“Because I know you can’t handle it, Emily! If something even remotely pushes you over the edge, you snap; you break, and I’m left to pick up every single piece. Do you not think this is hard for me, too? Seeing her picture all over town and seeing her face on the news. It makes me sick, Emily! It makes me think of all the shit I pulled during our marriage. It makes me think of all the mistakes I made raising Blair. The reason I haven’t been around is because it hurts me to be around you,” Mitch said, his voice quivering as tears filled his eyes. “Because I sit there and think about what I could have done differently, and that if I had done things differently, then maybe this never would have happened. Maybe she’d still be here. Maybe, somehow, this is my fault.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me all of this?” Emily sighed, shrugging.
“I don’t know,” Mitch said, hanging his head down as he plopped back down into his computer chair.
“This isn’t about us, Mitch. This isn’t about the mistakes we made or about the things we could have done differently. We can’t change what happened, but we can change what happens to Blair,” Emily said. “This isn’t about what we did wrong; it’s about the things that we can do right this time around. We both made mistakes and I know that. All that matters is that we find her and we bring her home.”
deception
Emily’s eyes scanned the messy living room of Blair and Cole’s apartment, the coffee table littered with empty bags of chips and dirty plates. Empty beer bottles rested on the side table beside the sofa as she watched Cole rush forward, grabbing at the trash. It was as if a tornado had spun through the room since the last time she had been there…
“I’m sorry,” Emily said, clearing her throat as she watched Cole struggle with the beer bottles in his arms. “I should have called, given you time to clean up.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just been rough lately with all of this going on,” Cole said, swallowing, as he rushed around Emily and darted into the tiny kitchenette behind her. Emily nodded as she walked around the sofa and to the window, pulling the black curtains open as the soft, gray daylight crept through the room. The smell of body odor and liquor circled through Emily’s nostrils as she turned, watched the specks of dust dance through the light in front of her.
“Yeah, things have been pretty hard the last couple of days,” Emily said as she pushed a black knitted blanket to the right and sat down on the couch.
“That’s a bit of an understatement.” Cole sighed as he walked into the living area and sat down in the black recliner across from the sofa. “What were you wanting to talk to me about? Have they found anything? Do they know where she is?” Cole asked as he ran his hands through his greasy, matted hair.
“No, nothing, yet,” Emily said, staring down at her lap as she picked nervously at the side seams of her black jeans. She didn’t even know where to begin. She didn’t even know how to tell him. But she had to. If she wanted to get to the truth, she had to get through the lies first. “I wanted to ask you something about Blair.”
“I told you and the police everything I know, Miss Keller. I don’t know where she is and if I did, I would say something,” Cole said as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Do you know Professor Alden?” Emily blurted out. She couldn’t skip around the truth. She had to come out and say it. There was no more time for games.
“Yeah, he teaches at Basler. Why? Do they think he has something to do with this?” Cole asked, his eyes widening.
“They don’t know.” Emily nodded, swallowing as she bit her bottom lip nervously. “Did you know about them, about their relationship?” Emily asked. Cole sighed heavily as he hung his head forward, his eyes closed.
“Yeah, I did,” Cole said, lifting his head as his jaw tightened. Emily felt her stomach turn as she shifted on the sofa. He knew, and stayed with her? He had known this the whole time and never even thought to bring it up?
“When did it start?”
“I don’t even know,” Cole said, leaning back into the recliner as he stared at the window in the corner. “That was what our fight was about before she took off. I heard it from a few of my buddies that they saw her running around with him a while back. She got back from Greece and I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t. So, I asked her, and she denied it. She said that I was pathetic for even thinking that, and she told me she’d never do anything to hurt me.”
“And did you believe her?”
“I know I may seem like the dumb jock type, Miss Keller, but I’m not. When you sit there and you start putting the pieces together, you realize that some just don’t fit. You never see the signs until it’s too late, until you have no other choice.”
“It’s understandable that you were angry. I mean, anybody would be, Cole.” Emily nodded as her tongue stuck to the roof of her arid mouth.
“Hurt is more like it.” Cole nodded as Emily watched the tears fill his tired, red eyes.
“You didn’t hurt her, did you?” Emily asked as her lips trembled.
“What?” Cole asked, his eyes darting to Emily across from him.
“Cole,
