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The Epilogue Of The Verity Novel
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77% found this document useful (13 votes)
221K views38 pagesVerity Epilogue
The Epilogue Of The Verity Novel
Uploaded by
Joshua MusondaCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
/ 38
THE NEW YORK TIMES PHENOMENON
THAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
aC RIS Wha
NEW
A NOVEL
COLLECTOR’S EDITIQN, pprseva.com EPILOGUE
Six months later
een @ parent does Something to you. It shifts your
insides, flips everything on its head. You're no longer
the lead character in your own life. You become a side char-
‘acter, a throwaway. The person who takes the bullet, jumps
n of the train, drowns while rescuing the lead.
Nova is three months old now. We chose the name for
s. We needed a new start, and she gave that
moment they laid her on my chest, she became
thing to ever come into my life. More
my career, more important than Jeremy,
than my guilt.
Thad convinced myself that Verity's manu-
‘truth. But now that I have Nova, I cannot
er could write such awful things about
they were untrue. There isn't enough
er for me to think writing anything
would in any way be helpful
305 www.PDFSeva.com for my imag
ation. Now 1 don’t know whut to be
Verity a monster who actually did those thing
dren? Orv
ve. Was,
Sto her chil.
she a monster who was sick enough to m
uke it
all up for the sake of a writing exercise’
I've concluded that whether the manu
ter wa
pt or the let
the truth, Verity had to be sick in the bead to
put
any of it down on paper at all, No sane, protective mother
would be able to write si
h horrendous fiction
1 things
about a child's passing within day
Whether Verity
of their actual
di er
Jeremy had the right to end Verity's life are no longer ques-
tions that haunt me becaus
earth,
s responsible for th h and whet
» with the birth of Nova came
a true sense of what it means to be a mother, Ve
dangerous mother either way. I'm conv inced of that.
. no matter how much it
Verity deserved her en
haunts me. It’s especially haunting me today on what woald
be her thirty-seventh birthday.
Tm not sure if Jeremy realizes what today's date is
Neither of us have spoken of it. But even though Verity has
been dead for almost a year, and I'm finally at peace with
ath, I can't shake the competitive feelings I have
nes to her. Especially on her birthday. Since 1
involved in her personal thoughts through —
, it feels like she carved her initials next to nis
of a score card inside my head. No matter w a
constant competition with her. I wank to be
r, the better mother, the better wife. ae
never competitive until I stepped into a
every aspect of it. Now I feel like 1 have =
wn no one but me is even keeping s**
g06 www.PDFSeva.com COLLEEN HOOVER
the areas where Verity failed, I want to excel. In all the
she excelled, I want to set new world records,
4 chose to breastfeed Nova, simply because Verity
gidn't breastfeed her twins. And no matter how exhausted
tam at night, I try to respond to Nova's cries before Jeremy
even has the chance to wake up. I want Jeremy to recog-
nize that 'm much more involved than Verity ever was as
4 mother—whether she was the manuscript mother or the
Jetter mother, I aim to outdo either version of her.
‘1 feel like I'm becoming as obsessed with pleasing Jer-
emy as Verity was in her manuscript, simply because I'm
in competition with her. This might have more to do with
Verity than Jeremy. I don’t know why he has this hold over
the women in his life.
Maybe his choice in women is part of being a Chronic.
Not only is his life filled with tragedy, it’s also filled with
obsessive personalities.
fm standing in mine and Jeremy's bathroom, obsess-
ing over my reflection. I'm still struggling to lose the baby
weight, and I/doubt it would bother me this much had T
never read Verity's manuscript. It eats at me. Every time I
shower, every time I look in the mirror, I think about the
lines in her manuscript where she spoke about the first time
she and Jeremy were together after she gave birth to the
twins, and that entire description floats around in my brain
like a heliam balloon that never deflates. She was so proud
cof how quickly she bounced back, but I'm not sure my boxy
will ever bounce back.
hs ‘To make up for the extra weight I'm carrying, I bought
a ton of lingerie a month ago in a larger size using Verity's
ok — 307 www.PDFSeva.com
all finaly
Victoria's Secret card. It felt like one last punch in her firm,
flat stomach
We chose to have Verity cremated. She's nothing byt
ash now, but I feel as though I breathed in that ash and wi)
forever be choking on it. She’s my Achilles’ heel. The thorn
in my side. She's been dead for almost an entire year, yet her
presence in my mind hasn't waned.
