Hunter briefly glanced toward our right and let out a sigh. “Shit,” he muttered. “My great uncle is on his way over to my mom. I better go and rescue her. Will you be okay by yourself for aminute?”
I nodded. “Sure. What’s wrong with your greatuncle?”
“Nothing, really, but he’s always annoyed the shit out of Mom. She’s too polite to walk away from him,though.”
I smiled faintly. “I see. Go save her,then.”
He let go of my arm and strode over to a spot beneath a gnarled tree, where his mother was standing with a few other black-clad memorial serviceguests.
I turned my eyes back to the mausoleum and slowly headed toward it, chest aching with emotion. In my left hand, I held a wreath. When I reached the top of the steps that led into the tomb, I knelt down and propped it up against the smooth wall, well away from the harshelements.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out Lindsay’s necklace. Then I placed it inside the wreath, letting the pendant dangle over the pale pink and whiteflowers.
“I wish I got to meet you in person while you were still here,” I murmured. “But I’m still glad we met online and had all those great talks. I really missthat.”
“Hey,Laney.”
I looked up to see Trina standing behind me. “Hi,” I said, rising to my feet. “Thanks forcoming.”
She gave me a watery smile. “Wouldn’t miss it,” she replied. She put her hands in her pockets and glanced around the cemetery. “I think it’s really nice how they’ve put on a second memorial service for her, now that we know what really happened toher.”
“Metoo.”
She looked back at me, brows knitted. “How’s Adamdoing?”
“He’s still in the ICU,” I said, stomach lurching at the thought of him. “He probably won’t be out for another fewmonths.”
“I still can’t believe he survived thatfall.”
“Me neither,” I said, shaking myhead.
It was sheer luck that saved Adam in the end. One of the gardeners had been working on the western side of the property that day, and they’d left a huge pile of raked leaves and trimmings from bushes and hedges in the courtyard next to the garden. That pile of foliage had saved Adam’s life when he landed on it—but onlyjust.
After such a long fall, he was still terribly injured. Over half the bones in his body were broken, including several parts of his spine, and the trauma to his head was so bad that he had to be placed in an inducedcoma.
He would remain in that coma while the swelling in his skull subsided, and when he came out of it, he wouldn’t be the same Adam. The doctors had told us that he would never be able to speak again due to all the damage to certain parts of his brain. He probably wouldn’t be able to retain very many new memories, either, and he would suffer from drastically-reduced information processing for the rest of hislife.
On top of that, he was paralyzed from the neck down. He would never walk again, and he would always need a mechanical ventilator to help himbreathe.
Trina rubbed the sides of her arms as she shivered in the cold wind. “Is it horrible for me to say that he got what he deserved?” she asked in a low voice. “Like, if he died when he fell from the roof, it’d be an easy way out for him. Do you get what Imean?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Ido.”
“Obviously he can never go to a real prison for what he did, considering the circumstances, but he’s essentially trapped in his own body now. Trapped in a hell of his own making for the rest of his life. That’s just as bad as prison.” She shuddered and rubbed her arms again. Then she let out a soft groan. “God, I’m terrible for saying all of that, aren’tI?”
“No, I get it.” I touched her arm and smiled faintly. “You aren’t the first person to say that he got what was coming to him after everything hedid.”
She glanced around the cemetery. “Who’s going to look after him once he’s out?” she asked. “Or is he going to some sort of institution for incapacitatedcriminals?”
“Tinsley Connery is going to take care of him,” I said, gesturing over to Hunter’smom.
“Really?”
“Yeah. We thought the news of Adam being a murderer would make her spiral again, but she’s actually doing really well,” I said. “She’s left rehab now, and she’s living at the mansionagain.”
Trina’s brows rose. “And she’s okay with looking after Adam, even though he killedLindsay?”
I nodded. “I think she feels partially responsible for the way he turned out, so now she sees it as her job to care forhim.”