Chapter 17 #2
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 really had gotten Cole in trouble.
Beatrice opened the book and flipped pages without looking. “And he didn’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. Lewis died that 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 was supposed to have happened. She and Cole had been right—they were 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 your intertwined history 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 if you hadn’t been so preoccupied with success”—she pointed at Dell—“and you hadn’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’s what needed correcting, and that’s what 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 you are a 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 Administration and 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 between here and there in check.
A posthumous trip to earth is rare to begin with, but permission is granted in special cases, but only with 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 without any of that, yet you somehow managed to commit all of 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.”
Cole bowed his head in shame. “Please, Beatrice. I’m sorry. But punish me. Dell doesn’t deserve this. She was only trying
to get her life back—which was my fault to begin with.”
“Indeed, it was your fault. And it was my fault for thinking I could trust you to do things right. But now here we are.”
The feeling of being sucked toward a black hole had a grip on Dell. A force greater than herself had been put in motion and
was pulling her closer and closer to the true point of no return.
Beatrice lifted the phone receiver on her desk and pressed a button. “Ms. Rodgers, you’ll be escorted to Processing to finalize
your case before moving on.”
Dell looked up at Cole, suddenly more terrified than she’d been in her life. “Cole, what do we do?”
He stared down at her with panic in his eyes. He didn’t get the chance to say anything before someone knocked on the door.
“Enter,” Beatrice said.
Two burly men, who could have been nightclub bouncers, entered. One stood behind Cole, blocking his way out, while the other
gripped Dell by the arm before she had the chance to duck out of reach.
“Cole!” she called as the man led her from the room. She tried to dig in her feet, but her flats against the stiff corporate carpet might as well have been skates on ice.
“Let go of me!” she demanded of the man. He didn’t acknowledge her struggle. He must have had some otherworldly strength because
he didn’t even falter against her thrashing in his grip.
“Dell, wait!” Cole called, but Beatrice’s closing door cut off the sound of his voice.
Dell fought against the man’s grip, trying to pry his hand off her arm. “Please, you can’t take me away. This is all a mistake.
I’m supposed to go back to earth—to my life.”
She might as well have been talking to a brick wall. The man didn’t respond; he didn’t glance at her. He didn’t even blink.
Dell looked around in a panic for anyone who could help, but no one was paying attention to her. Everyone sitting at their
desks stared at their screens, silently working away.
The man pulled her toward the hall with the elevators, and she knew this was it. If she got on the elevator, there’d be no
turning back. He’d take her to whatever floor held the Processing department, and she’d be shuttled off to eternity. Back
on earth, surely, her coma would end, and her family would lose hope. Her restaurant might close without her at the helm.
She would never laugh with Jason again. Her brothers would continue building their empire and having kids she’d never get
to see grow up. Her parents’ broken hearts would never heal. She’d miss the life she was supposed to have. And to add to it,
she would miss Cole. This imperfect, charming man she’d crossed paths with twice and still couldn’t be with.
If she could go back, she would. Back to that day on the ski slope when he plowed into her.
She’d say yes to his drink invitation and spend the day falling in love with him, even if it was the first time they’d met, because she knew now from experience how easy he was to fall for.
It had happened without her even realizing it. Like breathing or falling asleep.
But right now, she couldn’t go back. She couldn’t do anything other than follow her burly escort into the elevator and watch
the doors close.