Chapter Two
M athias gave one more critical glance around to make sure everything was perfect.
Red roses. Check. Favorite takeout meal.
Check. Ring in the pocket. Check. He wanted the night to be perfect for Nova, as well as for himself.
Wasn’t every day a man asked the love of his life for her hand in matrimony, and he didn’t plan on doing it again. Nova was his future. His everything.
As one of the city’s medical examiners, he knew the value of not letting things lie.
He’d seen too many people regret not expressing their feelings as they stared at their lifeless loved ones.
The moment he’d met Nova, he knew she was the woman he was going to marry.
Luckily, she said yes when he asked for a date.
He stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. “Nova Memphis, I love you. Will you do the honor of becoming my wife?”
Too stiff?
“Nova. I love you. Marry me. Marry me? Please, marry me.” He cleared his throat. “Why do I sound like an idiot?”
Maybe he needed to relax and forget practicing what he was going to say. What could go wrong? He had the ring in his pocket and Champagne chilling in the...
Wait. Fuck! How did I forget the Champagne?
He glanced at his watch, noting he had about twenty minutes before she was done with work that evening.
Grabbing his keys, he locked up and ran down the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.
There was a liquor store only a couple of blocks away.
In and out, and he’d have plenty of time left over to continue practicing what he was going to say and ask.
The liquor store was one of those small stores that didn’t really have a wide variety of wine, let alone expensive Champagne, but anything was better than having nothing to celebrate with.
He had no doubt in his mind that Nova would say yes.
They’d been together almost five years, and he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life with her.
He stood in front of the bottles of wine, trying to determine which one would be best, when raised voices broke through his concentration. Glancing toward the front, Mathias saw a man arguing with the clerk. Then, a gun popped into view, and his heart started racing.
Holy fucking shit!
It was a robbery. Fear tasted heavy on his tongue. Backing up, he hit a display, and the sound was loud enough to grab the assailant’s attention. White guy, crazy eyes, obviously not giving a shit whose life he threatened.
The gun swung his way. In that moment, all he thought about was Nova. He should be getting engaged in ten minutes, and not staring into his own mortality.
I need to get home to Nova. Whoever is up there listening, I’ll do anything. I don’t want to leave Nova. Please don’t take me away from her.
It became a chant. A mantra. The benediction of his heart.
Then the gun fired, and the world turned pitch black.
****
N ova glanced at her phone screen, wondering why Mathias hadn’t responded to her text. She was running late since one clerk had gotten sick and gone home early, and she knew he had cooked dinner for them.
“Still no answer?”
She looked up at her friend and coworker, Clement. “No, which is odd. It was his day off, and he said he was just going to clean the house.”
“Maybe he burnt the place down.”
“Don’t even joke about that. He wouldn’t be allowed to cook anymore.”
The year before, he had accidentally set fire to the curtains around the kitchen window. It had been so scary at the time. Mathias laughed about it now, but Nova wasn’t there yet.
Clement snickered, knowing where Nova’s mind must have gone. Then, Nova spotted Mathias’s boss entering the library, walking with a police officer. Confused, she tilted her head and smiled at him.
“Hello, Dr. Jones,” she said. “Looking for a book?”
He didn’t smile. Instead, he looked down at his feet for a moment and then at the cop. When he glanced back at her, tears were in his eyes. Something dark twisted in her chest, and her smile slowly faded.
“Nova,” he said. The little crack in his voice scared her. “I have something to tell you. Would you like to go somewhere private?”
Fear shot through her, and she had a strong premonition she wasn’t going to like what he said.
“Um, the conference room over there?” She turned to Clement. “Can you cover?”
“Of course.”
As Nova led the two men to the conference room, her hands started to shake. It had to be bad news because that was the only reason why a cop would be with him. Maybe Mathias really did burn the kitchen down.
“What’s happened, Dr. Jones?”
“There was a shooting,” he said sadly. Her world stopped spinning. “I’m afraid ... it’s Mathias, Nova.”
Her body now joined her hands, shaking so much her knees felt weak. “What does that mean? Where is he?”
“H—he’s gone, Nova. He was shot during a burglary.”
She didn’t hear anything more. Static filled her head, and she watched his lips, waiting for the joke.
Waiting for him to tell her he was just kidding.
Waiting for the damn punchline, but he said none of that.
She shook her head, trying to get her tongue moving and demand he change his words, but it wasn’t cooperating.
Her lips didn’t move. The frozen heartbreak from inside her soul bled outward, entirely consuming her until all she could do was collapse.
Dr. Jones caught her, and his touch was all that was needed to shatter the dam on her emotions. Tears poured down her cheeks, and she let out a pain-filled wail.
“No!” she screamed, repeating it over and over. “No, no, no.”
Dr. Jones held and rocked her while her world splintered apart.