Lily’s follow-up appointment with the surgeon wasn’t for a couple more weeks, but today was the day she was allowed to remove the bandages from her face.
Her stomach fluttered with butterflies, excitement and worry giving them life. What would Aiden do if she wasn’t as pretty as before? Probably still love her, she thought with relief.
She took a seat on the edge of the tub and squeezed her eyes shut. “OK, go ahead. Be gentle,” she said to Aiden. She could feel his smile even though she couldn’t see it. He’d been released from the hospital two days ago and seemed to be doing well. Still on painkillers, of course, though Lily noticed he hardly took them. He said the abdominal wound was uncomfortable and gave him trouble when he sat or got up, but surprisingly, it was his shoulder that hurt most.
Lily felt Aiden picking at the edge of one of the white steri-strips that lay across her nose and cheeks. The skin around her eyes was still black in spots, but a yellow cast had come in beneath it.
He carefully pulled up the edges on another strip. “You OK?”
Lily nodded. She heard Rex come in and felt him lie on the scatter mat at her feet. Canine moral support, she supposed.
Aiden finally had one strip off completely, then another and after another minute, the last one.
“How do I look?”
“Beautiful.” Aiden handed her a mirror and smiled hugely at her. He looked the same, his dimple, his days’ worth of scruff, that black tousled hair. How he looked so good after nearly dying, she had no idea, and secretly prayed her nose wouldn’t be a smashed-up mess.
She took the mirror from him with shaky hands and immediately started to cry when she saw her reflection. “I’m ugly.”
Aiden’s smile went out and he looked around for a tissue. Finding none, he grabbed a wad of toilet paper and handed it to her, all the while trying to hold his arm and shoulder as still as possible. “It’s still a bit swollen, but I can tell it’s going to be fine. Your nose will look exactly like it did before,” he reassured her.
She held the mirror up again and turned her head slightly this way and that to examine the doctor’s handiwork from every direction. There were no stitches. She was thankful for that. They were all on the inside, she’d been told, in order to prevent scarring. After another look, she decided Aiden might be right. Maybe once the swelling and bruising went away, it wouldn’t be so bad after all. Of course, the bruising would go, but it was hard to imagine the swollen tissue shrunk back to its original shape and form. She handed back the mirror. “Hope you’re right.”
“It’s gonna take some time before we’re both a hundred percent.” Aiden sat beside her and hugged her to him. “We’re falling apart, aren’t we?” He laughed and held his side as he did. “But we’ve got each other and that’s all that counts.”
Did they really have each other, she wondered, and if so, for how long? True, he had told her he loved her, but it had been a while since Aiden said anything about their future or whether he was even staying in town. The force of that worry was so strong, she had to push it away, and couldn’t yet bring herself to ask him about it. Besides, she didn’t want anything to ruin the time they had together, no matter how long or short. “Thank you,” she said and smiled. “You make me feel beautiful and special no matter what.”
He gave her face a gentle caress. “No need to thank me. What I say and do for you comes easy because it’s from my heart. You’re doing the same for me, remember?”
His touch awakened her desire, and his words only strengthened it. She stood and took his hand, leading him into the bedroom. They stopped at the foot of the bed. Aiden pulled her close and peppered soft, feathery kisses on her forehead, her eyelids, her nose then, more hungrily, her mouth.
Lily undid the buttons of his shirt, one at a time, slowly, carefully, mindful of his injuries. She bent to kiss his stomach, just above the packing over his wound. Aiden was unable yet to don jeans or any kind of pants that fastened with a zipper and button. Lily eased off the pajama bottoms he was wearing.
With a sly smile, Aiden eased himself into the bed then pulled up the covers for her. Lily slid in beside him and they lay facing each other, caressing, kissing, touching. Even though she knew he wanted her badly, and she wanted him just as much, being so close, so intimate, had to be enough for now. The feel of his heart beating against hers and the warmth of him was all she needed. They lay together for a long time, silently enjoying each other until sleep finally came for them.
* * *
“Do you think about Natalie?” Lily asked Aiden over breakfast the next morning. It was the first time either of them had brought up her name since the night at the cabin when all hell had broken loose.
Aiden looked thoughtful, as if choosing his words carefully, then replied simply, “Can’t get her out of my head.”
Lily sipped her coffee and took a bite of her bagel. Eating was still a bit of a chore, but the pain lessened with each passing day. “Me neither. For the longest time, it was as if everything that happened that night was just a bad dream.”
Aiden’s eyes widened with her words. “I know what you mean. It was surreal and…well, never mind.”
Lily smiled halfheartedly. “What were you going to say?”
He shook his head and waved a dismissive hand. “That’s a story for another time.”
