The exact moment when everything clicked was clearly evident on Sebastian’s face, which then flushed bright red in anger. “You thinkIkilled them?” he exploded, bounding to his feet. “That’s why you were lying to Aggie. You used her. You used my daughter because you want to prove that I'm a murderer. How dare you.”
“Are you?” Miller asked calmly.
“Am I what?”
“Are you a murderer?”
“That is a ridiculous question. My wives leftmenot the other way around. I still loved them, I wouldn’t hurt them.”
“Or, you were angry that they broke up with you,” Miller suggested. “Decided that if you couldn’t have them, then no one else could either.”
“Nonsense. I was already married again when Selene and Claudia were killed. You're clutching at straws.” He shot them a smug smirk.
“Two dead wives, another gone missing without a trace.”
“Coincidence.” Sebastian merely shrugged it off.
“Coincidence would be just two wives who happened to die. Not two wives who were killed in identical circumstances,” Nick reminded him.
“Then why are both of their cases closed? No one is looking for a serial killer. No one but you two.”
“When was the last time you saw Emily?” Nick wished there was a way to bring up that they knew he had photos of her on the walls of his house from after they were divorced, but he and Miller had illegally searched his house, there was no way to introduce that without implicating themselves.
“The day we signed the divorce papers.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Of course.”
“You're positive that you haven’t seen her since then? Think carefully, because if you lie to us and it comes out later on, then it won't look good for you.”
“Look, this is ludicrous, you're wasting my time. If you had anything to prove I'd done something wrong then you wouldn’t have been harassing my daughter, you would have just arrested me. I didn’t kill anyone. I have nothing to hide. Look into me all you want, but my exes’ deaths were nothing to do with me. If you want to waste time trying to prove I did something I didn’t then it’s your time to waste. I'm leaving. And you,” Sebastian jabbed a finger in his face, “stay away from my daughter.”
Nick wasn't going to do that. Hecouldn’tdo that. He needed to find a way to make things right with Aggie. Heneededher. He needed her more than she could ever understand.
* * * * *
6:46 P.M.
“Aggie, you have to eat.” Summer set a plate with a piece of toast on it down on the table in front of her.
Just the sight of food had her stomach revolting. She couldn’t eat. This was her typical post break-up routine. She would barely eat, barely sleep, barely function until the man was out of her system. Nick would be no different. Hewasno different from all the other dud men she had dated. He wasn't special. She hadn’t ever really loved him, she had just been enamored with him because he had been her knight in shining armor. At least she thought he had. But obviously she didn’t know how to read her own emotions or accurately read other peoples’. She would get over Nick.
Maybe if she kept telling herself that one day it would be true.
“At least drink some water, you must have cried out all your body’s fluids,” Summer joked lamely.
She offered up a weak smile because she knew her best friend was trying really hard to lift her spirits. Summer had stayed with her all day, and Aggie had appreciated her company more than she could put into words, but now she needed a little time alone. She needed to start at least attempting to sort out her feelings.
Taking a mouthful of water for the sole purpose of pacifying her friend, she said, “Summer, I …”
“You need some time alone,” her friend finished. “I don’t like it, but okay. I don’t want you staying alone tonight though. Either I can come and stay here, or you can stay at my place. Your choice.”
Aggie couldn’t spend the night here, sleeping in her bed after she had spent the night sleeping in it wrapped up in Nick’s arms. “I’ll stay at your place.”
“Okay. I want you at my apartment no later than ten o'clock or I'm coming to get you. Seriously, no silly stuff like last time where you nearly gave me a nervous breakdown,” Summer warned.
After getting her heart broken the last time, when her fiancé had broken their engagement following their rehearsal dinner, she had driven down to the lake. She had sat on the edge of the pier, with her feet dangling down into the icy water, and cried for hours. Exhausted, she must have drifted off because the next thing she knew it was morning. It had been late fall, and she wasn't dressed properly to spend the night outdoors, and she had still been shivering by the time she arrived back at her apartment. Summer, her father, and her brother had all been waiting for her, all frantic, all torn between being angry with her for going off on her own and not telling anyone, relief that she was okay, and sympathy for what her fiancé had done.