I need to prepare myself mentally for Marcy’s attacks.
As soon as he leaves the room, I switch on the TV to see if there’s anything new related to the murder. Even though Alex is no longer a suspect, I want to find out who killed the poor girl.
Each day that passes without the killer being found must be torture for Brittney’s parents. In their shoes, I would have been devastated.
Nothing new. I switch off the TV again.
I’m getting ready to drag myself out of bed when Alex walks back into the suite, having only been out for less than ten minutes.
“Why are you back so soon?” I yawn. “I didn’t even take a shower yet.”
“Don’t worry about it. Stay in bed. We can have breakfast brought up, then I need to call the moving company.”
“What happened to having breakfast with your mom?”
I won’t be surprised if she has changed her mind about having breakfast with me.
“It’s canceled,” Alex says. “She’s having a virtual business meeting with one of the shareholders in the company. We’ll probably not see her for most of the day.”
I breathe out a silent sigh of relief.
“When are the movers going to the house?”
“As soon as possible. That’s what we want, right?”
Knowing that the moving company will pick up all our belongings does take some pressure off my shoulders, but I still hate the idea of strangers handling my personal items.
Most of what belongs to us will be put in storage. Alex said the house his mother will let us stay in is already fully furnished. Once we get back on our feet, I’ll insist on getting our own place. We’ll fill it with our own belongings instead of Marcy’s.
I finally get out of bed and head toward the bathroom.
“Why don’t I go?” I call out. “I could pack up our personal things.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“It’s just that I feel uncomfortable with people touching my underwear. I prefer to pack those myself.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Alex comes to stand in the doorway. “As long as the cops are on the hunt for the real killer, many people will continue to think I did it. They’ll take it out on you.” He shoves a lock of his curly hair away from his face, but it falls right back into its usual place. “I can go. You stay in and rest. You’re pregnant, for God’s sake.”
“No, I want to come with you.”
There’s no way I’ll stay at the hotel under Marcy’s shadow. What if she stops by our room to throw another emotional punch at me?
Something inside me has changed overnight. Yesterday, I could not bear the thought of returning to a town that shunned me, but now I think I have some unfinished business there. It was my home for one year, and Alex is innocent. They have no right to push us out anymore, nothing to accuse us of.
“I think that’s a bad idea,” Alex says, “but if you really want to go—”
“I really do.” I push back my shoulders. “When do we leave?”
He shakes his head in resignation. “Let’s leave in an hour.”
* * *
When we arrive in Aston,my throat tightens, and my body tenses up. It remembers the torment I went through.
Alex’s face is stoic. He stares straight ahead at the road and doesn’t speak. I imagine he shares the same emotions as I do, though his memories will be even more tortured than mine. Having his own freedom snatched away is hard to forget.
Wrestling with my own pain, I watch him in silence. He’s grinding his teeth like he often does when he’s very upset. Since being released from jail, he has been pretending that he wasn’t affected by what happened, but he’s hurting quietly.
