paused, then said, “I took care of matters, though, before she left.”
“What matters?” Liberty asked.
“I told her we wouldn’t mention Adrian’s incident, if she’d keep quiet about ours.”
He had to be kidding, right? She stepped toward him. “Are you saying Adrian’s sighting of Sage was an incident? Or my reaction to it? You think I’m crazy to believe it?”
He held up his hands, shook his head in denial and backed away a couple of steps. “Did I say that?”
“Why are you on the defensive now?” She tensed, looked around the chamber, fought the urge to pick a candle and throw it at him. “I feel like I’m the one being wrongly accused here.”
“Does Patience deny your mother’s death?”
She paused, where had that come from? “Excuse me?”
“Patience. Does she think your mother is alive?” He lifted his hands upward toward the surface. “Wandering around somewhere and waiting to be found?”
“You’re insane, you know that?” It was her turn to back away, “I was there. I saw my mother’s body.”
He lowered his voice. “I know that, but Patience never saw her body. So why should she have believed it when they told her that her mother wasn’t coming back?”
She got it, but didn’t fall for his lame attempt at psychoanalysis. “Uh, uh.” She waved a finger back and forth. “My mother and Sage are two different birds, Nathaniel, a sparrow and a vulture. You and I both know it.”
“How so?”
“Really? You really want to do this?”
“We have to. We can’t continue like we have.”
“Fine.” Liberty paced, swallowed her bitterness before she spoke. “The difference? We had evidence for Patience. Namely, there were witnesses, if you’ll remember. There is no explanation where Sage is concerned, no witnesses, no clues. There’s a gaping hole in her story. A giant, empty void.”
“The emptiness is in your heart, Lib.” He reconsidered, “Our hearts.”
“Exactly. But I don’t have a black hole like you do. I don’t grieve. You show me a body and I’ll grieve. Until then…” She crossed her arms. “I’ll keep up my hope. And it seems to me I have a reason now.”
“Adrian said he was mistaken. You ask me, that’s the real story. He saw a human girl that resembled Sage. It was dark. It would be an easy mistake.
Being Sasquatch, cursed with a human heart, was enough to drive her mad. She’d rather be human cursed with a Sasquatch heart. Then, instead of cowering down in a cave discussing how bad she felt, she could be out looking for her daughter.
The police, the community, everyone would pitch in. But, no. She had to wait until dark so she wouldn’t be seen as a monster. The whole situation made her want to scream.
“So, just like that, you believe it was a mistaken identity?”
Nathaniel walked to the bed, sat on the edge, and stared at his feet. “I don’t need any more proof. She isn’t here, and hasn’t been here. For us, Lib, sometimes no answer is the only one we get.”
Liberty shook her head. “We never did enough to find her.”
He looked up at her with darkness in his eyes. “How can you say that?”
“I never thought we did.” She pulled a plastic lawn chair across the limestone floor, stared at him.
His eyes were shiny.
“Listen.” She sat and leaned toward him. “I know you’re hurt, I do. And I’m sorry if it seems like I don’t care. But I feel…” She paused and searched for the right words. “I feel like, if I comfort you? It means in some way I accept she’s dead.”
“Fine.” He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, his voice edgy. “But you do know we’re relocating.”
She tensed.
He continued, “I’m not saying to Proem, but we’re going to be leaving the area. There’s no negotiating. It’s really out of our hands.”
She hated him, didn’t try to hide the sneer on her face. She stood so fast the chair tipped onto the floor. “That was the plan before. I don’t give a damn what you do, but my decision has been made. I’ll rot here.”
She started to storm out, then turned around, walked to the bed, yanked the quilt from it and kicked the chair as she exited the room. It was the first time she’d ever drawn the line between them since they’d moved there, let alone made a big to-do and slept elsewhere. She wasn’t sorry.
Chapter Six
Liberty moved for the guest quarters, only making a quick detour to snag a bottle of wine. The last time