the image changed, and there was Analise with the first man I'd ever killed. David. The waiter who had ended Leonard's life.

Something disgusting and nauseating ate away at my gut, but I schooled my emotions. Tamped down the anger with a clench of my fists. This picture proved nothing. He was a waiter. She could've been asking him for a drink for herself or—

The image changed. Now, it was a zoomed-in shot of a woman’s hand, dropping something into the waiter's breast pocket. The exact place where I'd found the bottle of cyanide.

Analise was still facing me, her pleading eyes on my face when I looked down at her.

"Is this true?”

Her bottom lip trembled as her mouth fell open. "I-I—"

"Oh, don't be angry with her," Gerald interrupted.

The picture changed again and again and again. Still snapshots of every interaction I'd ever had with Analise over the last few years. Fleeting conversations. Lingering glances. The time after she’d stitched my leg up in the parlor, as her hand inched up my thigh in an attempt to seduce me.

Is that all this has ever been? A ploy, a little game to bring my guard down?

No … no! I pressed my lips together as my hardened gaze held to the TV screen. I knew damn well what I was seeing, I knew how it looked, but something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t adding up.

I know her.

This is Anna. This is good, sweet, beautiful Anna. She wouldn’t do this to anyone; she wouldn’t do this to me.

But she doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know who I am.

Still … she wouldn’t do this.

"It was always ever about getting by," Gerald said. "For you. For her. I had a plan, and she played along.”

She played along with him, but she wasn’t playing with me, I reiterated silently. That was what she wasn’t saying, what she couldn’t say.

And now, I have to play along too.

"Why?” I uttered in a voice akin to a growl, holding her gaze. “Why did you do this to me?”

But she didn’t reply. She could only hold my gaze, pleading and begging without muttering a single word.