Page 32 of The Unbecoming

With the ring safe in my hand, I stay lying with Liam. I keep my head on his chest with his hand still gently resting on my head. I can still feel his comfort, even with him gone.

I watch the clouds float through the sky, and let myself think about what could have been.

The places we’d go.

The people we’d meet.

The memories we’d make.

Liam was the peace in life I desperately needed, and I wish I hadn’t taken that for granted.

I wish I had let him help me sooner.

Maybe he’d still be here. Maybe Alex, too.

I don’t know where I’ll go from here, or who I’ll be without him. But I know there’s always tomorrow. I have to make it there, or they died for nothing.

I still don’t move, even when darkness settles around us, and his body is cold.

It’s not until I hear his voice that I realize just how much time has passed.

“Nora,” Detective Ricky Birch says softly. I blink a few times before my eyes find his. “I need to get you up from here so they can look at Liam. Can I help you?”

I nod because I can’t bring myself to speak.

Helping me stand, I turn and walk to the truck. “I’ve got her. She seems uninjured, so I’ll take her to be evaluated,” Ricky says to someone as he follows me. I grab Alex’s shirt and the note to hold close to my chest. “Ready?”

I nod again.

I still feel a million miles away, and I have no desire to find my way back right now.

Ricky helps me into the back of his SUV, and I open my hand to look at Liam’s ring. I stare at it for a second before taking my necklace off. Ricky watches me as I place the ring on the chain and take off my own to join it. With the necklace back on, I sit back and look at the detective.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Nora.”

“He’s dead?” I ask quietly.

“Yes, Gabriel is dead,” he confirms softly. I nod once and turn to look out of the window.

Gabriel thought he could break me.

I guess he did.

He wanted to see how far he could push me.

But breaking isn’t the end of a person.

Sometimes, it’s the end of someone else.

The unbecoming.

Chapter Seventeen

Nora

Three Weeks Later

Three weeks since Alex was murdered. Three weeks since Liam died in my arms. Three weeks since I bludgeoned Gabriel Ashcroft to death. Three weeks since I last spoke. Three weeks since being charged for a murder I absolutely did do.