Why was she here now?
…and why had she never shown herself before, when I was at my lowest? When Ineeded her?
I stood there too long, the rest of the world fading into the background. I needed…I needed to be out of here. I needed space. I needed my damn church empty, to go back to the parsonage and crack open a few books and figure out how to talk to her.
She was here.
What had happened to her? Could she tell me? Did it work that way?
“Silas?”
I turned to find June beside me, her hand sliding into mine. She looked worried…probably because I looked like I’d just seen a ghost.
Which…well, I had.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
I opened and closed my mouth, trying to find the words—but how could you tell the woman you loved that you were being haunted by the girl you loved before? That youstill loved, because your heart got all twisted up when you saw her in the doorway, looking just like she did on the day she left?
So I wasn’t planning on saying it when all I could articulate was, “Did you see her too?”
June’s brows pulled together, but she didn’t look scared; she looked…relieved. She glanced around briefly before pulling me into the sanctuary, right through the space where Amelia had stood minutes earlier.
And she looked excited—excitedof all things—when she replied.
“Yes,” she said. “I saw the angel.”
The angel...what? I could hardly speak, couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. But June was still talking, the words rushing out.
“I’ve always wondered if she was real,” June was saying. “My angel…but you saw her too? She was actually there—a woman in white, right there in the doorway?”
She pointed at the doorway, smiling like we were talking about a shared miracle, but I started shaking my head before I could stop myself. Her face fell, and she stepped closer, grasping both hands now.
“What?” she asked.
“June,” I started. “That…that wasn’t an angel. That wasAmelia.”
June froze, her mouth parting slightly like she’d been struck. Her grip tightened on my hands, her breath catching in her throat.
“That…” she paused, frowning and shaking her head. “That’s impossible, Silas. She’s been with me for over a decade—I saw her for the first time the night I overdosed.”
Her words hit me like a fucking sledgehammer. I stepped back without meaning to, dropping her hands.
“What do you mean you saw her?” I asked. “June, that was Amelia—her face, her body, her hair. You…you didn’t know her, butI did, and I would have recognized her anywhere.” I pointed toward the threshold to the fellowship hall. “The woman in that doorway was going to be my wife, and you…no, there’s no fuckin’ way.”
June took a shaky breath. “Are you sure?—”
“Yes, I am sure.”
We stared at each other for another few seconds. I didn’t know how June was feeling…but I wasreeling, unable to get my head on straight. I felt…shockingly angry. Betrayed, even.
Because why had she saved June?
Why not me?
“Silas,” June said, reaching out carefully—like she was afraid I might break. “I don’t understand what…tell me what you need from me.”
I looked back toward the doorway where Amelia’s ghost had stood, then I closed my eyes. “I don’t…it’s not what I need from you. It’s what I needed fromher…and what she gave you instead.”
