Choosing The Imposter Over His Dying Wife

cka

smell of antiseptic doing little to mask the

ered and raw from the heat an

ng in the chair

was just watching me

e said, his voice devoid of warm

y and scratching. "I have broken ribs. I h

sound sharp like a whip crack.

you I w

paid him to fa

Evans. Or maybe she had just threatened his f

idn'

n, holding her arm delicately against

pered, her lower lip

is chair in a seco

Hailie lied, her eyes tearing up on command. "She sh

wled out of that sauna on my ha

eyes was terrifying. It wasn't jus

e said, his voice

n't even

wrapped his fingers around the plastic tub

rk, violent red agai

rve comfort," h

b, pl

t.

ses who stared but dared not intervene. He didn't sign d

the Family Ceme

Chicago drizzle that felt lik

me out o

" he o

was buried. The father who died in th

l," h

the gr

the back o

nes tore through my thin hospital pa

ather for disrespecting his memory. Apol

watching. She looked like a widow g

couldn't tell the difference. "I'm sorry I loved you. I'm s

," Cale

he wet earth until my voice

ft me

rove away, leaving m

in for an hour, s

y, I s

s were

e caretaker, an old man who knew th

sked. "Should I c

oice hollow. "I ne

r w

emergency money I had stitched into my gown bef

me,"

esit

from the Reids. In the pauper's sec

papers with a

cision I had truly

sn't just buying a grave.