“I want you out of my house!” Mrs. Triton wailed. “Get out!”
“You should go.” Mr. Triton’s numbness traveled on his words as he knelt beside his wife and gathered her in his arms, and tears blurred Bel’s eyes at the sight of their intertwined bodies. Two months ago, she’d been called to this house as a favor. Ariella hadn’t been classified as a missing person’s. Griffin was simply being overcautious. This family’s story wasn’t supposed to end like this. Their daughter was supposed to be a careless teen, too hungover to call her parents, not a collection of bones buried out in the woods.
“If there’s anything you need, please call us,” Griffin said. “Anything at all. We’re so sorry for your loss.”
Mr. Triton nodded, his silence deafeningly loud, for what was there to say? What feeble, useless words could ever stand adequate in the face of such unimaginable despair?
Griffin slipped his palm against Bel’s back, the pressure reminding her feet to break free of the carpet and escape this house built on sorrow. Her eyes immediately found Eamon’s pale skin stark against the night air, and the tension in her chest begged her to drop professionalism and run into his comfort. But before she could step toward her boyfriend, who, by the harsh expression contorting his face, had heard every agonizing scream of a mother who was no longer a parent, Olivia lunged for him, tripping on her haste. Eamon surged forward to catch her, and she gripped his shirt until her knuckles paled. Bel watched with disbelief as her partner burst into tears, and for a confused moment, the couple stared at each other over Olivia’ssobbing head. Bel shrugged, and with a grimace that told her he was at a loss for the correct move, he pulled the detective close. Time stopped, grief consuming every human gracing the Triton property, and Olivia cried harder as he wrapped her in a protective embrace. Eamon Stone. The boyfriend who’d come between the best friends. Yet, in this horrible moment, there were no lies or arguments, no monsters or magic. There was merely pain and a man strong enough to provide safety.
“I’ll drive you home,” Eamon finally whispered, and when Olivia didn’t protest. He scooped her up and slipped her into the back of Bel’s SUV before climbing into the driver’s seat. Bel settled beside him, and silence was their only companion on the dark drive.
“I’ll order you a rental car until you can fix yours,” Eamon said when he pulled into Olivia’s driveway, her damaged car staring accusingly at all of them.
“You don’t have to.” There was no fight in Olivia’s voice. “It isn’t your responsibility.”
“Don’t bother arguing. It’s a waste of breath,” Bel said. “He’s stubborn like that and plenty rich. Just take the rental before he changes his mind and buys you a car instead.”
“But…” Olivia started.
“I’ll have it delivered here tomorrow morning,” Eamon cut her off before she could bring up their fight, refusing this moment of healing between the trio to grow tainted. “Keep it as long as you need.”
“I don’t want to be a bother.”
“A rental car is nothing,” he said. “It’ll take minutes to order, and the cost is pocket change.”
“Okay.” Olivia relented. “Thank you.”
Eamon grunted his response and waited for her to unlock her front door safely before pulling back out onto the darkened streets. They drove in silence, the weight of the day heavy ontheir shoulders, but when he finally parked her SUV before his mansion, neither of them could muster the energy to leave the idling car.
“That’s why I can’t have kids,” Eamon said, his deep voice startling and unwelcome after such deafening silence. “Those screams. That loss. I can’t do it. Not when it’s you. Not when it’s our children. I already explained to you the logistics of why I can’t, so I won’t rehash that conversation, but that woman’s screams... Her pain at losing the person she brought into this world, the person she loves most. I went through that when I saw your death reported on the news. I won’t survive it again, and I won’t survive losing our children. We’ve ignored the topic since our first conversation, and I want to. Lord, I want to pretend we never have to address this unanswered question hanging between us, but we need to. I need to know if this is a deal-breaker… if I have to prepare myself to let you go.”
“You won’t watch me die, but you’ll let me go over this?” Bel whispered into the night.
“It would destroy me, but if you were happy and free to have the future you wanted, I’d survive. I’ll still end my life when yours comes to a close, though. Leaving you doesn’t change the fact that I have no desire to exist without you.”
“Do we really need to do this now?” Bel shoved the door open and lunged out into the humid air.
“If not now, when?” Eamon jumped out after her.
“I don’t know.” She whirled around to face him. “Maybe not hours after we told a mother her teenage daughter was dead, her life choked out of her.”
“It’s awful timing. I get it, but it’s the right time. You saw Mrs. Triton’s reaction. Now you understand what having and losing a child would be like for me. Now you’ve seen my pain firsthand.”
“It might be the right time for you,” Bel spat. “But you’re being selfish. Because what about me? What about todaytold you that I’m capable of making this kind of life-altering decision?”
“Yeah… I am selfish. I’m a monster, remember?” His words felt like a slap in the face, and too pissed to dignify his statement with a response, she spun on her heels and strode toward the mansion’s front door. She needed her dog.
“Isobel.” Eamon’s pounding footsteps crossed the divide between them too quickly. “I’m sorry.” He grabbed her wrist, and out of spite, she ripped her arm free. “Isobel…” he warned, grabbing her wrist again.
“No, you don’t get to bully me into this conversation right now.” She pulled her arm free for the second time.
“Ever since your birthday, I’ve been terrified that you’ll leave me for a man who can give you kids.” Eamon’s voice softened. “Yeah, tonight was a crap time to bring it up, but I can’t exist like this. I need to know if I’m losing you. After witnessing that mother’s screams, I can’t ignore it anymore. It’s eating me alive knowing that at any moment, you might decide life with only me isn’t enough. Hearing you’d died on the news pushed me off the edge, and listening to that mom brought me right back to that afternoon, to racing down that office hallway praying that my perfect hearing hadn’t truly heard the reporter say your name. I love you.” He surged forward to cup her jaw in his massive hands. “I love you enough to let you go, and I love you enough to fight the heavens and the earth for you, but which do you need from me? Tell me, because this limbo is unbearable.”
“I don’t know.” Bel sagged into his hold. This is what she needed. His strength, his contact, his love. Not the threat of a decision that could forever terminate the one relationship that she was certain would kill her if it ended. “I don’t have the answer tonight. I want my dog. I want a shower and to sleep. I want you. That much I know.”
“Maybe we should spend some time apart.” Eamon stepped away from her, and Bel almost choked on terror clogging her throat.
“What?”