Her cell phone rang. Coaxing out whatever Aiden was about to say could wait.
It was Sheriff Wilkins. He’d called out of courtesy to let her know Natalie’s doctors cleared her for questioning. Lily eyed Aiden. “Will you be OK alone for a while?”
* * *
“She’s got a visitor right now. I’m sorry, you’ll have to come back another time,” the plump nurse said to Lily.
“Yes, I know. Sheriff Wilkins is in there with Natalie, questioning her. He’s expecting me.” She’d gathered up all of her confidence and injected it into her voice.
“I wasn’t aware anyone else was coming.” The nurse planted her hands on well-padded hips and examined Lily through narrowed eyes. “Wait here.” She pushed open the slate-gray door to Natalie’s room and was back within seconds, trailed by Wilkins, who was decked out in what looked to Lily like a hazmat suit.
He pulled down the surgical mask he was wearing. “Lily?” Then turned to the nurse. “Give us a second.”
When she was out of earshot, Wilkins took Lily by the shoulder and pulled her closer. “I only told you I’d be questioning Natalie out of courtesy. I didn’t expect you to turn up here.” His voice was a furious whisper.
“I’m here now and I think you owe it to me to let me come in there with you.”
“No way.”
“She’s allowed visitors now, right? So, I’m here for a visit.” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “I can help. Seeing me might unnerve her, get her to say more.” She waited a beat or two. Still no answer. “How long have you been questioning her?”
He spoke finally. “Just got here and I barely got started when you showed up. Her parents are on their way. I don’t have much time. They’ve got her some big-city lawyer. If I don’t get in there now, that lawyer will have her shut up like a bank vault in no time.”
Lily took hold of his arm. “We’d better hurry up then.” But Wilkins stood as solid as a statue, unyielding and firm. She couldn’t budge him.
“No. I can’t let you go in there.”
“After what you and your department, not to mention Natalie, put me through, I’m going through that door whether you like it or not.” Something in her glare must have told Wilkins just how serious she was, because he waved the nurse back over with a sigh of exasperation.
“Miss Valier will be coming in too,” he said.
“All right, you’ll have to put these on.” The nurse pointed to a stack of coveralls. “Masks and gloves are over there on the counter. It’s a sterile environment, so you’ll not be allowed to take them off. Understand? She’s a very sick young lady, and we can’t risk infection.”
“Is she in pain?” Lily asked. Although she despised Natalie, a small part of her felt sorry for the girl.
“She’s got third-degree burns over forty percent of her body, but she’s on a morphine drip so she’s comfortable.”
“She going to be in here a long time?”
“Yes, months I’m afraid,” the nurse answered with pursed lips and a slow shake of her head.
Lily steeled herself for what she was going to see when she walked through the door in front of her.
“Looks like you have another visitor,” the nurse announced, nodding for Lily and Wilkins to enter, then took her leave.
Lily made her way into the large private room. There were no plants or flowers or cards. Sterile room, she remembered.
Natalie was on her back, the bed inclined slightly. No blankets or sheets touched the damaged parts of her from what Lily could see, just moist dressings. Her bed was surrounded by a thick sheet of plastic, which Lily surmised was a barrier between the girl and the germ-filled world around her.
As she moved farther into the room, she noticed Natalie’s hair was singed to the scalp in several places. Red, raw patches of blistering skin gave her scalp a checkerboard appearance, but her face seemed to have been spared the same fate. It wasn’t until she drew nearer that Lily spied an angry splotch at the bottom of Natalie’s jawline.
An IV drip and heart monitor did their jobs, and a small TV hung from a wall-mounted arm beside her, inside the confines of the plastic housing.
“Knew you’d show up sooner or later,” Natalie said, her eyes sleep heavy. “Don’t worry, I’m going to prison when I get out of here. Right, Sheriff Wilkins?” Her words were slow and it seemed an effort for her to speak.
Wilkins didn’t reply but Lily did. “I’d say there’s a damn good chance of that.”
A small groan escaped the girl as she tried to lift her head. “Can’t see much with that mask on. Your face messed up?”
Lily thought she saw a smile curl the girl’s lips. “I’m just fine,” she replied.
Natalie seemed to lose interest and turned her head to the muted TV. Lily saw a morning talk show on the small screen. A pretty blonde woman smiled and talked animatedly to her co-host. This made Lily want to grab hold of Natalie and shake her, to pull her attention back to her. Instead, she asked, “Are you sorry for what you did?”
Wilkins grabbed her wrist in warning, but she was undeterred and yanked away from him. “You murdered two people and an unborn baby! I’d like to know what’s going on in that head of yours. Do you even comprehend what you’ve done?”
