Page 98 of You'll Be the Death of Me

Beatrice held up her hand to cut him off. “Mr. Lewis, do you remember what I said to you before you left my office the last time?”

Cole nervously swallowed. Dell felt his hand tighten around hers. “That I had three days on earth to help Ms. Rodgers correct a wrong turn, and my mistake would be undone.”

Beatrice rose from her chair and headed for her bookshelf. She nodded. “Yes, I did say that.” She combed her hand with bright pink nails over the leather spines lining a shelf. When she plucked out a familiar-looking book, Dell’s heart sank. The rule book. Beatrice had her own copy, or maybe it was the copy Cole had had on earth and it somehow ended up back in Beatrice’s office, Dell didn’t know. But she knew the friendly-looking woman in a cardigan didn’t look very friendly anymore.

“I also told you to follow the rules in this book, and that breaking them would have dire consequences,” Beatrice said with narrowed eyes. “I stuck my neck out for you by even giving you a chance.”

“I—” Cole started to defend.

“It was me!” Dell blurted, and stepped forward. “I broke all the rules!” Her dead chest ached as guilt wracked her body over the thought she reallyhadgotten Cole in trouble.

Beatrice opened the book and flipped pages without looking. “Andhedidn’t stop you. In fact, he facilitated many of your misdeeds. A little backbone would do you some good, Mr. Lewis. You disobeyed instruction and now have to face the consequences.”

Dell was fraught with equal parts nerves and defiance. “It’s not his fault. If you’ve been watching, you might have noticed I’m a little determined,” she defended.

Beatrice studied her, still with the rule book splayed open in her hands. Her eyes narrowed once more. “When Mr. Lewis first came to me reporting his mistake, I looked you up, Ms. Rodgers. You are intelligent, kind, and generous, but your fixation on your own success gets in your way. So much that you often don’t see what’s right in front of you, namely, your own happiness.”

“I know,” Dell said. “I realize that now, and I—”

Beatrice held up her hand to cut her off. “Mr. Lewisdiedthat day because he hit a tree when he should have been sipping hot cocoa in the lodge with you.”

Dell thought of the visions she’d been having. They weren’t the future. They weren’t memories from the past. Somehow, they were what wassupposedto have happened. She and Cole had been right—theywere the thing that needed fixing, and she’d been seeing glimpses of it.

“His death is not your fault, of course,” Beatrice went on. “But your shortsighted choices pointed you in the wrong direction that day. Both of you. I looked up yourintertwinedhistory that day he came to me about his mistake, and it took me two seconds to realize you were meant to be together, and it was no coincidence your paths had crossed again now. That day on the ski slope ifyouhadn’t been so preoccupied with success”—she pointed at Dell—“andyouhadn’t been such a pushover like always”—she pointed at Cole—“you would have gotten out of your own ways and given each other the time of day. Neither of you were happy at that point in your lives, and you literally crashed into your path to happiness—each other.”

Dell and Cole exchanged a guilty look.

“But no,” Beatrice went on. “You brushed him off, and he made no effort, setting both your lives on the wrong paths: him crashing into a tree, and you into the arms of a gold-digging, murderous family.That’swhat needed correcting, andthat’swhat I gave you both the chance to recognize. I figured, these two fools realize they’ve met and are meant for each other, and we kill two birds with one stone: close the DAD investigation on Mr. Lewis’s untimely death and save Ms. Rodgers from her own death at the hands of her new husband—because the one thing no one needs is more paperwork. It should have been easy. I practically handed it to you. My plan in sending him to earth was for the two of you to meet—again—realize you were destined and had veered off course, correct that course, and give you a second chance at life, because let’s face it, even if youarea blundering fool and a headstrong steamroller, you are both good people who do good things for others.”

Dell was stunned speechless.

“Wait,second chance?” Cole said with shocked hope bursting in his voice.

“That was my plan. Obviously, you realized you’ve met before and have now... reunited.”

Dell’s face flamed at her implication. Cole shuffled his feet.

“You were ninety percent there, but you had to go and break all the rules, just like I told you not to.” She angrily flipped one last page in the book and turned it around to show them. “See this right here?”

Dell squinted at where her sharp pink nail pointed: the very—very—fine print at the bottom of the page.

“?‘Violation of any rules set forth by the Afterlife Administrationand detailed in this book will result in punishment at the supervisor’s discretion,’?” Beatrice recited as Dell and Cole read.

“What does that mean?” Dell asked as Cole paled.

Beatrice snapped the book shut. “It means you blew your shot. The rules in this book exist to keep the partition betweenhereandtherein check. A posthumous trip to earth is rare to begin with, but permission is granted in special cases, butonlywith the assurance of adherence to the rules. Since you committed so many infractions, and your punishment is up to me, I have decided you, Mr. Lewis, will remain here in the administration indefinitely, and you, Ms. Rodgers, will be moved on. Effective immediately.”

Dell’s head was spinning. She was going to die now? For real? And all because of some rules set by an organization she didn’t even know existed up until a couple days ago? She looked at Cole with a sickening swirl of guilt in her belly. She should have listened to him.

His dark eyes looked back at her, hardened with just as much guilt. She was going to move on, and he was going to stay. Indefinitely. Miserable and alone in the purgatory of transitioning lives until he forgot himself completely. The thought broke her dead heart.

Cole sharply turned his gaze to Beatrice. “You can’t do this. You have to let her go.”

“No can do, Mr. Lewis,” Beatrice sang. “The rules are simple and finite, and your offenses are many: possession, teleportation, making contact with the living, communicating messages from the dead to the living, haunting. Need I go on?”

Cole cringed at each accusation. “No, ma’am.”

“You could have achieved your goal withoutanyof that, yetyou somehow managed to commitallof it, and in such a short amount of time—which is honestly impressive. Ms. Rodgers, you are a remarkable talent. I can only imagine what other havoc you would have wreaked had I let you stay any longer.” She eyed them back and forth like two delinquent children. “It was a miracle I got you back here when I did, considering how backed up we are. I thought I’d peek in on your progress this morning, Mr. Lewis, just to see how it was going, only to learn you’d spent the last two days defying every rule in the book. My neck is on the line for letting you go in the first place, so I can’t let it stand.”