Her death was just the beginning of my haunting. She's
a lingering ghost over the life I'm building with Jeremy,
She's in our kitchen, in our living room, in my bathroom
mirror, floating over our bed when we make love.
I need to figure out a way to exorcize this demon before
it drives me mad.
I put on one of the silk nightgowns I purchased—nothing
too obvious, but enough to hopefully preoccupy Jeremy for the
last two remaining hours of Verity's birthday.
When I open the door to our bedroom, I find Jeremy
in our bed, sitting against the headboard reading a book.
He’s shirtless, wearing navy blue pajama pants with a neon
yellow drawstring, his bare feet crossed at the ankles. The
sight of him makes a fist of heat grow in my chest as soon as
Tenter our bedroom.
“Is Crew asleep?” I ask him.
“Yeah,” he says, failing to glance up from his book.
I pull back the covers and try to get a peck at the back
of the book he's reading as I climb into bed. It's the
thriller he's read from the same author this week, @
pretty, married. Yes, 1 her, She's gorgeous, a raveo"
picture is plastered right
www.PDFSeva.com | stares at me from Jeremy's side of
ile he reads,
silly to be
Jealous of a random author simply
eeuse he's reading her book, but he
Ere read my books, possibly while tyi Ng next to Verity in
Bed; and then he eventually had Ve
_me when they decided to hire
fal that him reading anothe:
make my stomach hurt.
; Tlie on my side,
and I stare at the
‘any good?”
“Yeah, it’s...” Jeremy stops speaking when he finally
notices my cleavage. He immediately snaps the book shut
th one hand. “Not as good as yours.” He tosses the book
ehind him, and I hear it land on the floor. It makes me
ugh. He rolls toward me, giving me his complete attention.
| He couldn't have done a single thing more perfectly in
is moment.
found me this way
Tity's team reach out to
a new writ
er. It’s only natu-
T female author's books would
tucking my hands under my pillow,
woman on the back cover. “Is that book
Jeremy hooks a finger into my gown and pulls it away
my chest, admiring the swell of my breasts. He kisses
of my cleavage, and 1 lift a hand, winding it through
tugging him up to my mouth. I kiss him, slipping
into his mouth, breaking his lips apart.
eases a mixture of a sigh and a groan, and then
of me.
several minutes are...good.
iow how to make it mind-blowing, so sex
www.PDFSeva.com _ read so many Of his sea)
encounters with Verity, I can't help but think about thos.
encounters while I'm with him. Verity described in greg
detail how crazy she would drive him—to the point he
would fuck her multiple times in one night
Jeremy doesn't fuck me- We make love. Maybe that
between
my legs, the hard length of him being pressed between
my thighs as he looks down at me sweetly. I doubt he ever
looked at Verity sweetly, and that thought annoys me.
I don’t know why I want him to be rougher with me. |
want him to treat me with a little less care, as if his need to
be inside me is so much greater than his need to be gentle.
I want the side of Jeremy that Verity used to get. Instead, |
get the respectful side, and it makes me feel so much less
desired.
He pushes into me so carefully, I have to hold back the
roll of my eyes. Since giving birth to Nova, the sex between
Jeremy and I is gentle, like he's worried he'll hurt me. It's
been twelve weeks. Sometimes I want him to hurt me.
“You okay?” he asks.
