Page 116 of Love What's Left
“Me too.” Sydney’s brows come together, and she inhales deeply through her nose. “You know that asshole is dead now? There’s no more danger.”
Sydney releases her and holds her at arm’s length.
“You’re right. The danger is over. Time to move onward and upward. In a few more months, it’ll be like the whole nightmare never even happened. You look fantastic. Truly,” Amelia says.
“Thanks.”
Rob steps forward, clearly too annoyed by the conversation to remain silent a second longer. “That’s great. But have you remembered why you vandalized the lab?”
Amelia whirls on him. “Rob, that’s enough. We agreed not to talk about it anymore.”
Sydney glances my way, and I can see the wheels turning. It’s the look she had when she’d repeated, “my husband” back to Officer Price the day she called 911. This is my wife when she’s sunk her teeth into a problem and is two seconds away from digesting it.
Sydney shakes her head. “Sorry, Rob. I have to be honest, memories of how that happened aren’t ever coming back for me.”
Rob’s face falls.
Amelia puts a commiserating hand on his shoulder. “If she can’t remember, she can’t remember. We move on from here. Fresh start.”
Sydney rubs her forehead, then straightens and sighs. “Amelia, why don’tyoutell us about that night?”
Amelia freezes. “What do you mean?” Her question comes out an octave too high.
“Rob, did Amelia clean out my locker for you when she suggested the change?” Sydney asks.
Rob glances at Amelia. “Yes.”
Amelia glances to the doorway where Dave now stands, blocking the exit.
“Amelia,” Sydney says coldly, “you gave me my hat back. Where are my sneakers and sweater that were supposed to be in that locker?”
Shaking her head, Amelia backs up. “It wasn’t the same hat. It wasn’t from me. It was from Rob.”
“I didn’t buy it. I was going to give her a gift card. You told me you’d put my name on it because you had two gifts,” Rob says.
“Itwasthe same hat. Where are the rest of my things?” Sydney demands.
“How would I know? You wore them,” Amelia says.
“I had lunch with you that day. You were crying. I asked what was wrong, and you told me your grandmother was sick and asked me for a hug. That’s when you took the necklace off me and planted it in the lab.”
“That’s crazy. Maybe it fell off, but I didn’t take it. How can you say something like that to me?”
“You’re one of only a handful of people who knew it had a tracker in it. You took my clothing from my locker and smuggled it out in your gym bag, then snuck back in here wearing a wig after hours and pretended to be me. You kept your hair down, turned your face away from the cameras, and wore my clothing.”
It has to be a guess, but Sydney has clearly remembered enough details to put the events of the night together.
Amelia clutches her stomach, her expression panicked. “How could you say something like that? I didn’t even know your locker combination.”
“I trusted you. I was elbow-deep in a time-sensitive photoreactive polymer two years ago. You said you were hungry. I had a bag of pretzels in there and told you the combination so you could get them without me having to stop what I was doing.”
“I can’t remember a combination fromtwo years ago,” Amelia says.
“We have video coverage of Sydney’s birthday party from our security cameras. Multiple angles. You roofied her drink,” Dave says. He doesn’t say we caught her drugging the seltzer, but he does an excellent job implying it.
Amelia clutches her scalp. “No I didn’t.”
“I saw you and didn’t know what you were doing with her drink. I thought you were obsessed with her,” Rob says in a disbelieving voice.
