Chapter Nineteen
“...take her to the hospital...”
“...were you doing...”
“Your job!”
What... What’s going on? A lone thought swirled in the darkness, tugging on my consciousness and demanding it leave the peace, quiet, and numb.
“She was doing your fucking job because she told you a million times Courtney Thorne didn’t do it, and you wouldn’t listen!”
My eyelid cracked open, sending searing light piercing through my brain.
“Look at my wife! Look at her!” shouted a familiar voice. “Is this what an innocent person does to a woman!?”
Through one eye, my vision slowly cleared. I was in something small and cluttered. The walls crowded me even as a firm surface kept me tethered.
Ambulance... my sluggish brain supplied.
I was in an ambulance—which meant the two figures standing at its entrance, shouting back and forth, were Alex and Officer Davis.
“This attack was unfortunate, but the fact remains that you and Mrs. Kim had no business here. You—”
I tried to speak. “Arggh.” Nothing but a groan came out.
“Mrs. Kim?” An unfamiliar face bore over me. From the uniform I safely guessed she was a paramedic. “Don’t try to speak, please. You’re safe now and we’re getting you to a hospital.”
“O... O-omma...” I croaked. “O— Om...ma...”
“What’s that? Uma?” Her freckled brow crumpled. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“She’s saying Omma,” Alex snapped. “It means mother—her mother, who that woman killed!”
“Mr. Montgomery, please calm down,” Davis said.
“There’s no question an error was made. We have Mrs. Finley in custody, and she’s already given a full confession.
” Davis fixed on me. “She’s admitted that on the night of your party, she persuaded her nephew, Officer Callahan, to sneak her inside your home. .. where she killed your mother.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his stiff, tense throat.
“Your reckless actions aside, I give you my sincerest apologies because it was my lack of action that drove you to it. You told me that it couldn’t have been Ms. Thorne.
You asked me to investigate my fellow officers for a traitor, and you said there were stronger motives we were ignoring—and you were right on all counts. ”
Davis looked back. “Last week, Mrs. Finley’s son, Colin Finley, passed away from a stroke in the care facility he was living in.
The facility was underfunded, mismanaged, and criminally negligent.
It seems not only did the nurses neglect to give Colin his necessary meds that day, they also failed to perform their regular bed checks.
If they had, there was every chance this tragedy could’ve been prevented. ”
My broken heart sank.
“Shocked and grieving, Mrs. Finley walked into your home to kill the person she blamed for Colin’s death. If Madame Kim hadn’t squashed her lawsuit, she would’ve had the money she needed to give Colin the best care.” He sighed. “Or so she believed.”
I tried to speak—my jaw working, but my voice had given all it was going to.
“That facility is now under investigation and Mrs. Finley will be charged for her crimes, but I know none of that makes up for your loss,” he told me. “I am sorry, Mrs. Kim, but I hope now you can grieve in peace, knowing that you fought for your mother and for the truth.”
No!
Davis tipped his head, then walked away.
“N—!” I tried to get out, my weak body not even trying to respond to my commands to move. Come back!
“She’s getting a bit agitated,” the paramedic lady said to someone. “I’m going to give her something to help her relax.”
Alex climbed into the ambulance, taking a seat by my side. Nothing but love and concern shown in his eyes as he took my hand.
“Don’t worry, baby,” he said over my internal screaming. “I’m right here.”
Darkness crowded in quickly, stealing me away.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
THAT NIGHT, I SAT IN silence—watching my sleepy Lantana town pass by the window.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Alex reached over and stroked my arm. “They said you could stay overnight. Maybe we should’ve—just to be safe.”
I shifted around, taking him in.
Alex Montgomery was handsome and wonderful in every way, as he always was every day.
Every single minute since I woke up again in a hospital bed, he’d been at my side—loving and attentive as he got on the doctor’s case, and assured Rhodes and Micah that they didn’t need to come because he was taking care of me.
Nothing about his actions after I woke up in the ambulance matched the dead-eyed apparition that stood there watching me die.
Did I imagine it?
“Alex...” My throttled throat still struggled to produce more than a whisper. “When Mrs. Finley— When she attacked me, I thought I saw... you.”
He frowned out the window. “What do you mean?”
“Have you truly forgiven me for everything?” I narrowed on the side of his face I could see. “Are we okay now? For real?”
“Sue, baby, of course we are.” Alex turned just to smile at me. “We are very much okay now. You know that.”
