“I didn’t do it,” she muttered aloud. “I’m not a killer.”

  “I know,” Ben replied, squeezing her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Her BP is dropping,” the woman called out.

  She couldn’t have killed them. She wasn’t strong enough to take Matt down on her own. And she was sure she’d seen Nicole with someone on Pelican’s Pass.

  Tom.

  It made more sense that he’d killed his wife. She’d seen his car that night.

  All at once she felt an eerie sensation prick beneath her skin. He could still be watching. He knew she was onto him. He might’ve gone after Matt as a way to keep her quiet. He could go after her children next.

  “He’s watching me,” she muttered. “He’s out there. He’ll hurt them…”

  “Who’s watching you?” Ben asked from somewhere nearby. “Who’s he going to hurt?”

  “My babies. Gwen…Gavin…my baby boy.” She squeezed the strong, warm hand holding hers. “Please, Ben, don’t let him hurt my baby boy.”

  Eyelids fluttering shut, she succumbed to the darkness.

  Warm, delicate fingers squeezed Mia’s. “Mia, sweetheart, can you hear me?”

  The constant beep of machines and a bitter, sterile odor came to her all at once.

  Dull pain tugged at her left wrist.

  Her eyelids flipped open.

  It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, to realize she was in a hospital room.

  Liz sat at her side, soulful green eyes heavy with worry, brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in days. It had been weeks since Mia had seen her in person. Or had it been days?

  “Liz?” she whispered, squeezing her hand back. “Are you really here?”

  With a tear slipping down her cheek, Liz smiled. “Yes, honey. I’m really here.”

  Mia wiggled her left hand, discovering it was pierced with an IV needle. Both of her hands were wrapped in restraints fastened to the bed. She pulled on them. “What’s going on? What am I doing here? Why am I strapped down?”

  “They’re giving you fluids. You were severely dehydrated, Mia.” Her eyes fluttered away. “And you had…an episode. You’re unwell.”

  Matt was dead

  “Did I…” she stopped with a violent cramp of her stomach. She licked her dry lips as bits of her memory resurfaced. Had she killed her ex? Nicole? “What have I done, Liz?”

  “Nothing,” Liz said, her tone and gaze both unyielding. “You’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. And you’re not going to say a word to anyone about Matt or Nicole until we’ve hired a capable lawyer. Understand?”

  Mia replied with a jerky nod. How could Liz be so sure when she wasn’t? “Where are Gavin and Gwen?”

  Liz flinched. “Mia, listen to me.” With a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, she stroked the back of Mia’s arm. “When’s the last time you took your meds?”

  “I told you, I don’t like taking anything for the pain,” she snapped, her aching back stiffening. “They make me feel out of control.”

  “I’m not talking about the narcotics for your back, honey. Ben said you were displaying symptoms of withdrawal, and…possible hallucinations. He said…” She stopped to clear the thickness from her voice. “He said you were asking to be with Gavin.”

  Remembering how Gavin had called for her, Mia tried to sit a little taller. “Where is Gavin?”

  A set of tears tumbled down Liz’s cheeks in tandem. “Gavin isn’t here anymore, Mia.”

  “Then where is he? Didn’t anyone give him a ride here from the resort?”

  “He’s gone, honey.”

  Unescapable pain tore at her heart. “That’s not possible. I just spoke with him—”

  “You haven’t been taking your meds. You’re imagining things.”

  “That can’t be right.”

  Swiping at her wet face, Liz reached for Mia’s hand. “He was with you the night you went off Pelican’s Pass, Mia. You fought with him…he knew you’d been drinking too much, and wouldn’t let you drive. He finally convinced you to let him behind the wheel, and he lost control on the curve. It was down-pouring, and the tire blew—”

  “Stop!” Mia fought against the restraints, longing to cover her ears. “You’re lying! I was driving that night! Gavin wasn’t with me!”

  “He was there, Mia. He was behind the wheel. Search your memories.”

  With searing agony tearing Mia from the inside out, she remembered.

  * * *

  Gavin standing in the resort parking lot, yelling for her to get out of the car.

  Her resistance when she agreed to let Gavin drive.

  Gavin swearing when he lost control.

  Gavin crying, “Mom!” in anguish when the car hit the guardrail.

  Standing over Gavin’s casket, numb from too many narcotics.

  Soul-wrenching sobs ripping from her throat as they lowered Gavin into the ground.

  * * *

  “The medics told you he was gone the minute the driver’s air bag didn’t properly deploy, remember?” Liz continued. “He didn’t survive the accident.” Sniffling, she held Mia’s horrified stare with trembling lips. “Your son is dead, Mia.”

  PART V

  Justice Served

  * * *

  “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.”

  -Lois McMaster Bujold

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The concept of time slipped away from Mia as reality wove in and out. At one point, Gavin sat next to her holding her hand. “I love you, Mom. But it’s time for me to go.”

  Her hand tightened on his blood-stained fingers. So much blood. “You’re not real.”

  His hug told her otherwise, but then he was gone.

  And he never came back.

  Doctors and nurses came in and out of the room, sometimes checking the monitors, sometimes sticking her with needles.

