Page 20 of Poisoned Promise
She’s looking right through me and if I didn’t know her so well, I’d almost think she doesn’t recognize me. That by some insane twist of fate, I’ve found a twin or a doppelganger.
I glance at her hand pressing against the door and fixate on her thumb.
Just above the knuckle lies a small scar, a scar gained from her trying to imitate my trick of opening one beer with the neck of another.
Back then, the bottle slipped, and the cap sliced deep into her thumb.
She panicked that there was some real damage while I held her close, placed her thumb in my mouth, and sucked on it until the bleeding stopped.
It scarred because it was deep enough and that same scar exists right there on this woman’s thumb.
The second she adjusts her thumb out of sight, I know I’m right.
“Give me a minute,” I snap back at Reese, then I shove my hand against Dove’s shoulder and force her back into the apartment with my bulk.
Her eyes widen in alarm as I kick the door closed behind me and something like true fear floods her eyes. “What the hell are you doing?!” she gasps, stumbling away from me as fast as she can. “Who the fuck are you to force your way in here? Get the fuck out!”
“Dove—.”
“Get out before I call the police!”
“Call them,” I snap as we stumble to a stop in the lounge. “Call them, Dove. Call them and I’ll happily tell them who you really are.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Her voice trembles with real fear, terror builds in her eyes as well as the sparkle of tears and a voice screams in my mind that I’ve got this wrong.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about!”
“No, I don’t!” she gasps. “If—If you want to rob us then go ahead, we d-don’t have much. I’ve got maybe fifty bucks in my purse if that’ll do!”
“Drop the act, Dove,” I snap. My words remain tight and clipped as each breath struggles to give me the air I need. The pain is taking up too much space in my chest and the pounding of my heart makes each of her scrambled words sound distant and weak.
“What act?” she gasps. “Who the hell even are you and what the?—!”
“Mom!” Another voice calls from deeper in the apartment and Dove freezes.
“Mom?” I repeat the word like I’ve never heard it before in my life.
A second later, a swinging door creaks open and a teenager walks in, his right arm clad in a green cast and several bruises shadowing his young face. Behind him, I glimpse the kitchen and a counter set up with paper plates.
“Mom, is the pizza here or—oh.” The kid stops in the doorway, one hand on the door and one foot still in the kitchen. “Who are you?”
In an instant, Dove changes. The tears vanish from her eyes, the panic melts away from her face and she smiles brightly at the kid. “Alex, pizza’s not here yet. I just have to deal with this, honey, so could you grab some soda for me?”
“Sure,” Alex replies and suspicion warms his eyes as he glances back at me.
It’s a look I’m so familiar with and yet it’s surreal seeing it in the eyes of a teenage boy and not the woman I love.
Alex takes a breath and then vanishes back into the kitchen, leaving me alone with Dove.
She faces me and her arms cross over her chest; the faux-fear and panic on her replaced with a steely look of anger. “What the fuck do you want?”
My heart clenches so painfully I have to fight the gasp that worms up my throat. “It’s really you.”
Every part of me feels weak. Like I’ve wandered into a dream while knowing I’m supposed to be somewhere else in the real world.
“I said what the fuck do you want?”
“How— how the hell are you standing in front of me right now? How the fuck are you alive, Dove?!”
