I Was Done Begging novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Until It's Filed

The night before the ball I told Lucas everything.

He came to the pool house at ten and I sent the camera feed to black for an hour, and I sat him on the couch and stood in front of him with my cane.

I started with the coma.

I told him I had lived a second life while my body lay in that bed.

I told him about the christening, and the table I had tipped, and the choice I'd made Julien make.

I told him how I had kept my phone face up on the pillow until the battery died, waiting for a call that never came.

I told him about the garage.

Level two, ten at night, two men in valet jackets, a van with its plates taped over.

I told him how long it lasted.

I did not tell it well.

My voice kept going flat and then rough, and twice I had to stop and look at the wall.

Lucas did not interrupt once.

He sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands locked together, and I saw his knuckles go white.

"They found me on a warehouse floor," I said. "A woman held my face. A man said, we're the Everharts, we never stopped looking."

"Who carried you out?"

I swallowed.

"A man with grey eyes. He said, I've got you, Celia. I've got you. I didn't know your name until you walked out of that elevator."

Lucas stood up.

He turned his back on me and walked to the door, and he put one hand flat against the wood and stayed there.

When he spoke his voice was not steady at all.

"I should have found you," he said. "In that life, I was nine years into the search and I was too late."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I wasn't in the room when you needed me."

"Lucas."

"I'm not asking you to prove it. I believe you."

He turned around.

"The wire. The two brothers. Nobody could have told you that. I believe every word."

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