Page 63 of Six of Hearts
I could feel frustration building in my body.
My mind went careening back to when I was still in Florida.
No one there believed me either. I fought for myself, I proved that Eva was depressed and wanted to end her own life. I supplied the suicide note she'd left for Finn and had it verified as her handwriting. I showed the prescription medication that she got from the doctor without my knowing, and proved using the toxic screening that it was that she had ingested en masse and overdosed.
The blood on my hands was from a nosebleed that had been caused by the OD.
I had solid, viable explanations for everything they threw at me. But all people saw was that I had the clout to cover up a murder, and that Eva's brother Nathan was on a warpath to have me convicted, and believed that I'd killed her. I never would have hurt her. I loved her with all my heart.
The same way I love Aria.
"I promise you, I can explain everything. Please, you have to believe me, I never would have done-"
"Shut up!" Aria screeched. "I don't want to hear another word out of you, you murderer.”
All of the anger and frustration in my body boiled over. I turned and threw my fist at the wall. It pressed through the drywall, leaving a huge hole in its way, and making it look like I put more force into the punch than I really did.
I whipped my head back towards Aria, prepared to continue to defend myself, but Aria's face was no longer angry, but sheet white with fear.
I realised in a flash how my outburst didn't help my case, and it broke my heart to see someone I cared about so much look at me with so much terror in her eyes.
I tried to make my body as least menacing as I could make it.
"I'm sorry, I was upset, but I would never hurt you.”
“You're a liar. That was supposed to be me." Aria held out the taser towards me with an aggressive shake in her hand.
"Stay away from me. I have copies of that picture and others. If you come after me, I'll call the police." She didn't wait for me to say anything else. She backed away from me as quickly as she could, and once she was through the door frame, she turned and raced to her car where she got in and sped off.
I backed against the wall next to the hole I made and slid down until I was sitting on the floor.
I dropped my face to my hands and could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. It felt like I couldn't get breath to my lungs, and my chest was starting to burn. My eyes were watering and my head was spinning. How had my past followed me?
I'd taken every precaution to start a new life; to ensure I wouldn't hurt anyone else that I loved. How? My vision started to wane as I continued taking in the short, shallow breaths. I started to shake and knew that I'd be passing out any second.
"Daddy?" The tiny voice snapped me to reality like a rubber band against my skin. I looked up and Finn was standing in the hallway with tears in his eyes. "I'm scared. I heard yelling.”
“I'm sorry," I responded to him, holding out my arms. "Everything is okay.”
Finn didn't hesitate. He walked towards me and threw the weight of his body into my embrace.
Everything that had happened washed away and I was left with a simple reminder of why I’d made every choice I'd made. My son. He held on tight and rubbed my back, somehow a stronger person than I ever was.
"It's okay, Daddy. Don't be sad," he said.
"Thank you, buddy," I responded. "I'll be okay."
I said the words, but the sentiment was totally vapid. I was putting everything I had into consoling my son, when I had no idea at all how to console myself.
Rubbing Finn's back, he fell asleep and I stood up from the floor, taking him with me.
I carried him to his bedroom and put him back to bed, and then called the guys and asked them to meet me at my home. I'd spent too many years running away from my past, and now that this had happened, it was finally time to face it head-on and fix it.
Nineteen
Gabriel
Working the midnight shift was my least favourite thing in the world. For some reason, in Dallas, criminals preferred the daytime hours. Where I was at in my career, I wasn’t chasing around the petty thief or train gropers anymore.
