AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you and your husband both get inscriptions?”
He had answered her question with his own question. In Josie’s experience, there was usually one of two reasons for this kind of deflection: to buy time so the person could think of an appropriate answer, or to deflect attention away from them in the hopes of avoiding the question altogether. It didn’t surprise her since she already knew he was a liar but then again, she hadn’t asked him a question he should need to buy time for or deflect from. The tiny ember of an idea slowly began to smolder in the back of her mind.
She answered him. “What we wanted to put inside them was too long, so on the outside of our bands it says, ‘I’ll always.’” She slid the ring off and handed it to him.
He had to get up and go over to the stove, holding it beside the glass to study it. “Oh yeah,” he said. “It does. I’ll always what?”
The words lodged in her throat momentarily as tears threatened. Just the thought of her husband and what they’d promised brought every complicated emotion she had racing to the surface. She swallowed and smiled. “Look inside.”
He turned the ring and peered inside the band, reading the words slowly. “‘Run to the danger. N.’”
“It should have been ‘run toward the danger with you’ but that was too long to fit,” Josie said.
He handed it back to her. “That’s what you guys have on your rings? I’ll always run to the danger?”
She slid the band back onto her finger, feeling a modicum of comfort, as if it was Noah’s touch. “No. His says, ‘I’ll always’ on the outside and ‘come home to you. J.’ on the inside.”
Brian returned to his chair, picking up the vape pen from the seat where he’d left it. He used the edge of it to scratch the side of his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Those were our vows,” said Josie, the lump in her throat thicker than ever. “He promised to always run toward the danger with me and I promised to always come home to him. We had them inscribed onto our wedding bands a few months after the wedding.”
“Huh,” Brian said. “Weird.”
Josie looked at the band sparkling on her finger. They hadn’t gone through with the wedding they’d planned. Instead, they’d gotten married in the hospital next to her grandmother’s bed. Lisette’s dying wish had been to see them wed. They’d chosen to improvise on their vows, but they couldn’t have been more perfect. Noah had kept his vow to her. He’d left Denton as soon as the snow started. He’d come to get her. But where was he now? She pushed the thought aside. The ember in the back of her mind glowed more brightly. “Yes,” she agreed. “It’s weird but it made sense for us. But yeah, it’s not as traditional or as lovely as what you had inscribed inside Nicola’s band. ‘Forever & always. B.’”
Again, Brian used the edge of the vape pen to scratch at his temple. He gave her a strained smile. “Well, you know,” he said. “That was what Nic wanted.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
Josie pulled her blanket back up to her chin even though it was probably too dark for Brian to see her heartbeat fluttering wildly beneath the skin at the hollow of her throat. She was grateful when he settled back in his chair and turned to watch the flames licking the glass of the stove door. She quietly worked on her box breathing, trying to counteract the adrenaline that surged through her at this discovery.
Whoever they were, Brian and Nicola were not married. Josie had started to put most of the pieces together before she caught Brian in the lie about the inscription. The two of them had barely touched one another the entire week, and they seemed emotionally disconnected. Initially, she’d put it down to the strain on their marriage caused by the murder of their daughter. But they had no slain daughter. Then there were the smaller details like the fact that Brian hadn’t known Nicola was lactose intolerant. Even more appalling was that Nicola had not known about Brian’s peanut allergy—something that could possibly kill him. She’d claimed to have forgotten but her excuse had been brain fog from the death of her daughter. It was something no one would dare question—an excellent way to cover up the fact that she hadn’t known about the allergy at all.
Maybe not all couples had the sort of intimacy that Josie and Noah shared but a potentially deadly food allergy and the inscription inside one’s wedding band were definitely things a spouse would know, even if they hadn’t been married for very long.
Across from her, Brian kept his attention on the wood stove, content not to talk. Josie did her best not to stare at him. A few hours passed in silence. Josie’s mind was in a frenzy, trying to piece together what exactly was going on as well as wondering what had happened to Taryn and if it was her fault. When it felt like she was about to come out of her skin, she turned her focus to Sandrine and what she could possibly be hiding. Snippets of things she’d heard during the week came back to her, and she mentally replayed them, until another idea began to glow like a hot coal in the furnace of her mind. It was only a small thing, but she was sure it was important. To confirm it, however, she had to find a way to talk with Sandrine alone.
As the hours passed, the wind outside died down. With only the hum of the generator and the crackle of the wood stove, in the dark of night, Josie felt like they were the only people on the planet. Then from outside came a noise that she couldn’t quite identify. It was loud. Some sort of dragging or sliding. It sounded almost mechanical. A machine? Before her mind could process it, she was on her feet.
“What the he—” Brian’s words were swallowed up by some sort of crash outside.
Josie ran to the coatrack next to the door, searching for her coat and boots in the dim light. Behind her, she heard the voices of Sandrine, Alice, and Nicola, sleepy but alarmed.
“What was that?” asked Alice.
“Is someone here?” Sandrine said.
Nicola leapt up and raced toward the door. “Maybe it’s Taryn!”
Brian, already at the door, yanked it open. Frozen air swept through the room. “Nic, just stay here. It might be the bear.”
Josie put her winter stuff on and grabbed two of the lanterns. She handed one to Brian. He had sweatpants and sneakers on, but he didn’t bother to put on his coat, instead rushing out onto the porch. Josie kept close behind. Their lanterns were almost dead, since they had used them earlier to search for Taryn, but Josie did her best to make out what she could with the little light they still gave off. They paused at the bottom of the steps, swinging their lights around, searching for the source of the clamor.
Now, the night was silent. The only thing Josie could hear outside was the whir of the generator.
Brian walked up the path, pausing between the main house and Sandrine’s cabin, turning in a circle. “I don’t see anything, but it sounded like it was close. I thought maybe it was someone here to rescue us.”
Josie followed him, stepping off the path and into the snow. She started walking between the two buildings. “Josie,” Brian said. “What are you doing? The bear might be back there.”
