Page 15 of Welcome Home
She flips over one sheet in the middle and my stomach rolls, my breath lodging in my throat so suddenly my chest pulls with the urge to cough. “Explain to me why a traffic camera picked you up driving northbound on the highway fifty-two on May twenty-first around three in the afternoon.”
She waits, and when I don’t respond, she flips over another sheet, the one to the left. But now her voice sounds far away. “Or why you were seen on camera up pulling into the Everglades National Park over two hours away from your home?”
“I…I wanted to hike.”
“You wanted to hike, over two hours away from your home, but you didn’t feel like jogging.”
“No! I mean yes. I just wanted a change in scenery.”
She flips over the last sheet and the air leaves my lungs, my stomach twisting into knots as I fist my dress in my hands, “Do you recognize the person in this picture?”
My voice almost breaks. “Yes.”
“So you know this person?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me who the person is in this picture?”
“It’s me.”
“Hmmm, and where was this captured?”
I pause. “I'm not sure.”
She smiles and I need to vomit. The acid burn rolls up my throat as my face goes hot. “That’s okay, I'll tell you. This was taken on a trail camera about oh a fifteen-minute walk from…” She trails off as she bends, grabbing something else from her bag. “From where these were found, Ms. Neilson.”
The ground seems to drop out from underneath the hard plastic chair I'm seated in as I rise to my feet abruptly. My body acting without my permission. “Do you recognize these things, Mrs. Neilson?”
“No.” I lie.
“I find that hard to believe, Cora. You threw them in the marsh on May twenty-first, just after five. This is your husband’s cell phone, his wallet and thishere. What does this look like to you?”
“A knife.” I answer as the room spins around me. She doesn’t get another word out before I jerk my bag off the ground, shouldering it. “We’re done here. If you have any further questions, contact my lawyer.”
She smiles. She fucking smiles and I can’t breathe. “I'm sure I will, Mss. Neilson and oh, one last thing.”
I pause, my sweat damp hand gripping the door handle as if it’s a life preserver and I'm stuck in the middle of the Atlantic. “Does it get hard keeping all those lies straight after so long?” I jerk the door open, the blast of cool air from the rest of the building feels abrupt enough to rob me of my breath. It’s icy on my flushed skin but does little to cool or calm me. My heart hammers in my chest as I make my way through the hall, ignoring the stares from the men and women walking around the bustling precinct. I don’t so much as chance a breath until I'm free of the pale gray building. The car door slamming behind me jars my nerves. My hands trembling violently as I fail to shove the key into the ignition.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck.
I'm less than three blocks from home when I'm forced to pull over, jerking open the door and leaning out to empty my stomach. I stay here heaving until my body has nothing left to give. Staring at the steering wheel, the whites of my knuckles. The small lines and grooves in the skin. The large diamond wedding band on my finger and I scream. I scream and scream and scream until my throat burns and my head goes light. Then I scream some more.
8
Oh Fuck
Oliver
I step down harder on the gas, not giving a single fuck for the traffic laws as I blow through a stop sign. It’s been hours since I fed Cora to the wolves. Letting her go alone was a mistake. Letting her out of my sight was a mistake.
One I won’t make again.
What if she ran? If they arrested her…no they can’t. I'm here, he’s here. I jerk up his replacement phone again, hitting dial on her number and cursing when it goes straight to voicemail. Pictures flash through my mind. All the wonderful and disgusting things I'll do if they try to take her from me. All the bodies I'll lay to waste. The sound of their necks cracking underneath my boot makes my mouth water twice as much as the visual.
I'll kill them all.
Fuck the rules my father instilled in me, and his father before him. Fuck my people. Fuck my unnaturally long life. None of it means anything if I can’t have Cora. If she leaves me- I cut myself off, stopping that dangerous and cruel train of thought before it starts as I whip the car onto our street. The sight of her vehicle sitting in the driveway does little to calm my nerves.
