She pauses as she studies the crowd a moment. “And then, there was a dark side to your love,” she continues. “The other side of the moon. We bared it all. You showed me that, too. You let me see the beauty, but you let me see the beast. There was no hiding the fact that under that crown there were horns, and you pointed them at me. You said jump. I asked how high. You said shoot. I asked where to point the gun. You said strangle them for all to see, and I wrapped my proverbial hands around their neck. I killed careers. I killed relationships. I killed egos, and finances. You said touch this, and I touched it. You said destroy, and I was your destroying angel. I was your most ardent servant. We were closer than sisters. We were closer than my very next breath.”
She nods to the crowd before going on. “Then a season of night arrived, so dark, so black, so very cold without your face to shine down over me anymore. It was over as swift as it began. You cut the ground from underneath me, and I fell without ceasing. I tumbled, and fumbled, and clawed to hold on, but what I didn’t realize was that the snake I thought I was charming had been charming me all along. I was bit, the venom deadly. But life and death, in all of their ironies, took you instead. You used your breath in your final hour to point the finger my way. Forever the martyr you wore that mask upon your exit. You said I’ll take you down one more time before I walk out that door—you fired your final shot at me. And then it was over, your body went limp. They questioned me, and I gave all I had, but those secrets we shared are still safe with me.”
Bambi bows her head a moment before leaning into the mic once again. “Gossip, blabber, blather. It’s been my bread and butter, it runs through my blood. My eyes and ears pick up what you do—and don’t think for a minute that I won’t share it with the world. But I know how to be a friend. I know where to draw the line. I know how to make you smile. I know how to make you mad. Verity Prescott, you were the one that told me I could do whatever my heart desired, and you were right, and I did it. Verity Prescott, until the very end, I will never betray you.”
A moment of stunned silence clots up the air before the room explodes with applause.
I exchange a look with Noah and Everett as Teddy chortles up a storm.
“That was wonderful!” the tiny bear trills. “Hear that? Bambi is still holding onto Verity’s secrets even though she’s gone on to the grave.”
I nod to her as the crowd lights up the place with deafening screams.
Everett leans my way. “She’s getting off the stage.” He slips me a bill. “How about getting yourself another slice of cake? We’ll have one hell of a midnight snack. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
I take the bill and reward him with a kiss. “I knew you were a wise man.”
Noah leans in. “She’s stepping over to the bar. Raise your hand if you need backup. I’ll be there in a hot second.”
“Come on, Lot.” Carlotta pulls me along just as a young man takes the stage and the room quiets down again. “We gotta get a move on before she gets mobbed.”
“Onward and forward.” Teddy glides on ahead. “Come now, Carlotta. It’s time for you to shine!”
I make a face at this older version of me as we thread our way to the front.
“Let me do the talking,” I tell her. “That perky poltergeist can believe what she wants, but this is my investigation.”
Carlotta takes a breath. “Sometimes the lies we tell ourselves are the sweetest.”
I shake my head at that one just as Carlotta and I carefully steer clear of Evie as we come upon the counter.
Bambi steps back and bumps into my arm while doing so.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says, landing her hand over her mouth as soon as she spots my beach ball of a belly.
“No worries,” I say, shoving the bill Everett just handed me to Carlotta. “Decaf and cake, please.” I force a bright smile at the suspect at hand as we step off to the side. “That was quite some poetry. You were phenomenal.”
“Ah, thanks.” She laughs while doing her best to shrug it off. “It’s something that I’ve done ever since I was a kid. You know, I didn’t have anything handed to me. I had to fight for everything I’ve got. So I come upon it honestly—pouring my heart out.”
“I can tell that you miss Verity very much even if you weren’t as close as you had hoped toward the end.”
She closes her eyes a moment. “I’d like to think if Verity knew that it was her last night on this planet she would have—we would have had
