Chapter 94
Josh
Before I left the house just now, I set Rachel’s rings into a little glass dish on her nightstand while she slept. I asked Emma’s permission to do so, of course. She said yes without hesitation, fetched the rings for me from Rachel’s jewellery box.
I hoped they would be the first thing she saw, the next time she opened her eyes.
I took her left hand and kissed it softly, on the knuckle of her ring finger, exactly as I did on our wedding day.
‘Bye, Rach,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
They sell DNA analysis kits in supermarkets these days. It’ll take a week or so for the results to come through, once we’ve sent off the samples. But they sit right alongside the pregnancy tests.
I grab one, and then another for luck. My heart strobes painfully, in time with the supermarket strip-lighting.
But when I get back to Rachel’s house, Emma is sitting on the front step.
She is crying, her face contorted.
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
‘She’s gone.’ Her voice is shattered by sobs. ‘Ten minutes ago. She’s gone. I’m so sorry, Josh.’
Dropping the tests, I sink to my knees, right where I am in the middle of the drive.
I put my head in my hands, let everything go.