The Photo Said I Must Die novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: She Gets Up

Judd's POV

Oliver held the envelope out to Dani at arm's length.

"It's sealed," he said. "I haven't looked."

She took it.

She did not open it right away.

Her hand with the bandage trembled, and I wanted to take the thing out of it and carry it myself.

I didn't, because it was hers.

She tore the flap with her thumb and slid the square of photo paper out into the flashlight.

I stood beside her and saw it at the same time she did.

A woman with light brown hair to her shoulders had pushed back her chair and risen to her feet.

She wore a white dress.

She was laughing, with her face turned up toward the man who had her hand.

Behind her, a glass lay on its side on the table, and the wine had barely reached the edge.

The man was holding her up and she was holding on.

He was me.

Not someone with my build, or my hair.

He had the chip in his front tooth and the scar on his forearm, and he was looking at her as though he had just been handed the sea.

I had never seen my own face like that.

I did not know I had it in me.

Dani turned the print over.

She took the other print from her pocket, the dark-haired one, and held the two side by side.

The same terrace, the same date, the same slanting blue hand on the back of each.

On the back of this one, under a faint pressed-in M, it said: D. Terrace. 9 Sept. She gets up.

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