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“Okay.” I cleared my throat and thought back to yesterday. Was it really only yesterday? “I was at work.” I blinked. “I work at the general store in town. And I got these pains in my stomach, so I…I closed the store and went to the local doctor’s office.” I stared down at my fingers on the table, still able to see dried blood under my nails. “She checked me out and told me I was having Braxton-Hicks—”
“Braxton-Hicks?” Uncle Ky asked, leaning forward.
“Yeah.” I looked up at him. “They’re like practice contractions.” I paused and waited until he nodded for me to go on. “Dr. Ponts took me home and told me to rest. Wait…no, before that, I called Leopold.”
“Leopold?” Uncle Jord asked.
“Yeah, he’s—was. He was the owner of the store.” I took a breath through my nose, trying to keep my tears at bay. I didn’t even know if Leopold had any family. Who would arrange his funeral? Who would water his roses?
“Keep going, Belle,” Uncle Ky demanded, but his tone gentle.
“Right.” I shook my head. “I went to sleep, and then something woke me up. I wasn’t sure what it was but…yeah.” It had been the gun. The shot, which most likely had killed Leopold. “I called Curtis’ name.” Uncle Ky’s mouth opened, and I knew what he was going to ask, so I told them, “Curtis is who I was living with. He was a friend from college—Justin’s roommate.” Uncle Ky nodded. “So, Curtis brought me some soup and told me he had to clean the kitchen and to stay in bed to rest.”
I closed my eyes, wishing all of this wasn’t happening, but the reality of the situation was that it was. I couldn’t turn back time, all I could do now was make changes so I never got into a situation like this ever again.
“I heard the front door close, so I got up and went to the bathroom, and then…then I got Curtis’ cell charger for my cell.” I stared at Uncle Jord and then Uncle Ky, and finally at the large mirrored wall. “I was going to call my mom. I…I wanted to come home, but I was scared.” I left that hanging in the air. It wasn’t a lie, it was the truth. I was scared how they’d all react when they saw me again, but most of all, I was scared to come home and have everything be so different without Ford here.
“Then I walked into the living room and saw the blood on the floor and…and the gun.” I hiccuped a sob, not able to hold it back as I relived the moment everything had changed. “And I saw Curtis dragging Leopold’s body outside.” I swiped at my face to get rid of the tears. “Leopold was one of my only friends. He knew about almost everything and was there for me whenever I needed him. He was my friend, and Curtis killed him because of that.”
Uncle Ky placed his hands on the table. “Wait…what do you mean?”
I closed my eyes and tried to get my emotions under control. If I told them now, I wouldn’t have to relive it, at least, not out loud anyway. “He said he was protecting me. That’s why he did it. And he said he kill—”
“Open this damn door, right now!” I jumped at the loud voice from outside and the banging on the door. “Brody! Open it now.” I stared at the door, expecting it to come flinging open any second.
“Uh-oh.” Uncle Jord chuckled. “Mama bear is here.”
“Lola,” I heard my dad growl. “Stop.”
“Not until you open this damn door,” Mom shouted back. “Open it. Right. Now.”
“You know we need to take the statement. You know that.”
“Does it look like I give a flying fuck if you need to take a statement? My daughter is in there, a daughter who I haven’t seen for nearly half a year, and you expect me to wait while you grill her about what happened?”
I imagined she had her hands on her hips and was staring my dad down. Normally she won, but when dad replied, “She needs to finish. It’s for her own good,” I knew she hadn’t this time.
The silence stretched out, and finally, I heard my mom grind out, “Fine. But I’m not moving from here, and you’ll hurry it the hell up.”
I turned back to face Uncle Jord and Uncle Ky, who both had grins on their faces. They knew what my mom was like, but most of all so did I, which was why a part of me wanted this to take longer than it would. I wanted to delay the inevitable.
“Keep going,” Uncle Jord told me.
I squeezed my legs together and shuffled on the seat. “Where was I?”
“You saw him dragging the body.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “He heard me and then…we fought. He hurt me, and I knew I wouldn’t get out of there alive. Not when he’d told me he’d also killed Stella and Justin.” My hand fluttered to my neck, and I trailed my fingers over what I could see were bruises in the mirror. “I remembered the gun. I’m not sure how I managed to get it, or how I got him to stop hurting me, but I did. And then…then…then I shot him.”
I blinked several times, not knowing what else to say. I’d tried to sum it all up, and although I knew I should have gone into more specific detail, knowing my mom was on the other side of that door was all I could think about.
“Okay,” Uncle Jord said, standing up and causing the chair legs to scrape against the floor. “I think that will do for now.” He walked over to the door and grinned at me. “We were the easiest part. Now you have your mom to deal with.” He chuckled and pulled the door open, and Uncle Ky followed him out, and then I was alone again, but not for long because my mom ran into the room.
“Be
lle!” Her voice echoed off the walls a second before her arms flung around my neck. “I missed you so much. Where have you been? Why haven’t you called?” She pulled back just enough to look at my face. “Your face.” Tears shone in her hazel eyes. “Sweetie,” she murmured, moving my hair off my face in the way only she could. “You look so tired.”
“I feel tired,” I whispered.
