Page 85 of These White Lies

“I know. But…” She rubs her forehead, her voice quieter now. “He didn’t have a family. I don’t even know who would’ve submitted an obituary. And now my parents are asking about a service. We were divorced. I’m not supposed to arrange that, am I?” She wrinkles her nose in distaste.

My jaw clenches. “You don’t owe that asshole a damn thing. Besides, the police won’t release the body for a while.”

She nods, sighing, her shoulders sinking from where they had hunched by her ears. “Thankfully, my parents don’t know the circumstances, but I had to promise I’d come visit soon. Whenever it’s… safe, I guess.”

“We can arrange for you to visit.”

Her mouth twitches in a humorless smile. “Guess I’ll get to explain why I have a bodyguard sleeping in their guest room.”

I snort. “Guest room. That’s cute.”

The corner of her mouth lifts, but before she can answer, my phone buzzes in my pocket. One glance at the message and exhilaration spreads through me.

“Finn has the deleted voicemails from Keith.”

24

ELIZABETH

Finn swivels in his chair the second we step inside, his gaze flicking to Brady before landing on me. Brady slows beside me, his hand brushing the small of my back. I don’t think the others notice, but his touch allows my lungs to expand.

Sera is leaning against the far wall, arms folded. To the casual observer, she’s watching Finn, but I can tell she’s focused on me.

“The deleted voicemails,” Finn says. “I could only get three of them.”

I lick my lips. “There were only three. He called several times, but he didn’t always leave a message.”

Finn gets to his feet. “I pulled them from your carrier’s backups. They’re pretty degraded, but I cleaned them up as much as I could.”

He gestures to the chair in front of his station. My knees feel strangely loose as I cross the room and sit. Brady moves in close behind me, his palm settling on the back of the chair.

“Ready?” Finn asks.

No. Absolutely not.

I nod.

The first message clicks on.

Elizabeth… I don’t know if you’ll even listen to this, but I miss you. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I can’t… I can’t even remember when the small lies started twisting into bigger ones. And then I didn’t even recognize my life anymore. Somewhere along the line, I lost track of the truth.

The sound of his voice is more jarring than I expect—familiar and wrong at the same time. Brady’s thumb sweeps once across my shoulders where they peek over the chair back.

I know you are probably still mad at me. Or maybe you’re already over it.

The sound glitches, and then I hear Keith’s bitter laugh.

“I probably did you a favor by fucking up so bad. Let you move on with your life. You never said it, but I always knew. Saw it in your eyes. You didn’t think I was smart enough to be with you, and I sure as hell wasn’t strong enough to keep up with you. I’m not sure anyone ever will be. You always had to be in charge, making all the decisions just because I didn’t do it as fast as you wanted, but we aren’t all as smart as you, Liz… You’re like one of those robots, what do you call them? Terminators. No holds barred, always winning…

The sound glitches again cutting off his diatribe.

My cheeks feel like they are on fire at the bitterness in his voice. I can’t bear to look at the others in the room and see their reaction, but the chair back creaks under Brady’s grip.

My chest is tight with dull pain in my ribs, and it makes me furious. This isn’t the first time Keith has said these things to me…

He was right about one thing. I should be over it.

I bite my lip because Keith isn’t done. He lets outa shaky breath.