He Defended My Mother's Killer, Now He Pays with His Life novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Breaking the Rule

Victoria's POV

I woke up on the sofa with a blanket I had not put there.

Sunlight lay across the carpet.

The kitchen smelled like coffee, and when I walked in, Samson Briggs was standing at my mother's stove in yesterday's shirt, turning eggs.

He had slept on the porch steps.

I could tell by the creases on his face.

"Sit," he said. "How's the hand?"

"Stitched."

"Eat."

I sat, and I ate.

The eggs were good.

I hated that.

"I need to say something," I said, "and I need you not to explain it."

He put the pan down.

"You stood right there," I said, and pointed at the spot by the fridge. "Three years ago. My mother had been dead eight days, and you looked me in the face and said we would get him."

"I did."

"I counted on it. I went back to Sydney, and I counted on it every day. I waited for the phone."

"Victoria."

"The judge threw it out, and I found out from a news alert. Brice told me you'd been sorry, and that it wasn't your fault. And you never called me. Not once."

He took it.

He did not look away.

"I called twice," he said. "Both times I hung up before it rang."

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't say it. I couldn't tell you I'd lost him on a typo." His voice was low. "You'd asked me for one thing."

"I was alone in a cabin on a research ship, with a satellite phone and a news alert."

"I know."

"You don't know."

"No," he said. "I don't."

We sat there.

The eggs went cold.

"Tell me about Brice," he said finally. "When your mother died. What was he like?"

"Why?"

"I want to understand what he did to you."

I looked at my hands.

"He booked my flight home the same night. He was at the gate when I landed. He handled the funeral home, the flowers, the lawyer. He held me while I couldn't breathe."

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