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Elisa looked at Nathan bent over and laughing at whatever he was watching. “Right. No one wants him to know his almost-aunt could be dead.”
“What the fuck, Elisa? This is some sort of unhinged fantasy. You were fine last week when we had lunch, but now I’m a monster?” Josh threw down his napkin in true dramatic style and stood up.
“Don’t go off on her,” Harris warned. “And no one used the word ‘monster.’”
Elisa thought it fit, but she kept that to herself.
“Abby left me. I’m allowed to be pissed about being dumped without any explanation. I get to move on.” Josh exhaled one more time as if he’d reached his limit. “Is it possible, just hear me out, that this is a medication issue for you?”
“Hey!” Harris smacked his hand against the table. “Don’t go there.”
Unhinged. Crazy. Lost it.Harris might act outraged now, but she’d heard the two of them whisper about her. They talked as if she were fragile. Couched the concerns in terms likeshe’s not herselfthat sounded benign but carried a harsh judgment.
She’d been clawing her way out of a tunnel, not sharingeven a hint of her darkest moments with them for fear they’d slap a label on her or shove a bottle of pills in her hand. But Josh’s behavior was the issue now. Not her. Not the last year. Not her personal demons.
“How long?” she asked in the most dignified voice she could muster.
Confusion washed over Josh’s face. “What?”
“How long have you been seeing the newest one?” Because that mattered. When she weighed all the facts about how he really felt about Abby and his indifference to her disappearance, timing could be the key.
“The way you phrased that—”
Her patience expired. “Answer me.”
“Elisa.” Harris’s voice had a slight edge this time. “Maybe we could take the emotion down a notch or two. It’s bad enough when he explodes. We don’t need both of you in outrage mode.”
Not possible. She’d been keyed up and unraveling for months but she finally felt more herself. More in control, and she could no longer shut down her fear about what had happened to Abby. Her mind raced with it. It clenched and clawed at her.
Exactly one man could end the anxious thumping inside her. All he had to do was tell the truth.
“Abby is my friend.” Elisa refused to use the past tense. “No one is questioning her disappearance except me.” She looked at Harris as she delivered the explanation he should already understand, then turned to Josh. “So, how long did you wait before getting a new girlfriend?”
The answer was going to piss her off. She could feel the pressure ramping up inside her. See his gaze dart to Harris as if he’d find an ally there.
Josh didn’t answer for a few seconds. When he did, his voice was clipped and sharp. “I’m not doing this with you.”
Killer.
She tried to maintain her control as anger and unease bounced around inside her. Her mind sorted through every detail, every scrap of information she’d collected from memories and computer searches since the serious doubts about Josh settled in two days ago. She refused to let this go. She would find Abby even if she had to fight the men at this table—and destroy one of them—to do it.
“I’m sure it’s only been a week or so of informal dating.” Harris said the words slowly, as if he was weighing them as he spoke. He stared at Josh. “Right?”
That was the man she loved. The one she married. He didn’t just accept things. He asked questions. The way he was looking at Josh now, Harris expected a real answer.
Welcome to the club. She joined in the staring. “Well?”
Josh looked back and forth from Harris to Elisa. “You two know you’re not my parents, right?”
“No.” Harris shook his head. “Let’s not do that shit. She’s asking a legitimate question. Just answer her.”
Josh didn’t say a word to that. More than a minute crept by as he looked up at the ceiling then around the table. He drew it out until Elisa almost lunged across the table to squeeze the answer out of him.
“Three months,” he said in a flat tone.
“Months? Really?” Harris’s expression morphed until the shock was clear to see. “You went that long without saying anything to me?”
Josh. The man was garbage. His fiancée disappeared and he never searched for her, never questioned it. He just moved on. Found another woman and slipped right into a new relationship.
