Page 92 of The New Couple in 5B

“They thought I’d gone right from dumping her body to a football game, where I went on to win the game that would take us to the finals.”

He bowed his head, and when he looked at me, his eyes had filled.

“Oh, my God,” I breathed.

“She was missing a couple of days before they found her. The whole town was looking for her. After they found her body, they arrested me almost right away.”

He batted away his tears as an ambulance screamed by and he paused, waiting for it to pass.

I wanted to comfort him but I stood frozen, listening for the notes of deception. If he was a killer, of course he’d also be a liar. A sociopath. Would I not have sensed that, seen other evidence of his darkness?

“I loved her,” he said, voice breaking.

I’d seen some pictures of him as a teenager, lithe, athletic, that golden hair and megawatt smile. He was the all-American. Somehow, over the years, he’d grown even better-looking. He clasped my hands, his eyes searching me.

“Ineverhurt her.Wouldnever. But they were sure it was me. We had made love that afternoon before the game. My DNA—it was everywhere.”

“Oh, Chad.”

I wished there was someplace we could sit down; I was about to suggest that we just go home, postpone dinner. But he went on.

“Ivan got me a great lawyer and paid for it. My parents couldn’t afford any kind of real defense.”

He paused a second, his breath a bit shallow.

“We were in the middle of the trial when her brother confessed to strangling her. He’d been a troubled person, struggling with behavioral and other problems. Apparently, he’d seen us together and they fought. Bethany—she was a firecracker, and she was always teasing him, giving him a hard time. She called him names, and he lost it. He killed her.”

The words didn’t do the story justice, stripped of all telling details and the raw emotions. A brother murdering his sister. Her boyfriend wrongly accused, standing trial. But I still felt the horror of it all, a tingle on my skin, a clenching in my center. That poor girl. Her parents. My God. I started crying then, too. “That is so—horrible,” I said.

He just gave me a slow nod, paused a moment, seemed to search for words. “Later, her brother rescinded his confession, said he’d been coerced. Still, I was exonerated. His case went to trial and he was convicted. He’s still in prison, but there’s another appeal pending.”

We stood facing each other, holding hands. “I was found innocent, Rosie. Iaminnocent. I need you to believe that.”

A rowdy group of boys passed us. “Propose already!” one of them yelled, and the rest of them jeered. We ignored them.

I tried to imagine how it played out for him, how devastated he must have been, grief-stricken, terrified.

He bowed his head. “Then a year later—you know this much—my parents were killed in a car crash on Route 80. I barely made it, Rosie. I barely survived all that tragedy and loss, the terror of being wrongly accused. Then losing my mom and dad so suddenly. It almost crushed me.”

I believed him. Right then and there on the street. I never doubted the truth of what he told me.

“Honestly, it was Ivan who saved me. He was there for me when no one else was.”

I put my hand to his face, wiped at a tear.

“Some people in that town never believed me. Then when my folks died, there were all kinds of rumors about that. It was such a nightmare. On top of the grief and loss, there was the constant stress of living under the shroud of suspicion. I came here to start a new life and never went back.”

We moved into each other, wrapping each other up. I knew his heart even then, even after such a short time. He was no killer. Maybe someone else would have needed more to convince them. But I didn’t. I could feel his innocence, his goodness, with every cell in my body. We stood like that awhile.

“I’ll let you google it, do your research. I know you’ll need to do that, and you should. But I need you to know that I would never hurt another human being. That you are safe with me.”

“I don’t need to research it,” I whispered, clinging to him. “I believe you. Of course I do.”

He kissed me long and deep.

“I love you, Rosie,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. It was the first time he’d said it.

“I love you, too. And I believe you.”