Page 90 of Forbidden Love Still Blooms

Dezmond walks closer to the hole, craning his neck like I am. We're both watching the excavation. He's wearing a gray hoodie the same color as the small shed that houses my kiln a few yards behind the group.

Seeing it triggers a spark. It's as if someone flicked my brain stem, leaving me stunned and on the edge of collapsing. This scene is … wrong. Why does it look wrong? What am I not seeing?

One of the cops says something, shaking his head. Dez throws up his arms, shouting, “Of course it's here! Keep digging!”

Fingers brush my shoulder—I jump. “Sorry,” I say to the officer. His tag over his badge says Brickle. “Officer Brickle, what are they looking for?”

The older man chews at the inside of his cheek. “Have you heard from your father recently?”

“I said keep digging!” Dez yells, and now we're all staring at him. “His body ishere! Right here!Do I have to dig it up myself?”

“Excuse me,” Officer Brickle says, striding towards the group in my backyard. He's speaking to Dezmond, but whatever he says isn't calming the guy down. Dez is shouting, pointing, and suddenly he shoves the cop.

The others pile on him like angry ants. It happens in a blink, three men pushing Dez into the grass, cuffing his arms behind his back while he argues, teeth gnashing in the dirt. They clear away, so I can now fully see the gash in the earth. It's big, ten feet across, eight feet deep. Much bigger than I ever dug.

And it's empty.

Impossible,I think, my disbelief combining with anxious joy. I feel a little insane. This is definitely where I buried my father. I know because—

The roses.

My head turns stiffly, my bones are wooden, the knob in my skull not carved smooth for the socket. Everything I do is a challenge. Breathing, blinking, it feels unnatural. Somehow the wild roses that had grown over this area like an invasive alien species are cut clear away. Did the cops do it? If so, wouldn't they be in a pile somewhere like the dirt is?

“Calm down!” Officer Brickle growls. He and another officer drag Dez towards me. I retreat to give them room, but Dez sees me, bares his grass-stained teeth.

He cries out, “What did you do? Where the fuck is he, huh?”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I say.

“The fuck you don't!” He surges at me, the cops rip him backwards, demanding he stops fighting them. He continues to struggle all the way to the street. When they shove him into an open backdoor of a police car, he has enough brains to remain sitting. “Listen,” he tells them, “she killed her dad and hid him there. I saw her do it!”

The cops move away, talking among themselves. I overhear some of it, then Evie approaches Dez. Her voice is calm, almost sweet. “Why don't we go back to the station. Okay? We can talk this over, maybe you imagined things, got confused?”

“No!” he growls. “I remember everything fucking perfectly!” His crazed eyes bounce to me, and I do my best to look scared. Innocent. “I saw everything she did.”

I cover my mouth. “What did you see?” I ask.

Dez curls his lip. “You dug a hole and stuck your dad in it.”

Groaning, I bend at my middle, like I'm about to faint. “No, no no, oh my god. You're saying my dad isdead?"

Dez hesitates a second. He didn't expect he'd have to convince anyone of what I did. He was positive he'd waltz up, reveal the evidence, then watch me get arrested. His wicked dreams of seeing me in cuffs while my mother sobs are fading away.

All eyes are on us, and we both know it. “I saw you bury him, Lori. Night of the big bonfire.”

“That's impossible,” my mom shouts, moving away from the officer who was speaking with her near her car. Her hands clutch tightly over her chest. “How dare you say such awful lies about my daughter! Accusing her of … ofmurder?I thought you loved her, aren't you going to marry her?”

“Don't be so fucking dumb,” he spits.

I take my mom's shoulder in my grip. “You're lying, Dez. My dad isn't dead, he can't be.”

Mom starts to tremble under me—I give her a squeeze. She whispers angrily, “My husband is alive. Why would you do this, Dezmond? What's the point of all this?”

“Jesus Christ!” He throws himself side to side in the car, tugging at his cuffed wrists. “Get these off of me! I'm not the one you need to arrest! Lori killed her old man and hid him in the yard! Keep digging, he's got to be there!"

Shaking my head slowly, I look at the officers. “I don't know what he's talking about. This is out of the blue.”

“You're engaged?" Officer Evieasks. "I thought I remembered seeing him propose to you at the parade." She crosses her arms, then motions for Brickle to follow her. They talk with their heads together in hushed tones. I give my mom a hug, patting her back. She hasn't stopped shaking.

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