Tbite my cheek because I want to scream, “Yes! Fuck
me!” but that would probably be too jarring for him, bec
‘that's not our vibe. Instead, I nod and wrap my legs tieht®’
urging him to push into me.
vei lish Jeremy's need for her im
www.PDFSeva.com manus fription in her imagina-
tion? Not that sex with Jeremy isn’t good. That isn’t the
problem.
The problem is that I fear sex with me isn’t good.
If I wrote about Jeremy’s desire for me in this moment,
it certainly wouldn't match up with the way Verity wrote
him.
Does he miss fucking her?
“Are you okay, Low?”
Jeremy is staring down at me, concern pulling his eye-
together. He's stopped moving inside me, and I real-
isn’t asking me if I'm okay because he thinks it might
= He's asking me if I'm okay because I'm obviously
there else mentally, and | think he might sense that.
a smile. “Yes.” I pull Jeremy’s mouth down to
kiss him hard, and he responds, and for the next
inutes I'm imagining how I would describe what's
between us if I were writing my autobiography,
g like the sex Verity wrote in So Be It.
ion, Jeremy rolls his hips into mine, over
kiss, and we moan at just the right inter-
and uses his practiced fingers to make
e does, and then he takes his turn and
-of me, and we're a little bit sweaty, but
we don't wake the children because he
start to make a noise, and when it's
and then he rolls off me and I stare
sad he is that I can't give him
s Verity gave him.
e our sex life is perfect.
www.PDFSeva.com nt t
be
not what I'm striving for, I'm 5
how can I possibly know where I
of Verity? I cant very well ask him
the dead anc?”
Jeremy is tacked against my sé
ily, and he’s running a lazy finger bet
happened again,” be says. His voice br
spiraling cycle of self-doubt,
“What happened again?”
“We forgot to use a condom.”
“We should be fine, I'm still breastfeeding.
using the LAM method, and while it isn't fool:
is the pill, or condoms.
“Do you want me to get you a towel?” he asks, lifting,
onto his elbow,
I cling to him. “No, please don’t get up.”
Jeremy kisses my cheek and then rests his head ne:
mine on my pillow, continuing the trail of invisible art
tracing over my skin with his fingers. “How'd writing 7
today?” he asks.
He doesn’t ask often because most days it doesnt
well, but it's as if he can tell when it's safe to ask. He knows
the moods I bring to bed are often a reflection of how sur
cessful I feel during the workday.
“Writing was good,” I say. I'm not lying. 1 worked a kt
while Iwas pregnant in an attempt to avoid thinking shot
anything else, so I only have two novels left in Verity
series. Truth and Honor.
for better than, 1
we don't spesi
312
www.PDFSeva.com ww COLLEEN HOOVER:
How ironic,
Thave to submit Truth first, and eve
book reminds me of Verity.
can't get away from her,
rything about this
Even her name means truth. 1
even in book titles.
Perhaps this is My punishment for what we did to her.
Tsubmitted the synopsis for the second-to-last book in
the series tod:
lay. 'm hoping to hear something tomorrow.”
“don't know how you do it”
Jeremy says. “You write a
| lot faster than she did”
He might mean that as a compliment, but most writers
don't like being, told they're quick. Quick in the publishing
"world translates to lazy and lacking, and my fear is that the
ber will tell me my work is second-rate next to Verity's.
T want to change the subject and move it far away from
and her writing. “We should take a vacation,” I sug-
fith a baby? And a six-year-old kid?” Jeremy asks.
can either be stuck in this house with a baby anda
buci ‘on a mitch warmer beach in Mexico with a baby
vote beach.” F E
s. “Tl look into it later this week’
write about these moments. much—the
shared after sex. She wrote about their
they'd fall asleep without speaking. $0
Jin, Maybe our sexist as mind owing
than he ‘ “I. don't know that I'd be happy. Nova is s
look at his face, examining it for clue
till $0 Young” |
joald you?"
Jeremy's eyes journey back to mine. “I'd have a hun.
dred babies with you, Low.”
1 feel his compliment slide ov
that, Verity. Happy, fucking birthday.
