Second Chances(69)

"Yes, but what did you do during that great time? The beach? Clubs? What?"

She pressed her lips together and frowned, her brow furrowing in concentration for a few minutes. She gripped the pillow tighter.

"I...I had...I..."

A tear ran down her cheek.

"I don't...I can't remember," she said. She looked at Nathan, her eyes wide, watery, and full of horror. "What does that mean?"

"I wish I knew."

She grabbed the box of tissues, wiped her eyes and runny nose, her hands trembling even more. Part of her, a very large part, wanted to run from the room, but she stayed seated on the edge of the bed.

"What's happening to me? What in the hell is happening to me?"

"We are gong to find out."

"How?"

He got up off the bed and paced back and forth from the bed to the door several times before saying, "I don't know, but we will. How about we start by comparing your history and my Paige's history? Do you think we can do that?"

She nodded and said, "I guess so."

"Okay, so when I met Paige she was twenty-four."

"That's my age now."

Nathan nodded, not surprised, but encouraged by the news.

"She had grown up in Kline, Kansas."

Paige nodded.

"Her mother worked at the local grocery-store."

"Yes, she was basically their accounts manager."

"And her father taught chemistry at the local high school."

Again Paige nodded.

"Paige's mom died when she was fifteen. Cancer. She told me it was an incredibly rough year, she even dropped out of school. She ended up having to redo her sophomore year of high school which is why she graduated late."

Paige was wiping the tears from her eyes. "She..she tried not to show how much pain she was in. She tried to be brave for me and dad, but...but we knew. It was horrible."

He sat down next to her. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around her. He didn't like causing her pain and knew he was about to cause her more.

"And then it was sophomore year again, only college this time."

She nodded her head against his chest.

"Daddy had a heart attack. I was a wreck. The semester had just ended. Linda was there for me. I don't think I would have made it through without her. I never went home again. One of my dad's friends took care of everything, settled the estate for me. Had him buried next to my mother. It's horrible that I never went back, isn't it? What kind of daughter doesn't attend her own father's funeral? I just couldn't handle it."

She sobbed against Nathan and he held her tighter. He'd heard this all before and it was no less heart wrenching this time around.

"I'm sorry," she said after a few minutes. She wiped away her tears and released her hold on him.

"Don't be. I'm sorry you have to go through this again."

She didn't seem to hear that last word and he was grateful as he hadn't meant to say it aloud.

"I hate to do it, but...so two or three weeks ago. The fire?"

She nodded.

"You lost everything, absolutely everything?"

She nodded again. "Your Paige as well?"

"Yes," he said. "I...umm. I met her only a few weeks after the fire. She told me about it. She had lost everything and her friend Tanya had suggested a vacation. She had just returned from that vacation in Hawaii and relocated to Fairfield. Toby had dragged me out to a club, something I hated doing. He and Tanya had seemed to hit it off and that left you...Paige and I alone at a table. She hated clubbing as much as I did. We spent the time making up stories about the people in the club and making sarcastic comments about them. I was in love with her before the night was over. It was only a few weeks later that I proposed."

There was a sad smile on Paige's face as she listened to Nathan and she again felt an irrational twinge of jealousy.

"What happened to her friend? Tanya?"

"She moved away a month or so after we got married. Some job opportunity in Seattle. Paige still kept up with her, a phone call every couple of weeks or so, but that was it. The truth was, we became each others lives. We saw Toby and a few people related to the business every now and then, but we were newlyweds and completely infatuated with each other. We didn't really give a damn about the rest of the world. As far as we were concerned the world began and ended with us."

"She was very lucky," she said.

"No. I was the lucky one."

Nathan got up and walked to the window. He braced himself for what he knew was coming.

"What happened to her?" Her tone was almost apologetic.

He was quiet for a long while and Paige began to wonder if it was possible he hadn't heard her, but he finally let out a long sigh and then said, "They claimed it was suicide, but I never truly believed that. She was murdered."