Page 73 of Broken Butterfly
“Ryder is my everything, Julien. That night with Jayson should not have happened, but I’m the only one to blame. I didn’t mean to make things worse, and now Jayson won’t listen to me. He refuses to accept that I’m with Ryder.”
“You know how stubborn my brother is when it comes to you. You know he’ll never give up.” Knowing my brother, Jay will scorch the earth to get her back, especially now that her memories have returned.
She winces. “Julien, I don’t even remember how I got to your condo that night. That’s how messed up I was. I only realized what had happened after I woke up the next morning.”
“Have you spoken to your doctors? What do they say?”
She winces again. “No. I’m going to see Dr. Clairemont later this week.”
I give her a hard stare. “And your neurologist.”
“Why? I’m feeling great. I’ve had no other issues this past month.”
“Liz, I mean it. Full check-up from every doctor. I’m not budging on this. I’m surprised Ryder hasn’t strong-armed you into every one of their offices yet.”
She laughs. “Oh, trust me. He has been on me like ants on honey.”
I snicker at her double entendre, “I bet.”
“Okay, you’ve got me there.” She grins.
If Liz remembers everything now, then she remembers that night. The only good thing to be said about this mess is that she may be able to recall details about her attacker to help the police finally catch the depraved murderer who hurt her and killed her family.
I switch subjects. “How are you doing after all the Thanksgiving drama?”
Liz kicks a pinecone down the path. “It was a lot. The house, telling your parents about Elizabeth Ann, talking to Jayson. Elijah’s dad wants me to call the detective in charge of the case. Speaking of Elijah…”
“E and I are taking things slow. I guess it was kind of hypocritical of me to be mad at you when I was hurting him in almost the same way.”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice the two of you sneaking off together the other night. I’m glad you guys are working things out.”
“Me too. I’m trying to do by better by him.” I look at my watch and see the time. Jay had told me last night Liz was coming over for breakfast. I was going to stay away after she would have left for class. Looks like my plans have changed. “You ready to head back?”
“Wow, has it been an hour already?”
“I don’t know how you’ve been keeping up with your coursework while away, but I made sure to take really good notes for you in chem.”
“You were angry with me and still took notes for me? Aww,” she gushes and squeezes my arm. “Fallon said he had it covered, whatever that means. I guess I’ll find out today. I can’t believe the semester is almost over and then it’ll be Christmas break and off to Seattle.”
“Have you spoken to Daniel or Drew at all?”
Liz’s face falls and she rests her head against my shoulder as we walk. “No, I haven’t. Not since the hospital. That’s something else I’m going to rectify soon. I just don’t know how yet. Drew has been texting me. With everything he’s going through with his chemo, I feel so damn guilty about not reaching out to him. It’s just I’m still so angry at them. How could they keep secret the fact that I was pregnant and lost my baby?”
I don’t reply because I’m also still mad as hell that Daniel kept what happened to Liz and Elizabeth Ann a secret. “You and I still have so much we need to talk about, Liz.”
“I know.”
But at least this morning was a start. Hopefully, it will be smoother sailing from here on in.
“There’s a fight tonight,” Jayson says as he walks me down to my car. I couldn’t stay long for breakfast since I have to rush back to my apartment and shower before my nine o’clock class.
I settle back against my cherry red car. “Are you asking me to come?”
“Well, you mentioned before that you wanted to.”
After I disappeared, Jayson started fighting in what I can only describe as underground college fight clubs. It seems to be a thing these days. Instead of drinking himself unconscious, he turned to using his fists as a way to deal with his emotions. I asked him to stop fighting when I saw him with bruises and scabbed-over cuts on his face, but Jayson confessed to me that he couldn’t; he said he needed it. I felt so damn culpable at the time, knowing what happened to me was the reason he was fighting.
Jayson reaches out and takes my hand, his thumb tracing slowly back and forth across my knuckles. “Will you come?” he softly asks, and that’s when I see it. Hope. He has so much damn hope in his eyes.
