Bridgette reached her hand over the table and grabbed mine. "I may not have lost my parents, but I did almost lose my life. I'm with you, Catelyn. I've got your back whatever you decide."
Our food arrived but I'd lost my appetite. Bridgette ate with more gusto than normal but I sipped at my coffee and thought about what I would do next. I wanted Bridgette's support, and wished I could bring her into my plan, but I realized how dangerous it would be for anyone involved and knew I couldn't share any more with her and shouldn't have told her what I did. I couldn’t put her life at risk again. I loved her too much for that.
Shortly after we were done, Jon arrived to pick up Bridgette.
"Hi, Cat."
I smiled at him as we paid our check. "Hi, Jon, how are you?"
He kissed Bridgette, who smiled like a schoolgirl and giggled. They looked so happy together that I worried maybe I shouldn't have told her about my mother's notes. Bridgette was getting closer to Jon now and Jon was close to his father, closer than Ash was.
"You'll tell me if you find anything else, right?" Bridgette asked as they left.
"Right," I said, lying to the second important person in my life in as many days.
***
That night, while Ash slept and the clock read three in the morning, I finished reading all the research. I rubbed my eyes and stretched my neck as I thought about what I'd just learned.
I'd finally found one name I knew. One name not destroyed in weather damage. One name not hidden by a mask.
And so I began to plot my revenge.
Chapter Three
A Killer Wedding
PRESENT DAY
THE FIRE BURNED so hot my cheeks felt feverish. I blinked away tears and reached for Ash, but he was gone. Everything sounded heavy and muffled, like I was underwater. Another tear leaked out the corner of my eye and then the screams started, cutting through the fog in my mind, pushing me into action. I ran toward Jon's car, kicking off my designer shoes, tripping over the train on my designer dress, all of this frill and fluff a cruel mockery of the carnage before me.
Grabbing Ash's arm, I pulled him away from the fire. "You can't! It's too late!" I choked on smoke and stumbled back, cutting my foot on a piece of glass that had blown from the windshield. The air smelled of oil, fire and burning flesh. It was a cloying sweet smell, which surprised the part of my brain that had shut down the emotions threatening to overwhelm me.
I turned toward a bush and vomited. Ash placed a hand on my back as he dialed 9-1-1. All of this happened so fast. Seconds. Less than seconds. It felt slower, time playing tricks on me. Slowing down, then speeding up.
"Jon!"
Bridgette ran toward the explosion as stunned guests stumbled toward us.
"Jon, no! No!" She whirled around in her ice blue dress, eyes darting and intense, grief etched on her face like a map. "What happened? Where's Jon?"
Nothing seemed real as I walked toward her. Our eyes met. Her face crumbled when she saw the answer to her question in my unspoken words.
She collapsed in my arms. "No. Catelyn, no. This can't be. He told me he loved me. We made plans for our future. How did this happen?"
I wished I had an answer for her, some way of explaining this that would make sense, but I didn't. So I held her, and we cried together as the rest of the world moved into action.
The wedding planner became indispensable, bringing out drinks and chairs and blankets to guests and family as the police and fire truck sirens wailed closer and closer, turning the parking lot into a crime scene in a matter of minutes.
Bridgette went to her parents, who sat on chairs on the opposite side of the lawn as the Davenports. My heart broke for the Bridgette's pain. For Ash's pain. And I watched their parents, stoic in their own corners, distanced from others as they shared matching expressions of suppressed emotion. Ash and I stood in the middle, his arm around me as I shivered despite the warmth of the summer sun. "Ash…"
I didn't know what to say. Had no idea how to comfort him.
He turned to me, unshed tears making his eyes luminescent, his face hard in unexpressed grief as he caught a tear off my cheek with his hand. I hadn’t even realized I'd been crying.
When Detective Grey walked over to us, Ash squeezed my hand and turned to face him.
"You two have the worst luck of any couple I've ever met," he said by way of greeting. Then he seemed to notice our grave faces. "Um… sorry. Walk me through the details."
"Someone killed my brother," said Ash.
Grey looked at me and then back at Ash. "Are you sure he was in the car when it exploded?"
I nodded. "I saw him get in. He'd forgotten the wedding rings and went back to get them and then…"