Page 33 of Echoes in the Storm
“I’m serious, Cammie. If you’re not ready, don’t do it.”
“I’m ready,” I whisper, wriggling my hand to indicate he should remove his.
Duke’s warmth envelops the length of me, his chest brushing against my shoulder as shifts his weight. “Then why are you crying?”
Shit.Am I?Shit, shit, shit.
I wipe under my eye with the side of my finger, careful not to smudge my most likely ruined makeup. I already look crazy, getting so worked up over a room; there’s no need to look as if I’ve completely lost the plot.
“Sorry. I … shoot.” I glance to the side, catching his presence in my periphery. “It’s second nature sometimes.”
He takes a step back, nodding slowly. “Like I said, whenyou’reready.”
No time like the present.
Before I have time to form a conscious protest in my mind, I twist and push, opening the room up to the rest of the house for the first time in years. Stale air hits me first, the smell something I could only describe as dusty. But what comes second on the undertones damn well breaks my heart all over again.
Strawberry: the tangy artificial kind that’s synonymous with all little girl’s toy cosmetics and dolls.
I don’t even try to hold back the tears, pretend they’re not a part of who I am when I think of my baby. The salty drops track across my cheeks, a badge of honour for the love I felt toward this tiny human. Proof I once succeeded in life.
“Taylah,” I whisper. “Her name was Taylah.”
Duke slips into the room behind me, his hand brushing mine as he ventures farther in to inspect her toy chest, her bed, and her lowboy still covered in her favourite plushies.
“How old was she?”
He doesn’t say it, but the words hang in the untouched innocence of her haven:when she died.
“Four. She was six weeks shy of her fifth birthday.” I let out a sad laugh, folding my arms across my chest as though it can save my heart from this pain. “We bought her school uniform already, had her enrolled. She was excited, ready to go and make new friends. You can see it if you open her wardrobe.”
Duke stops by the window, using a single finger to edge the sheer curtains aside. He’s probably working out how he didn’t notice the contents of the room from the front of the house, how I manage to camouflage the fact that this was a family home once, that itisa family home.
“That the reason you split with your ex?”
“Yeah,” I say on a sigh, daring to reach out and pinch her teddy’s ear between my fingers. “Jared blames me. He couldn’t look at me the same after.”
As predicted, Duke’s brow furrows, his eyes dark as he scowls. “That’s shit, Cam. That’s just shit. He was your husband, right?”
I nod.
“Then he should have fucking stuck by you. He should have been there for you as much as I bet you were for him.”
The tears come faster, harder, as I try to focus on this poor confused man before me. “I don’t blame him, Duke. I don’t fault him for leaving me.”
“Why the fuck not?”
I smile, rolling my eyes as I sigh and try to gather myself a little better. “Because he’s right.” My chin crumples as I smile through the pain, just as I always do. “Itwasmy fault. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have died. I killed her.”
Duke
The fuck she talking about?She killed her daughter? What the hell is this,The Twilight Zone? Because this sleepy town full of friendly people seriously hides one fucked up secret.
“Come again?” I step a little closer, as thoughthat’sgoing to help me understand what she just said.
“It was my fault, Duke.” She storms from the room, leaving me to chase after her to hear what she says next. “My negligence meant she died.” Cammie swipes a tissue from the box in the bathroom drawer, wiping her eyes. “If I’d paid more attention, thought about it, I could have prevented the whole damn thing from happening.” She talks to me, although it’s herself she stares at angrily in the mirror as she wipes away her smudged makeup.
“Tell me what happened.” I take a seat on the side of the tub. “Explain it to me so I can make up my own mind if you’re to blame, because, Cam, I don’t think you could be.”