“Okay,” Detective Green said. “We’ll head out. Sorry to bother you so late at night. But we wanted to get a quick jump on this.”
Bram’s arm slung more purposefully around my neck, pulling me even closer. “It’s not a bother. But for what it’s worth, he killed two young girls in our community. Both had boyfriends, lots of friends, parents, and grandparents. I can see any of them wanting to deal with him the old-fashioned way. Especially after learning of his insanity verdict. I can’t say that I blame whoever did it, either. That is just a slap in the face to all of us that suffered at his hands.”
Detective Alto rushed off after Bram’s parting comment. It was Detective Green who said, “I can’t say that I agree with you. Because that would put me in a position I don’t necessarily want to be in. But if I did, I would try really hard to figure out what that guy’s problem is.” He hooked his finger toward Alto’s departing back. “I’m sorry that this happened to you two. And for what it’s worth…”
He left that hanging, but his eyes said something completely different.
As if he knew what we’d done, and he approved.
Bram’s hand stiffened on my shoulder that he was now holding, but the rest of him was calm.
After everyone left, and it was just the two of us standing there, I said, “What the fuck are you doing? You can’t give up Mimi!”
Bram sighed. “Mimi’s already halfway given me up anyway. This’ll be a clean break. I love… loved… whatever. I like her still. But I can’t deal with it anymore. This last week has been from hell. And if anything, today gave me a perfectly good reason in my conscience to give her up. I won’t feel bad anymore about letting go.”
I shook my head. “This is going to be a disaster.”
• • •
Things happened really fast after that.
As in, I never once expected him to spend quite so much time with me to sell our lie.
Nor did I expect him to leave his girlfriend.
The first time we saw her while we were out to eat, I nearly threw up the food that I’d been barely eating.
It was barbeque and probably would’ve hurt coming back up.
Weeks passed, and each time we saw Mimi, the more the dagger in my heart twisted.
Because Bram felt horrible. I could see it in his eyes, on his face, and the way he held himself when she was around.
He clearly still loved her.
But Detective Alto, if anything, had doubled down his efforts in trying to prove our guilt.
If we ever needed to sell the lie, now was the time.
I only wish it hadn’t come at the expense of Mimi’s heart and my own.
CHAPTER 7
FYI—I’m out of medicine that makes me like you.
-Bram to Shine
BRAM
“I don’t believe you,” the detective admitted. “I feel like there’s more going on here than what meets the eye.”
He was a suspicious man with good cop vibes.
He was right.
Yet…
I moved to my truck and opened the passenger side door. Then I yanked open the glove compartment and grabbed the box that’d been sitting there for nearly six months. The ring that I’d been planning on giving to Mimi and hadn’t.
The ring that’d been practically burning a hole in the glove compartment of my truck as I thought about Mimi never wearing it over the last few weeks.
Overall, leaving Mimi had been a good decision.
I loved her, but I didn’t love her like I should love her.
We’d been high school sweethearts and moved into adult lovers. But what we were not, was forever meant to be.
That wasn’t saying that Dory was my forever, either.
But it looked like she was about to sell the lie that she was.
“Look,” I said. “Dory’s the real deal to me. Would I have a ring for her if she weren’t?”
“I just don’t believe it,” Detective Alto snapped. “There’s something going on here.”
Did I also mention that Detective Alto was Mimi’s cousin?
They were close, and it was obvious that Detective Alto had it out for me after breaking Mimi’s heart.
When I’d told Dory about it the day they’d found Amon’s body, she’d said, “Well, that explains the hatred between you two. And somewhat me. But why did he hate me before? Why didn’t he believe what I had to say about Amon previously?”
“You’ll break her even more if you do that,” Alto said stiffly.
I shrugged and shoved the ring into my pocket.
I guess that meant that I would have to head toward Dory’s place now.
We’d have to sell this for real, now.
No more playing and pretending.
What we had to do next would be a game changer.
• • •
DORY
“We’re going to try to make this work,” he said to me. “We’re going to stay married. We’re going to make this a real relationship. We’re going to sell this lie. You on board?”
I was on board with anything that wouldn’t have me seeing the inside of a jail cell.
“Yes.”
He slid the ring that used to be his ex-girlfriend’s onto my finger, then grinned.
“It fits.”
I felt my heart sink. “It fits.”
Some other girl’s ring fit.
Yay for me.
• • •
Three months later
We got married at the courthouse.
None of Bram’s family was in attendance, mostly because they were all mad at him.
In fact, they disliked me so much that not a single one of them would even spare the time to talk to me.
It was, by far, much worse than I could’ve ever imagined.
To make matters worse, Bram didn’t even kiss me as we were married.
My entire childhood, I had nothing to do but think about the future. About how, one day, I would get married and it would be the most magical thing in the world.
Only, that was the exact opposite of what I got.
Which fuckin’ sucked.
What sucked worse was, an hour later, he dropped me off at home in his truck—he’d refused to give me a ride on his motorcycle because it didn’t feel ‘right’—he left.
No telling me where he was going. No explanation about what to look forward to from there.
In fact, he’d dropped me off at my house with instructions to call a moving company to help box my shit up.
Which, I didn’t do.
After telling me to handle getting my stuff to his place that he’d once mostly shared with Mimi, I got in my own car and moved my crap into the one-bedroom apartment.
It took me three hours to do.
Once I had everything moved, I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my apartment to ensure that I would be getting my apartment deposit back.
Only after hours of hard labor did I return to Bram’s house to find him still not home.
I went to sleep on the couch and slept there every night for the next six months.
CHAPTER 8
I have two moods. Sleepy sleepy, and overthinky.
-Dory to Bram
DORY
I’d like to say that life got better after that. But it didn’t.
Bram’s family hated me. Bram resented me.