Natalie turned back slowly and glared. “Now my outside matches my inside.”
This wasn’t what she was expecting. Were there tears in the girl’s eyes? Lily thought there might be. She was about to say she deserved everything she was going to get. That a life sentence in a maximum-security prison wasn’t good enough, that she should be sentenced to death.
“You done now? I’ve got a job to do,” Wilkins said to Lily. He’d left her now and was standing by the window, resting against the ledge, arms crossed over his narrow chest.
She threw a glance his way, lips pursed, then turned back to Natalie. “Why did you try to kill me?”
“Because women like you get everything you want.” Tears now streamed down her cheeks, and she let them come and did not wipe them away. “You’ll never be alone in this world because you’re beautiful.”
Jealousy? Lily remembered her talk with Aiden about what jealousy could drive a person to do. Only they’d been talking about Gabrielle at the time, not Natalie. Never had she thought Natalie wanted her dead because she was jealous of her. It seemed such a weak, childish reason.
There was a part in the plastic sheeting and Lily pushed her way through. Even with the mask on, she could smell the girl—dead flesh and whatever medication was soaked into the dressings made her stomach lurch. How on earth anyone could be a nurse was beyond her. She summoned up more steel.
“And you thought ruining the lives of others would solve your self-esteem issues?” Her voice rose with the words. There was the slap of the thick plastic sheets being moved apart, and Wilkins was beside her now. But he was silent and not scolding, and this surprised Lily.
Natalie took hold of her morphine pump and dosed herself to the max. Her features relaxed immediately as the drug-induced calm enveloped her. “I didn’t mean to kill Sara.” She smiled and looked up at Wilkins. “That caught your attention? You think I’m going to spill my guts now?”
“Natalie, just remember what you say now can and will be used in a court of law—”
The girl looked annoyed. “You already read me my rights. Don’t really give a shit what happens to me now, anyway. My life’s over.” Her words were beginning to slur.
Lily burned with agitation. Why had Wilkins interfered? Natalie might have gone on and told her why she’d killed Sara. Stupid move, sheriff, she wanted to say but only huffed. “What were you going to say?” she asked Natalie.
Natalie yawned and rubbed an eye with the heel of her hand. “Can’t we talk later?”
Lily slapped a palm hard against the wall behind Natalie’s head. Her arm vibrated with the force of it right up to her shoulder. Wilkins jumped and Natalie’s eyes widened. “Goddamn it. Tell me.” Her voice was a growl.
“Easy,” Wilkins whispered and narrowed his eyes at Lily. But she turned from him and set her eyes once again on Natalie.
The bravado seemed to slip from the girl, and her expression changed to one of resignation. With downcast eyes, she began, “I went to your sister’s just to talk. Thought I could make her understand how she was hurting my family, and asked her to leave us be.” She looked up at Lily then, her eyes brimming with tears. “She could have gone anywhere and started a new life. I don’t know why she was so set on ruining mine. We argued. I saw the gun lying on her kitchen counter, and before I realized what I was doing, I was aiming it at her.” The girl’s words were coming slowly now, and Lily feared the medication was about to take her away.
“And then?” Wilkins coaxed.
Tears spilled. “I shot her in the throat. Didn’t know what to do, so I ran. Took the gun with me. My mother was going to divorce my dad. Couldn’t take the constant fighting, my dad not coming home. I missed having a family to make me feel safe. Can you understand that?”
Lily did understand, more than she cared to admit.
Natalie’s eyes closed, and Lily shook her back to consciousness. “But why try to pin it on me?” The girl jolted and her head wobbled like a seed-laden sunflower on its stalk. “’Cause I didn’t like you…and it was Deluca’s idea. I went to him for help. He knew about the inheritance money and said it could be a motive for you wanting your sister dead.” She sighed, deep and heavy, then continued in a slow staccato, “He told me my dad would be the prime suspect and if I gave him a little money now and then, he could convince the sheriff you did it.”
Wilkins had his notebook out and was writing furiously. “Why does the murder weapon have your mother’s prints on it?”
“Probably found it under my bed. Mother never cleans, but she does snoop, a lot. I’m so tired…don’t want to talk anymore.”
It seemed Natalie was asleep within seconds, and Lily crept closer and peered down at her. Blood and pus-soaked dressings covered the girl’s right side. Despite wanting to turn away, Lily forced herself to take it in. Competing emotions battled within her. Yes, Natalie was young, barely a woman, but she’d done so much damage to the lives of so many. Still, no matter how long Natalie spent in prison, her scarred body would remind her of the suffering she’d caused. With that thought, anger flowed away and pity replaced it.
“Guess you got what you needed, huh?” Lily said to Wilkins.
He nodded his reply.