Page 51 of The One Before

“No.” I bite my lip and look away again. “She’s never been found. She’s one of the thousands of people who disappear off the face of this grand earth, never to be seen again. No one knows what officially happened, but I do. I know Cooper was involved.”

“But how could you know that? This music festival—”

“The music festival theory wasn’t taken seriously until after the Douglas family hired a lawyer to represent Cooper,” I cut in. I’m trying to keep her focused. I don’t want her to start doubting me. “All efforts to find Laura ended after that.”

“It’s been, what, over ten years since anyone has heard from her?”

“Eleven years and some odd months.” I know down to the day how long it’s been since I last saw my girl, but I don’t want her to think I’m obsessed. “She never would have cut off contact willingly. We were best friends.”

“Why didn’t she tell you what she’d found out about Coop?”

“We were best friends, but I’m still her mother. Girls at that age—at any age—don’t want to worry their parents unnecessarily. I believe she had every intention of telling me her problems, but Cooper didn’t give her the chance.”

Madison shakes her head. “What could she have possibly uncovered that made him want to kill her?” Clearly she doesn’t like the idea of her fiancé being a murderer, but that’s exactly what he is.

“I wondered that for a long time. I kept going over it and over it again in my mind. Just like I kept wondering why Cooper, her wonderful boyfriend, didn’t want to assist in discovering her whereabouts. Laura had been missing for two months when I hired a private investigator to examine her disappearance—and him. That’s when I found out about Celia Gray.”

Madison leans deeper into the couch, pulling the pillow tighter to her legs. Finally, she’s making connections. She’s piecing together the same image of Cooper I made years ago. “You think she found out that Celia had died?”

“It makes perfect sense. It explains why her enthusiasm about Cooper changed so suddenly. And it explains why she wouldn’t have wanted to tell me about it. She didn’t want me to worry.” I wish every moment of my life she’d told me what she learned that day. I wish she’d stayed on the phone with me instead of turning her attention to him. I could have talked her through her heartbreak. I could have protected her. I feel the familiar wave of grief and regret rising and swallow hard to keep it down.

“Wouldn’t she have already known about that?” Madison jerks her head at me, like she wants to prove me wrong. “If they were as serious as you say, surely he would have brought up the fact his last girlfriend died.”

“Did Cooper tell you that his college girlfriend went missing?”

She hugs the pillow tighter and looks away. She whispers a defeated, “No.”

That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. That Cooper Douglas hasn’t changed his spots. He still has secrets, and if it makes me question his morals, surely Madison is thinking the same thing.

“You can imagine my shock to find out not one, but two girls in Cooper’s past had died.” I clear my throat and steady my hands, which are starting to shake. “Laura’s body has never been found, but if she were alive, she would have contacted me by now. I know she’s gone.”

Madison is nibbling at her nails from the anxiety. I’ve never seen her do that before. What I’m saying is working. She’s thinking. Really thinking about what I’ve said and what it means about the man she’s about to marry.

Then the phone rings.

Thirty-Eight

Madison

My cell phone’s happy chirping scares me. I jump, then look at its lighted screen on the coffee table. Helena hasn’t changed position, but she looks worried now. I lean forward and grab the phone.

“Who is it?” she asks.

“It’s Roman.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own. I’m not sure what’s mine anymore. Everything Anne—Helena—just told me has my mind jumbled.

“Madison, please listen to what I have to say,” Helena says, moving slightly in her seat. She knows it’s awfully late to be receiving a phone call.

I hold up my finger to silence her before answering the call. “Hello.”

“Madison, it’s Roman. You okay?”

“I’m fine.” Does he have a reason to think something is wrong? I clear my throat, hoping he won’t pick up on my nervousness.

“I finally got Regina into the house. She can’t find her phone. You seen it at your place?”

“Yes, I found it when I was cleaning.” I turn and look toward the bookcase, where I left it. “Does she need it?”

“Nah, she’ll be out until morning. I don’t mind running by to get it, though.”

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