Page 143 of Our Daughter's Bones

When Gabriella began to cry uncontrollably, Mackenzie moved away from the door. She took out her phone and dialed Vincent Hawkins’ number.

“Hello, Detective Price? What a surprise,” he said in his rich baritone.

“Remember the favor I owed you for providing me with that useful information?”

“Yes?” He hesitated. “Do you have something for me?”

She huffed. She didn’t like reporters. But she didn’t like being in debt either. “Samuel Perez, Nathaniel Jones, and David Falkner are behind the September murders.” She heard him gasp but continued, “Except for Erica’s.”

“Who was arrested for that? Can you give me anything else? Did any of them confess or did they––?”

“I’m going to cut you off right here, Mr. Hawkins. You’re the first reporter to get this news. I suggest you get on with the story before others catch up. This is all you’ll get from me.”

He chuckled. “Fair enough, Detective Price. Thank you.”

She hung up. Reporters were like vultures. The only person she had mistakably allowed to prey on her was her husband. Notifications for Sterling’s unopened voice messages popped up on her screen.

She took a shuddering breath. Her heart was cinched with grief. She felt it first in the pit of her stomach, something alarming manifesting. Her heart kicked her ribs. She knew what she had to do. She could not delay it anymore.

She was going to confront her husband.

Seventy-Eight

2014

“The first time I saw you, I was convinced you were a robot. I had never seen anyone that confident and expressionless on the stand.”

Mackenzie laughed. Sterling’s large hands enveloped hers. The sight of him on his knees melted her heart. Nothing was pumping her blood anymore. She was sure it was goo in her chest, making her feel lightheaded.

“But underneath all that, I saw someone who really cared. I saw someone who wanted to do the right thing. I saw someone who constantly fought not just for a better world but also for a betterself.” A burst of nervous laughter escaped his plum lips. “I saw someone I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

She held his hands tighter. She looked at them—his soft hands holding her calloused ones. It seemed like a good fit. Like he had been sent into her life to take care of her. She had spent her life polishing her rough edges. Maybe it was him she had needed all this time.

“Mackenzie Eleanor Price, will you marry me?”

Her chest cracked open. “Yes!”

His arms looped around her waist, and he twirled her around. At that moment, she felt safe. She felt like she could have a family without any violence.

Years later, she would wonder if she was in love or just bewitched. If Sterling was real or just an idea.

October 15, 2018

“Mack… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have talked to you like that in the hospital.”

“I don’t like this, baby. What happened to us?”

“Remember that ice-cream parlor I took you to after you told me that you hated ice-cream? You loved that place. They just shut down. I’m in such a foul mood now.”

“Baby, I’m cooking tonight. What are you in the mood for?”

“Justin told me you were busy chasing some leads. Work is crazy, huh? I hope you’re taking care of yourself.”

“Are you coming home? I’m waiting for you.”

Mackenzie played his messages on a loop on her drive home. She waited for them to provoke something inside her. He had been caring and considerate. The least she should feel was appreciated. But the thought of Sterling would just shut her brain down.

She turned off the engine and got out of her car. She looked at the beautiful house they had built together. The garden she had worked meticulously on. She realized that the lawn had not been mowed. Some of the potted plants had wilted. The weeping willow looked fatigued, stooping too low, desperate to fall.