He runs his thumb over my nipple, and 1 feel some
» and I think, Take
of my breastmilk ease out with the contact. It's sticky ang
warm beneath his thumb as he continues sliding it across
my breast. Jeremy is watching his hand intently as he runc
his thumb back and forth. “Can I taste it?” His eyes meet
mine again, and the thought of him doing something with
me that I'm not sure he did with Verity makes my thighs
clench with desire.
“Yes.”
Jeremy’s eyes glimmer with curiosity, and then he low-
ers his mouth to my breast and closes his lips gently over
my nipple. He starts to suck, and it’s both odd and exhil-
arating. His right hand is sliding over my hip and then my
outer thigh as he continues pulling at my nipple with the
suction of his mouth. He squeezes my ass and with a final
lick of his tongue, he releases me from his mouth.
He's smiling as he looks down at me. “It's sweeter than
thought it would be.”
1 want him to do it again, for longer this time, but he
gives me the kind of kiss that indicates it’s time for bed. It's
almost always the same, a very routine goodnight, always
one brief kiss against my mouth and then one against my
cheek, and then he says, “I love you,” and he makes his way
back to his side of the bed so he can double check that his
314
www.PDFSeva.com COLLEEN HOOVER
none i charging before turning < iff his light and adjusting
pis pillow:
Routine goodnights are also something, Verity never
described. I don't know ifT should be disappointed that we
have them or flattered.
“crew has been wanting a beach day to play with his
sand toys,” Jeremy says- “We should take him tomorrow
afternoon after I finish laying the patio stones.”
“you don't think it’s too cold for Nova?
“We can bundle her up.”
[roll over and put an arm over Jeremy's chest. His fin-
gers meet my elbow.
Jeremy kisses the top of my head, and we fall asleep
like that, his fingers grazing my elbow, and my arm against
the heart beating inside his chest.
Our new home in Southport is located right where the
Cape Fear River bleeds into the Atlantic Ocean. The water
is brackish, with both freshwater life and marine life.
Some might feel it’s the best of both worlds.
I can't help but feel it's the worst of both.
Lloved it here in the beginning. We bought the first
available house we came across a3 soon a5 we discovered
Twas pregnant. The timing of conception was too close to
Verity's death for us to be comfortable back in Vermont,
80 we picked a new area of the country neither of us were
familiar with, Toe always dreamed of living ina coastal
Feel nesrit yi ecrtearre ecirtborrtvowre rsrved: our OC SerONY
315
www.PDFSeva.com Lente, i
and Verity’s home in su
a hurry, I'm not sure 1 would}
tv
ic hon
picked our speci > if I had time
7 MOTE Select
We didn't realize that the fift a
-foot str
1 Of sand nea.
eral months
the year, which is why we always load up the
our dock is swallowed up by water se
Out of
ar and tal,
a short drive to a better beach when Crew wants to
baila
sandcastles.
There's only one other car parked in the area Of the sec.
tion of beach we choose. I put Nova i
‘0 her stroller while
Jeremy grabs Crew’s sand toys out of the trunk. Crew starts
to run ahead of us,
“Crew, wait for us!" Jeremy yells. Crew stops and looks
ntlhy
back at us impat
I place the d bag on the handle of the stroller. “Go
ahead, I'll catch up,” I say to Jeremy.
“You sure?”
“T've got it.”
Jeremy walks ahead of us to catch up with Crew, and
they disappear over the dunes. I lock up the car, then push
Nova in the stroller toward the beach entrance.
Tm relieved to see it's completely deserted in this
immediate area, just how we prefer it. Jeremy reaches a
spot about ten feet from the water and drops the blanket for
me and Nova, then he continues with Crew to a softer part
of the sand. He dumps the bag of sand toys out and then
heads back in our direction.
