Page 186 of Forever Relentless

She still didn’t look up. “Yeah. At the beginning, when it happened, and she was . . . You know, gone. He was in the garage, and he had a box, and in the box was just shit she’d given him.” She shook her head, raised her hand quickly to wipe her eyes before she kept painting her toes.

“I told him tonight,” my voice was hoarse. “He didn’t react to the panties.”

She glanced at me then. “No. He was used to it.”

Well, that was just horribly sad.

“I still believe her,” Diana said, putting the nail polish down. “It may not have been there, but I know — knew her. She had faults, Briar, but she would never have—”

I leaned forward quickly, grabbing Diana’s hand. “Hey. No one. No one doubts her. It may not have been in that building, it may not have been one of them, but it happened. I don’t doubt her.”

She didn’t look at me, but she gave a slight nod.

Diana quickly and efficiently swiped the top coat over her nails and then started to tidy up.

“I have something to tell you, this actually makes it easier.” She shook her head at the thought. “But TJ got a job. Assistant offensive coordinator. He’s moving.”

I knew what was coming.

“He asked you to go too.” And there it was. The last piece of what had brought me here, packing up its nail polish and moving to a different city.

Diana nodded, a glimmer of happiness in her face. “Yeah. I’m going to go. There’s a PT spot open there and it makes sense for me.”

I nodded. It didn’t really make sense to me, but I kept quiet.

“Have you resigned?” she asked me.

“Not yet.”

I watched her pack her nail supplies into a box. “You should. It doesn’t sound like he gave Noah much of a turnaround time. He’ll need to demonstrate he’s fulfilled his part.”

I bit back the anger.

“I guess I better go do that then.” I got to my feet. “Are you . . . happy?”

Diana looked contemplative. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve known happiness since it happened. I think I can be with TJ. I think this, even though it’s still not what we wanted, I think having this piece of the story makes it easier. I know that even though I tried, I can’t settle here. I can’t fit in here. I came here for Tiffany, and in a way . . . she led me to TJ and a path away from here.” She looked at me. “She would want me to be happy.”

“What if we never find him?” I asked her. Because why wasn’t she asking that?

“I think he’ll — they’ll, whoever — will get their comeuppance. I believe that. I do.” Diana took her box of polish over to the kitchen and put it in a cupboard. “And if I’m wrong . . . then I have to hope he’ll rot in hell eventually.”

That just wasn’t enough for me, and I doubted it would be for others as well. And I just couldn’t understand why we’d be more invested than Tiffany’s own flesh and blood.

I said my goodbye and headed home. As I let myself into my apartment, my phone buzzed.

Noah: I’m okay. You?

I didn’t have an answer for that.

Me: I’m emailing my resignation letter tonight

Noah: Thanks for letting me know

Not ‘thank you.’

Not ‘you’re doing the right thing.’

Not ‘when do you leave?’