  She struggled to understand the truth. Her mind had betrayed her. She hadn’t seen Gavin at the resort, in her kitchen, or calling out to her the night Matt died. But what else had she imagined? Was seeing Nicole on Pelican’s Pass merely another delusion? Had she really slept with Ben? Sorting out real memories from her mind’s twisted creations proved to be an exhausting chore.

  Instead, she slept.

  At one point, she woke to the rumble of low voices.

  First Liz’s: “…on chlorpromazine for psychosis, Ben. She started displaying symptoms right after Gavin died. Between Bella’s abduction, her parents’ sudden deaths, and losing her son…it was too much for her mind to handle. I took her to see a specialist in Massachusetts before it escalated out of control. It had been manageable until recently. You said she was throwing up and appeared ill. That would’ve been due to withdrawal. It’s likely Nicole’s death triggered her memories of Bella’s disappearance, so she decided to stop taking her meds.”

  Then Ben’s: “I have to be honest with you, Liz. I love her too—probably even more than you—and want nothing more than to see her get better and walk out of here.” He let out a long, tired sigh. “But the outcome of this situation doesn’t look good.”

  “I’m telling you, she’s not insane, she’s just suffering from an episode,” Liz insisted in an authoritative tone. “The death of Gavin broke her. Hallucinations of him was her mind’s way of dealing with the stressor that came with more trauma. And the delusion that someone was watching her was a result of going off her meds. It’s a textbook symptom. She simply needs more time for the chlorpromazine to kick in, and she’ll be stable again.”

  “The sheriff wants to push for her to be formally charged.”

  “Charged for what? For murder?” Liz’s sharp, unamused laugh echoed through the hallway. “She’s been through a lot, but she wouldn’t kill Matt. She wouldn’t have killed those women, either. She’s not a murderer. She doesn’t have it in her. You know that, Ben! Isn’t there anything else you can do?”

  “I’m going to try my best to fix this, but I can’t make any promises. Her fate rests in the County Attorney’s hands.”

  “Then you need to arrange for me to meet with them.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Their voices faded along with the sound of brisk footsteps.

  Mia dreamt of the accident.

  She’d been fortunate, knocked unconscious when the car made impact with the ground. She didn’t have to witness her son’s death. But she’d remembered the last thing he’d done was call her name with paralyzing fear. She’d remembered the way Matt looked at her when he entered the hospital room to tell her the news no mom wanted to hear. A part of her died along with Gavin.

  Her oldest would never go to college, never find the girl of his dreams, never start his own family. Survivor’s guilt slowly crept in with every day that passed after his funeral, crippling her mind and body. She’d spent an endless amount of days in bed, willing herself to slip into an eternal sleep so she could be with Gavin again.

  Then he’d finally returned to her one day, and she knew it had been a mistake. He hadn’t died. They’d lied to her.

  That’s when Liz flew her to the East Coast to see a specialist, and the reality of Gavin’s death returned.

  The pain was too much.

  It had been far more bearable to stay off the medication, and pretend Gavin was still with her.

  With the next heavy blink of her eyes, a nurse was entering the room with a plate of food. Mia willed the drugs to pull her back under.

  Ben had witnessed more atrocity than he imagined he’d see in a lifetime when he’d signed up for the academy. He’d dealt with parents who’d done the unthinkable to their children, children who’d murdered their parents in their sleep, gangsters, hate groups with unfathomable agendas, and a bevy of terrorists who’d murdered innocents in the name of their gods.

  None of that had prepared him to watch the woman he loved struggle to process her son’s death. He’d witnessed her decline from a vibrant woman with boatloads of passion to a shell of herself in a matter of a few short days. From the moment he’d knocked on her door, they’d reconnected with something beyond physical attraction. He hadn’t comprehended the true ferocity of how much he’d missed her, how much he’d regretted letting her go all those years ago. Now she was hurt, confused, and in unbearable pain. It was up to him to prove her innocence, and to help her heal however possible.

  While she was kept on a psychiatric hold, he supervised the search of her home, attended Matt’s funeral, and sat through half a dozen meetings with attorneys. Her defense attorney, a hard-nosed veteran with over forty years of experience, was able to convince the judge assigned to the case that they needed more time for the chlorpromazine to do its job. Once they were given a thirty day extension, Ben knew it was all the time he had to complete the job he’d been trained to do.

  Although his partner was on her way and he’d catch hell for moving forward on his own, there wasn’t time to waste. He needed to interview Gwen, the only living member of the Martin family whose sanity wasn’t under question. He’d witnessed the sixteen-year-old’s cold demeanor with her father, her unaffected expression as he’d been lowered into the ground, and was prepared to be met with resistance when he parked outside of Mia’s cottage.

  She met him on the doorstep, arms firmly crossed over her thin frame, full lips pressed into an unforgiving line. Her white crop top and short jean shorts revealed too much youthful skin and cleavage for Ben’s comfort. Had she been his daughter, he would’ve forced her to change into a turtleneck and jeans. Regret slammed into him when he realized he’d made the decision that essentially forced Mia into the arms of another man. That could have been his daughter, if only he’d stuck around.