Jeremy pushes the stroller the rest of the way to the
blanket. It’s a little bit windier than I'd hoped it would be,
but Jeremy uses the diaper bag and a few packs of Capri
Sun to hold down the corners of the blanket-
26 www.PDFSeva.com i COLLEEN Hoover
vl Once we're unpack
nd I get settled with Ny .
emy looks at his Appl th Nova, Jer
h and then at me
pun in. Will you three be okay?
“I'm gonna get
a
Jeremy took up running shortly after Verity lied inch
er Verity died in her
sleep. It started with him running three or four morni Ss
ornings a
week after we moved here. Now it’s Seven. Sometimes eve.
nings, too.
“Didn't you already go for a run this mo
orning?”
“It clears my head,” he says,
1 laugh. “You run so much now; I'm Starting to worry
about the number of things that need clearing.” I mean it as
a joke, but Jeremy's expression is somber.
“I won't go far,” he says, his voice more weighted than
before. “Are you good?”
“We'll be fine.” I receive his quick kiss before he takes
off toward the water. I watch as he stretches for about a
minute. The runs have toned him up. The more I loosen, the
tighter he gets.
Jeremy takes off in a sprint and I watch him until he’s
nothing more than a speck against the sand. Nova begins to
fuss, so I pull her out of the stroller and hold her in my lap.
Crew surprisingly abandons his sand toys after about
ten minutes and makes his way over to me. He goes straight
for the diaper bag where I packed the drinks and snacks,
and he digs out a Capri Sun that isn’t being used as a blan-
ket weight. He struggles with the straw for a moment, so I
offer to do it for him.
“Do you think your baby sister will like Capri Sun as
‘much as you do?” I get the straw successfully into the hole
and hand it back to him.
317
www.PDFSeva.com He takes a sip and then says, “I don’t like it that Much»
‘It’s all you ever want to drink,
Taugh.
“It’s the only thing you and my dad ever buy me
He tosses the half-full packet of juice on the blanket ang
turns to go back to his sand toys. The juice is leaking out ay
over the blanket, but I'm holding Nova and I'm not nimby
enough to reach it.
“Crew!”
He ignores me. I look down the beach for Jeremy, but
all 1 can see is one person walking a small dog on a leash,
I leave the juice packet where it is. The blanket is
already covered in sand, what's a little juice going to hurt?
Crew and I have struggled to find our footing. We
have our moments where it seems like we could become a
team, but then he'll say or do something to throw me off. It
reminds me a lot of the first day I showed up at their house,
when he slammed the front door in my face.
It's the little things he does that disturb me, but noth-
ing concerning enough that I could even go to Jeremy.
T went to him once with a major concern I had regarding
Crew, and Jeremy brushed it off like I was overreacting.
It was about two weeks before Nova’s birth. I was very
pregnant, and we were sti trying to settle on a name for
Nova. I'll never forget that moment, as much as Jeremy
tries to encourage me to let it go.
Crew was seated at the kitchen table, eating a bow! of
cereal. I was attempting to make small talk with him as I
poured myself a. cup of coffee. I said, “Crew, what should we
name your baby sister?”
a8 www.PDFSeva.com COLLEEN HOOVER
a die.
He shrugged and said, “I don't care, She's just gon
stunned silent; I couldn't eve;
Fa ask him to repeat
pimself.
Later, when I told Jeremy what happened, he assured
ng himself—that
jt meant nothing. “Both of his sisters are gone, it’s natural
pe would
ne that it was just Crew's way of prote
rz
assume the worst outcom
with the new sibling.”
Jeremy said.
[felt like nothing more than an intrusive stepmother in
that moment. 1 realized there was a bond between Jeremy
and Crew that I wasn't willing to threaten after that conver-
sation, so I never brought it up again. I tucked it away for
safekeeping, where I tuck away all the other smaller, less
concerning things Crew says.
Perhaps I should burn that memory so I can release my
distrust of Crew, but Jeremy wasn’t there when Crew bit the
knife, and he wasn't in the room when Crew said his baby
sister was just going to die, sol feel it's my responsibility to
be extra cautious of Crew’s potential behaviors.
