The Missing Bride: a cellphone novel by Alysse Aallyn

Chapter 25 – Corpse Pose

Her eyes slid away
Fearfully assessing.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“No. I guarantee.
No hiding stalkers
On this tiny island.”
For the first time she gave me
The old Mirabel smile.

“You can see why I love it.”
“Derek Lowther knows I’m here.
I’m using up his air miles.”
Her thin legs in white gauze reached out
Pumping our swing higher.
I refused to help.
“I was there when Verne killed them,”
She whispered.

“They wouldn’t give me away,
But he heard me screaming.”
“He must have followed me
From my job –
Covered me with their blood – said
I’d made it all happen.
Threatened me, threatened everyone, so –“

She gulped – “I made him
Fall in love with you.”
Tears fell out of her eyes as I
Gripped her hot hand.
“I said you were me without
Artifice, made him think
You would want him.
Verne was always telling me
I was ruined, spoiling myself,
Destroying our future.

I convinced him you were
Unscarred – worthy to be
Lady Verne – never told him
How smart you were.”
“Didn’t it bother him
I was only fourteen?”
“He liked that. He could mold you.”
I recoiled, disgusted.
“Why not tell the police?”

Her big eyes shaded blue
Gray – ocean color.
“They’d lock me up too!
He knows too much about me.”
“But why wedding fakery?”
“That was his plan – make you think
I’d gone abroad so you could chase after.
That spa sells fake passports.”

She smiled her one-sided smile.
“I was right – you were too smart –
“Always so confident!
Escaped him too fast. You were
So good in school! Your brain
Just seemed to work right.
Helped me with MY homework!”
She looked away.

“I thought I had just one thing
You didn’t have.
“But I was wrong about that, too.
You’re more beautiful than I ever was.”
I shivered at the horror she’d
Subjected me to, degradation
Narrowly missed.

“How’d you find me?”
She requested. “I remembered
You said you loved this place. Now
You answer one. How’d you escape?”
“My boss’ diamond broker was cheating him.
I blackmailed him with the evidence
For get away cash.

My passport’s for a boy –
I want to start over. Fresh,
Just like you. Can you
Ever forgive me?”
“Not if Verne gets away
With murder. How can we
Trap him, Mirabel?”
She moved her shoulders restlessly.

“Don’t call me that. I’m Jace now. And
“I have the murder weapon.
Told him I got rid of it. And
The shirt he wore – it’s all bloody.
In a safety deposit box.”

From around her neck she
Hauled up a key –
Pressed it into my hand.