  Mia had declared Gwen to look a lot like Bella, but the mother and daughter could’ve passed as sisters. Like her mom, Gwen had the same smooth bronzed skin and strawberry blonde hair, full lips, rosy cheekbones, and fiercely arched eyebrows. The only glaringly different trait Ben could find was the color of their eyes.

  “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me,” he told her as he climbed the front step. Gwen remained tight-lipped, watching him closely. “I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.”

  Liz came around from behind her. “Hey, Ben,” she greeted him in a somber tone, moving in to peck his cheek. “You two can have a seat out back while I get you some cookies and lemonade.”

  Ben appreciated the sincerity in the gesture. Although they remained good friends, Liz had become hard-nosed and put Mia’s wellbeing above everything else. “Thank you, Liz.”

  When Sheriff Perkins and his deputies had executed the search warrant for Mia’s home, the unforgivable invasion had made Ben sick to his stomach. He’d already been forced to dig into every aspect of her life before they’d reconnected, and suddenly he was digging through every square inch of her home. As he followed Gwen, the echo of Mia’s presence remained, as if she was waiting in the next room. He swore to himself he’d make things right by proving she’d been wrongly accused.

  He took a seat at the teak table on the deck across from Gwen, noting the way she turned her body away, clearly uninterested in being interviewed. He couldn’t blame her. The kid had been through a lot, losing the only two men in her family in the span of one year.

  Retrieving the small notebook he kept in his suit jacket, Ben flipped it to a blank page and grabbed his pen. His scribblings were mostly illegible, but did their job in reminding him of key facts. “How are you holding up, Gwen? I’m sorry I have to do this so soon after your father’s death.”

  One of her shoulders slightly lifted. “It is what it is.”

  “What do you know about your mom’s relationship with Nicole Tribeau?”

  She let out a short laugh. “Nicole was stuck up…thought she was better than everyone. My mom called her out on it a few times. She didn’t actually get in Nicole’s face until her daughter told everyone that my dad was sleeping with our teacher.” Anger clouded her gaze. “Then she started a rumor that I’d slept with nearly every one of our male classmates. It didn’t bother me the way it bothered Mom.”

  “What do you mean by ‘getting in Nicole’s face’? What did that look like?”

  “Mom went to a PTA meeting.” Her sweetheart-shaped lips curled with a smile. “She stood up and asked what the policy was on parents bullying students.”

  “What was Nicole’s reaction?”

  “It got ugly real fast. Nicole said it wasn’t her fault that I was promiscuous. A group of dads had to physically remove my mom from the meeting and lock her out.”

  With a ghost of a grin, Ben could almost envision how the argument went down, play by play. He was glad to hear Mia hadn’t put up with Nicole’s harassment considering it had been a different story when they were kids. “Walk me through your parents’ relationship with each other over the years. Did they get along? Did they fight often?”

  “What can I say that you probably haven’t already deducted or read in one of your files?” She picked flaking black polish from her fingernail while rolling her eyes. “It hadn’t been pretty for as far back as I can remember. They fought almost every single day. I knew he was messing around with other women long before she filed for divorce. Then my brother died, and things got out of control. They fought all the damn time. My dad was not a nice man—never really was from what I could tell. He wasn’t the least bit sympathetic to my mom’s condition. He loved to call her crazy, and said she should’ve been locked up. He was too busy sticking it to random women—including my teacher—to give a damn.”

  Ben’s hand twitched as he attempted to scribble a few meaningless notes. He’d never been a big fan of Matt’s, and couldn’t believe it when Liz first broke the news that he’d married Mia. The days that followed had been a haze of drunken nights and random hookups. But to hear Mia had been trapped in a bad marriage boiled his insides. She deserved far better. “What about your mom? Did she remain loyal once she’d first learned of his indiscretions?”

  “As far as I know. I think she was waiting for me and my brother to graduate before she left, but the fights became too intense for her to handle.” With a serious look, she held Ben’s gaze. “Regardless of what he said about her, she was never crazy. She went through a lot of shit is all. The only thing she really cared about in life was whether or not my brother and I were happy. After he died, she just kind of fell apart. I knew she wasn’t doing well again when she started talking about Gavin like he was still around, but I didn’t know how bad it was until you took her away in the ambulance. It didn’t help that my dad was a two-timing douche and never showed her any kindness.”

  Ben’s guilt for leaving Mia and forcing her into a loveless marriage grew tenfold. But the malice in Gwen’s tone was concerning. If any more discontent for Matt rolled off of her, Ben would be drowning in it. “Did your parents’ altercations ever become physical?”

  “Nah…my dad just did a lot of yelling. Before the divorce, my mom sat there and took it.”

  “And after?”

  “She’d had enough.”

  Fighting against a smile, Ben was all at once proud of Mia. He only wished he’d had a chance to confront Matt for being a shitty husband. “What was your relationship with your parents like? Did they believe in corporal punishment?”

  “Our mom would swat us on our butt when we were toddlers, but only enough to get our attention. Other than that, she treated me and my brother like adults. Our actions had consequences and all that. Our dad…he was a different story. His anger was always explosive. He’d rip us apart verbally. A few times he hit Gavin when he didn’t think screaming was enough.”