Love him, but I don't know if I can ever fully trust him.
Which is disappointing because he's just a little boy.
Watching him from this spot while he sits and builds a
sandcastle, I'd never imagine a child that innocent-looking,
could hold the traumatic memories his mind holds.
Nova starts to show signs that she's hungry. so lower
my shirt and begin breastfeeding her while I keep an eye
on Crew. He knows how to swim, but Jeremy and I are
extremely protective of him, for obvious reasons. Its too
cold to swim now anyway, but we're known to have a rogue
“ih
www.PDFSeva.com
een don't let him leave our sight.
The person walking the dog is getting closer to us Boe
® cautious moment I wonder if I should stop breastfeed.
ed. The
ing, but when I see it’s a woman, I'm not as come
dog looks like 2 Yorkie from here. I watch as soon as Crew
sees the dog. hoping he doesn't go bother the woman, but
the dog seems just as excited to spot Crew. They veer in his
direction, and even though they're about ten feet awa
still makes me nervous that a stranger is getting that ci
to him. If she speaks to Crew, she'll likely speak to me, and
Jeremy and I keep to ourselves for very good reasons.
I feel a weight form in my stomach with every step
closer she takes. I can't place her, but she seems familiar.
Dread washes over me. You're being paranoid, Lowen. No,
youre being cautious. Paranoid. Cautious
This is the exact reason we rarely leave the house. The
beach is the only place we usually go, and we only do this
when we know it'll be deserted. We're both more than a lit-
tle fearful about being recognized together.
We've told no one about us, nor have we told anyone
about Nova. It helps that neither of us have connections we
weren't sad to sever. My mother had just died before I met
Jeremy, and his parents have Passed, so it was easy to get
away from the life we knew.
Corey doesn't even know I had Jeremy's baby, or that
ing with Jeremy and Crew. After Verity died, Jeremy
and I separated ourselves from one another to minimize
suspicion over Verity's death, April never even knew I came
back to live with Jeremy and Crew, and no one else knew
ose
320
www.PDFSeva.com COLLEEN Hoowe
ror
>mantic
o kee p it that wv nenec
tan to keep it that way. T mer
life when I was wort
ty and his child
ei 1M Jeremy's
‘3 Se his entire life wa,
ver
We haven't made an effort tem
fewer people who know us, the cena Z
grow suspicious, or tie our j aa
Mls because the
Anyone vill be tn
Mtimate re
tonship tov
erity’s
geath in any way.
Jeremy and I have also
J y ave also done everythi
rerything, wi
ecanto
arate ourselves from Verity's bra
a. Je
pis last name, ridding himself of temeies ea ees
rd altopy
Srew ‘ ether. He
and Crew se by a last name as of five months ago i
Nova was born, we gave her our same last name ep
We're the Ashleigh family now.
No poe knows I write Verity's books since I write them
under my pen name, Laura Chase. When pe a
| do for a living, T tell them I'm a writer and I give them
the names of my original books written under Lowen Ash-
leigh. Jeremy tells people he's in real estate. They're both
safe things to say-
Other than the publisher who worked a business deal
through Jeremy and my agent, no one we meetin the future
will know I write Verity’s books. Her readers are aware she's.
dead and that her series jhas been taken over, but they'll
never know the face of the writer behind it.
We keep to ourselves as much as we can, even though.
at this point, it would be impossible to pin Verity's death on
Jeremy. She was cremated. Any at a Praying to any deity that
listen that this woman keep
walking and minds her business
She doesn't
She pauses a few feet from Crew, and it looks like she's
speaking to him. She glances in my direction, then looks
at Crew again. She's saying something I can't hear over the
sound of the ocean, and then she waves at me.
I return a smaller wave, anticipating the inevitable
conversation with a face full of dread. | pull Nova from my
breast and put my shirt back into place, glancing down the
beach for signs of Jeremy. I can see him, but he's so faraway,
I can't even tell if he’s jogging toward us or away from us.
