Page 58 of You'll Be the Death of Me

Dell’s father came skidding around the corner, clearly having run. “What happened?” He still had his phone clutched in his hand.

“She moved,” Patricia repeated. “We need a nurse.”

“I’ll call you back,” William said into his phone, and then shoved it in his pocket. He rounded the bed to Dell’s other side.

“What did he say?” Patricia asked, and nodded at his pocket where he’d stuck the phone.

“Who? Oh, Perry. He said he’s already in contact with the police. The Morattos won’t see another day in office.” He leaned over Dell’s body and took her other hand.

“Good,” Patricia seethed.

“I always knew, deep down, he wasn’t right for me,” Dell said, and pressed her palms to her face. “But all I saw was another achievement checked off: marry someone powerful. Maintain the family legacy.”

Cole’s warm hand landed on her shoulder. “You couldn’t have known it wentthisdeep though.”

Dell lifted her face from her palms and met his eyes. She was hit with another vision. This one of Cole by the fireplace again, except now more of the room was included. She was sitting beside him, near a window, and outside was... snow?

She shook herself from it right as a nurse came rushing into the room. “Immediate family only, please. We need room.” She shooed everyone away while Dell’s doctor swept in through the door. Caught up in the commotion, Dell and Cole ended up in the hallway, along with everyone else who’d been moved out of the way.

For a moment, Dell’s dead chest lifted with hope that the medical team could actually accomplish something in their effort to save her. But she knew, based on the fact she was still very much stuck in her invisible ghost body, they would not.

“Now what?” she said to Cole with a defeated flop of her hands against her thighs.

When he didn’t immediately have an answer, she gazed around at the company they stood among: Mariana chewing her lip and trying to get a peek in the door; Lena worriedly kissing her daughter’s cheek and bouncing her on her hip; Oscar running a hand over his thick hair and sighing.

At the sight of Oscar she wondered, fleetingly, if perhaps herlessonhad to do with her restaurant. Although she couldn’t imagine what could possibly be waiting for her there if finding out her fiancé planning to murder her wasn’t the thing that was supposed to set her life back on course.

But it was worth a shot.

She pivoted to face Cole. “I want to go to my restaurant.”

The look on his face said he expected such a request to be coming, but a trepidation dampened it. His lips parted, but nothing came out.

“What?” Dell said.

“What, what?” he asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You were about to say something.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“You are not a good liar. What was it?”

He caught the edge of a breath, and then sighed. “I was going to suggest maybe we should slow down a little bit. We’ve been running around all day, trying to fix things, and maybe a pause would help clarify.”

Dell’s face bent into a frown. “Clarify what? If solving the Tommy mystery didn’t reunite me with my body, we’ve got to keep looking for what will.” She held her arm out toward herroom’s doorway. “My family may be powerful, but there’s only so long we can stall when our only hope is my body occasionally flopping like a fish.”

Cole threw a glance at the doorway and twisted his lips. He sighed and held out his hand. “Address?” he asked in a tone of defeat.

“Thank you,” Dell said, and linked her hand with his. She told him the address and prepared as much as one could prepare to be sucked through an inexplicable portal.

They landed outside Pergo’s front doors on the sidewalk. The street behind them hummed with the usual traffic. Dell was surprised not to see a mob of reporters trying to push their way in. Instead, it was a handful of classily dressed guests showing up for their dinner reservations.

“I’m not about to whack my face on this door, am I?” she asked Cole. “This place is mine.”

“Should be safe for entry,” he said with a nod.

“Good.” Still, she stuck out her arm slowly, as if she were reaching into a cave and didn’t know what might be lurking inside. When her hand and wrist passed through, she followed with the rest of her body.