“You’re not still mad?” I pressed. “About the way I’ve treated you over the years? About the... suggestion that I was cheating?”
I got a flicker of bewilderment before he shifted back to the road. “Baby, I’m not mad anymore. I’ve put it all behind me so that we could start over.” He squeezed my arm. “Why are you bringing this up now?”
“Because I saw you.” I squinted at him. “In the window when Mrs. Finley was strangling me with a dish towel. You were just standing there watching like—like you wanted her to kill me.”
“What?” he cried, slamming hard on the brake.
He pulled off and stopped the car in a café parking lot before I knew what was happening.
“Sue, what the hell are you talking about? Of course I didn’t want her to kill you.
I stopped her from killing you. It was me who broke down the door, pulled Finley off, and called 911.
Of course it was,” he beseeched me. “No one else was there.”
That was undoubtedly true. It seemed unlikely that Mrs. Finley suddenly had a change of heart and up and let me go, then called the police on herself.
Alex had to be the one who saved me, but did that mean my oxygen-deprived brain imagined him kicking back shooting the breeze while a middle-aged woman tried to pop my head off, or was what I saw real, and Alex just changed his mind?
If he did change his mind and choose me, do I just let it go? Or is watching someone kill you the kind of red flag you just don’t ignore?
“I don’t know, Alex,” I rasped. “Maybe I imagined it, but I feel I need to say again that if being with me is too hard, it’s okay. We can part on your terms with no hard feelings. You don’t have to force yourself to stay with me—”
“Stop.” Alex reached for me, taking my face in his hands. “I don’t know what kind of horrible nightmare tortured you in those last moments, but say the word and I’ll go back and kick Nightmare Boy’s ass. No one fucks around in my woman’s imagination—not even me.”
The barest smile tugged at my lips. It tugged harder as he drew me in, kissing me soft and sweet.
“I told you,” he whispered. “I’m not going anywhere. Yes, I admit, loving you was hard for a long time, but now... now it’s the easiest thing in the world. I’m finally right where I’m supposed to be—next to you.” Another soft peck graced my lips. “Don’t ever doubt it.”
“Okay.” I pressed my forehead to him, my eyes drifting closed. “Thank you, baby. I really needed to hear that.”
“It’s been an awful fucking day. Let’s go home. I’ll bundle you up on the couch with the Lilybug and old comedy reruns while I’ll make you some too-sweet strawberry-ade and burnt japchae.”
A giggle escaped me—the very first one since Omma was killed. Of course it was Alex. It had to be Alex... who brought back my laugh.
“That sounds perfect.” I meant it. “But I have to see Courtney. She’s had the worst few days of her life. She needs her friend, and I’m not going to let her down again.”
“They might not have released her yet.” Alexander drew back and started the car.
“Mrs. Finley was ranting her head off when they hauled her out of the car and stuck her in the back of the squad car, but she completely shut down when they got her to the station. Last I heard, she hasn’t said a word. ”
“How did you hear that?”
He scoffed. “Balogun and her partner were trying to make up for being incompetent fools and save the LPD from a lawsuit by coming by the hospital personally to see how you were doing. You were still sleeping, but they told me that other than saying she killed Mrs. Prado and Omma, and then asking for a lawyer, she hasn’t said another word.
“They said Courtney will be released once they get the full picture of how Mrs. Finley committed these crimes and why she chose to frame Ms. Thorne,” he repeated. “No idea if they’ve got that picture yet.”
“I need to call her,” I cried, scrambling for my phone. “Finley’s nephew let her into our house and helped her avoid the other guards. Not to mention she’s clearly filled with murderous rage.” I gestured to my bruised throat. “How much clearer does the picture get for these assholes?”
Another scoff. “It’s ridiculous. At this point, they need to just shut up and listen to you, because you’re the only one who had it right from the start.” He stroked my cheek as we pulled out of the parking lot. “Look, for now, let’s go home. Lily really needs a hug from her mom right now.”
That swayed me better than anything else could.
“While you’re relaxing, I’ll get on the cops and make sure that poor woman doesn’t spend another night in jail,” he said. “I’ll go down and break her out if I have to.”
HE DIDN’T HAVE TO brEAK her out, but he did drive down and pick her up the next morning—bringing her to stay with me for the day while Rhodes and Micah were at work, Lily was at school, and Alex was upstate visiting his parents in New York.