She turns to me, her bright red hair blowing in the wind as she aims her blinding smile my way. I return her smile as I cross my arms behind my head and lean back.
Yeah, she is easy to love.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHARLOTTE
My attention pulls away from the extravagant homes Drew drives past. Do families live there? Couples? Or is it a rich woman or man living alone? I think of all the homeless people, all the people struggling to fit their families into their homes, who would jump at the chance to live in one. I don’t begrudge the rich for the things they have, I’m just upset life has to be this way. It makes me grateful and lucky to have everything I have in life, and it isn’t just my home or my library, but the people in my life who enrich it.
“We are nearly there,” Drew announces.
“Okay,” I reply quietly, nervous.
I’m not nervous about seeing his family again, although they are part of the reason. I’m worried because of the outfit I bought. The dress doesn’t match the cardigan I was forced to wear.
I can already feel their stares, their judgement, and although I can handle it, I don’t want Drew to have to listen to it. It isn’t fair on him, especially when there’s already a rift between them.
I pull the white cotton cardigan tighter around my chest, hoping like hell they don’t make me remove it.
Drew pulls up a wide, thick driveaway and the house that comes into view has my stomach turning.
White rendered walls gleam outside, making the blood-red door stand out. There’s a climbing rose bush that arches over the left side of the house, over a window.
I fiddle with my cardigan again and after putting the car into park, Drew turns to me, placing his hand over mine. “You don’t need to wear the cardigan,” he tells me, his lips twitching.
I narrow my gaze on him. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
He’s right. It is a little funny. For nearly a year I have tried my hardest to build a bond between Katnip and I. But I think my cat has some sort of mental issue. Because from the minute we introduced her to Snowball, my cat has changed. Every time he comes to me for fuss—which he does often—she will get so jealous and claw at me until I set him aside. Only then will she curl into my lap and begin to purr. If I pick her up when Snowball isn’t around, she claws at me like my life means nothing to her, like the hand that feeds her means nothing.
I can’t make heads nor tails of it.
Today, Snowball had been staring at the wall—he does this often too. I bent down to pick him up and Katnip came out of nowhere, clawing me anywhere she could get a grip. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was climbing the tree, trying to get the sulking cat down. I ended up once again hanging upside down, Drew once again saving me from hanging there until a family member passed by and found me.
It’s a work in progress.
But at least she has stopped hating me.
It just doesn’t help that I now have scratch marks all over my chest and down my arms. I look like I went toe to toe with Freddie Krueger.
“I look a mess.”
“You look beautiful,” he declares.
I sigh, unclipping my belt. We’re going to be late if we stay out here hiding and I don’t want his family having something else to pick about.
He slides out of the car and I follow, meeting him around the front to take his hand. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”
He chuckles, stopping to pull me in his arms. “They’re cats. They love solitude.”
I pull my phone out, sending a message to Lily. “Just to be sure…”
Charlotte: If you have time, and if you don’t mind, will you go and check on Katnip and Snowball for me please.
Charlotte: It’s okay if you don’t want to.
“Who are you messaging?” Drew asks, not in annoyance, but in amusement.
“Lily. She’s the closest. It will probably be Jaxon that goes.” I bite my lip. “But I don’t think he’ll actually check on them.”
My phone dings with a message.
Lily: Will you be mad if I told you I’m already here? They’re both playing with the new toys I bought them.
I chuckle and show the message to Drew. Lily has popped over a lot to see the new kitten, and has threatened to take him a few times.
Charlotte: It’s fine. And thank you.
I drop my phone back into my bag and beam up at Drew. “I can relax now.”
He chuckles. “I’m glad. It’s nice to see you smiling again.”
I know what he’s talking about and I don’t want to think about it. Not tonight. And yet, I can’t help but think back on the conversation I had with Officer Brown the other day.
“We have his identity.”
My heart races at hearing the words I never thought I’d hear. “You do?”
“Scott Parish.”
Scott Parish. Just hearing his name in my mind feels foreign, and a sliver of ice runs down my spine.
“Did you… Did you find out who killed him?”
“We are still looking into his case, and we aren’t at liberty to discuss this with you just yet.”
“I understand,” I whisper, grateful she even called me since I’m the number one suspect. A thought occurs to me. “Did you… did you contact his wife?”
“We have spoken to Sophia Parish. She wasn’t aware of her husband’s affairs.”
I close my eyes, my heart aching when I imagine what she is going through right now. She doesn’t deserve this. In one day, she has learned her husband, the father to her kids, not only cheated, but was murdered. “Did she say why she never reported him missing?”
“As far as Mrs Parish was aware, he was working away in Scotland and was due back in two weeks.”
“She didn’t get suspicious when he didn’t call?”
She sighs and I hear the background noise disappear before she replies. “She received messages from his number. When she asked why he wasn’t answering, his reply was his signal was spotty or he was in meetings. We know this isn’t true and we are trying to track where the messages came from through the GPS.”
“So you’ll be able to find out where the messages came from?”
“Hopefully,” she explains.
“Would she…” I close my eyes. “I’d like to speak to her, to explain and apologise. I’d never have gotten involved had I known he was married.”
“She’s a grieving widow. She’s asked us and the press to respect her privacy. She wants time to tell her children that their father isn’t going back.”
I glance up, finding a few people in the library listening into my conversation. I roll my desk chair back and turn, lowering my voice. “Okay.”
“I’ll call you with any other updates.”
“Thank you.”
Drew brings me back to the present. “I’m sorry. I’ve brought up bad shit for you.”
I shake away those memories and step forward, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Don’t be. It just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
“Give it time. It’s only been a few days.”