The woman begins to head toward me, her blonde hair
blowing flyaways into her face. She's wearing sunglasses,
but she pushes them on top of her head as she approaches.
She's pretty in a basic way. Maybe that’s why 1 feel like
she's familiar, because she looks like the typical millennial
woman I try to avoid. Which is most of them.
Her eyes are glued to Nova, as if her presence alone
weren't enough of an intrusion. I've only been a mother for
a few months, but it’s long enough to realize how entitled
people feel to infants. Strangers just assume new moth-
ers want a break and that asking to hold a baby is normal
behavior, but I find it insensitive at best.
“Hi,” the woman says.
1 nod, but 1 don't speak the word hi. I'm not here (© COLLEEN ’OOVER eS
+ ehile pushing down the fear thar fighting to 3
ner
yc? face.
Ae you should,” she says, waving off her
oo i
own
She motions back toward Crew. “1 rec: tized
en en." She looks back at me and smiles "t
ore ise when I saw you.”
v prem
Toe ngnized Crew?
immediately search for Jeremy again. I need
yes
ay moment. I don't know the peo-
me from t
pa slife, I don't know what I'm supposed to say, 1
peie who I'm supposed to be right now. Lowen Ash-
oat — Chase? A family friend?
ns ra
saga know each other?” I ask, controlling the trem-
a woman is staring at Nova again, her
oe with curiosity. Or is that suspicion? And what
ian by not really? She knows Crew's name, which
means she has to know him in some capacity. “She's beautiful,” the woman says. “How old?"
1 don’t like this question. I'm Pondering yw;
“Yes.”
hee
answer it wi Crew says, “She was born three wae &
She's my sister.” He says it with pride and excitemen,.
+ ain
any other time that would make me melt, but instead. 1
filled with fear because I still don't know who thie would
and if she should be given that kind of delicate information,
TF can tell almost immediately that she’s taken aback
by Crew's comment. She glances nervously at him, as if Tm
some sort of danger to him, as if she knows him better than
I do, and she should know information such as Crew having
a new sibling.
“So that would make Jeremy the father?” The woman
tilts her head, her eyes narrowing in my direction.
She knows Jeremy's name? “I'm sorry,” I say, pulling
Nova a little tighter. I stand up so that I'm eye-to-eye with
this woman. “Do I know you?”
She smiles with her lips, but her eyes don’t get the hint.
“I'm Patricia,” she says. “We've met before, at the grocery
store back in Vermont. You had just moved in with Verity
and Jeremy.” She motions toward Nova. “And now you have
a...baby with him.” She says that in the most unfriendly
ae otauicie The woman Jeremy insulted at the store. It's
‘coming back to me now, crashing into me, knocking the
Pe es : oh COLLEEN HOOVER
my approaching us from bet
wt twe
2 pauses at
dist
] 82 og the water. He's wate
g this unfold far te
ae peing said, but hopefully close enoug
|
| er pel. Now
sy mouth is dry and Nova is beginning te .
: g to work up
feel like I'm about to ha
; gery and I fee m about to hi sng
SBithing is coming, at me at once ‘sites
sad with answers to simple questions that somehow
;
| prespo
jeels0 life-threatening,
«patricia
Jeremy is right behind her now.
Thank God.
His voice makes her jump, and she throws a hand
against her chest and spins around. She wasn't expecting
him to be here. “Jeremy. Hi.”
He walks between me and Patricia, putting a hand on
Crew's shoulder, as if he's making it clear that there's an
invisible line she doesn’t need to cross. He snakes his other
hand protectively around me, squeezing my side reassur-
ingly. To anyone else, he would appear pleasant, your aver~
age doting husband and father, but I can see the tension in
his shoulders, in the set of his jaw.
I'm thankful heartbeats are felt more :
because mine is pounding so hard, my guitt would be obvi-
2% t anyone who could hear it. 1 attempt to hush Nowa tint ~w
“what are you doing in North Carolina?” J
