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"So, what? You're just going to leave? Avoid facing what's happening between us?"
Finn clenched his jaw. "I said I have a case. I can't ignore my responsibilities. Lives may depend on it."
"And what about us? What about our life together?" Her voice cracked.
He paused, feeling the enormity of the choices in front of him. Finally, he muttered, "I loved you so much, Demi. First you tell me you had an affair, and then you left me. Now, you're telling me it was all a lie, and you've flown here to explain? None of it makes sense."
“It will if you let me explain,” she said.
“I don't want you wasting money and time on something that might not work out,” Finn said. He knew he sounded defeated, and that was not a sense that entered his personality very often.
“I can wait,” she said. “I have money.”
Finn thought for a moment. He was starting to think he had been too cruel. "I don't know when I'll be back, Demi. It could be a day or a week, maybe more. But I'll text you. When I return, whether you're still in that hotel room or back home, we will talk... I owe you that.”
“Thank you, Finn,” she said quietly.
“Andyouowe me an explanation,” Finn replied. “It better be a good one, and the truth, if we have any hope. Goodbye.”
“Be careful, Finn,” she said.
That cut him deeply. To hear her concern for his well-being reminded him of how it used to be between them.
“I... I will,” he said. “I... I still love you.”
“Oh, Finn," she said, beginning to sob.
“I'll be back soon. Goodbye, Demi.”
Without waiting for her response, he hung up. The finality of that disconnected call loomed large in the room, like an uninvited guest. He felt torn between duty and the growing urge to untangle the knotted threads of his relationship with Demi.
Finn stood up and looked outside as leaves fell from a nearby sycamore. For a moment, he thought about how short life was, each of us dangling at the end of a branch, discarded when the seasons turn.
Then, through the haze of it all, the image of Amelia Winters came into his head. Why that happened there and then, bothered him deeply. What bothered him even more was that the thought of his partner was so comforting in a sea of misfortune and unknowns.
There was no time to unpick the confusion in his mind. It was time to head out on a case again, and hope that somehow the answers, both personal and professional, would come easy to him as the sky clouded overhead, casting a dark shadow across the cottage lawn.
CHAPTER TWO
Finn ignored the cacophony of sounds around him caused by the storm. The small passenger plane jetted through the clouds, almost groaning as it did so. Glancing through the window next to him, its surfaces was covered in rain, and he could see the sun caught in a shroud of misty rain and water vapor in the distance.
The sound of the rain rattled off the outside of the plane like a tin can. He had seen the forecasts—a dangerous storm system was hanging over the West of Scotland, threatening the islands.
So far, it had battered the rugged communities below with rain, wind, and sea. Weather forecasts said that it would hopefully pass in a week or so, dissipating, but one meteorologist had stated that there was a small chance the storm might turn into something far bigger, far more dangerous. A storm not seen in that part of the world for generations.
Finn glanced at the beads of water on the window as they smeared across it, hanging on until their inevitable end, then he turned his attention back to the case files in front of him.
The plane's engines growled as it hit another patch of turbulence, shaking the aircraft from side to side. Amelia gripped the armrests next to Finn, her knuckles turning white and her long red hair momentarily sitting over her face.
“That's a great look, you should keep it,” Finn said.
Amelia tucked the strands of hair behind her ears and then glanced over at Finn, who was once more engrossed in the case file, seemingly undisturbed by the rumbling.
Finn looked up and noticed her unease. "Sorry, I know you don't like flying. Are you alright?"
Amelia tried to sound casual. "Oh, you know, just the usual mortal terror of flying through a storm to a remote Scottish island. Nothing much to worry about, except hurtling into the sea like a dart."
Finn grinned. "Well, try to relax and console yourself with the fact that at least I'm not the one flying this thing."
