June looked up from her painting when she heard a knock. Julian was sleeping over at Sawyer's to watch a game with James but Thomas had told her he'd drop by.
« Come in ! » She called out feeling a warm feeling spread in her abdomen in anticipation. The door opened. « Just let me clean up, » she turned with a soft smile on her face but froze as she turned her head and met her daughter's hard eyes. June let her pencil drop and gasped. « H-hey, » she tried hesitantly before running her hands down her clothes to smooth out any crease and quickly raised a hand to comb her messy hair.
« Dad wants me to talk to you, » Elizabeth told her impassively and stood still in the living room on the other side of the sofa.
« You don't have to, » June's eyes softened on her daughter whose whole body screamed unease.
« I want to talk to you »
June felt her lips stretch until it hurt and could barely hold back the tears though she managed to keep herself under control.
« Of course, » she hurried to clean up the mess on the sofa with shaky hands. « Please, sit down. Would you like anything to eat ? To drink ? I have some- »
« Let's just talk, » Elizabeth cut her off and sat down on one end of the sofa.
June gulped and sat down immediately, desperate not to annoy her daughter in any way. Now that she was finally here… She had to be irreproachable. Her body trembled with emotions and she almost didn't blink in her eagerness to capture this picture of her daughter sitting here, in her house with her.
« Let's go over what I know about you, » Elizabeth turned toward her and met her eyes. June paused at the cold look she caught in them but nodded. « Your mother was a prostitute and you never met your dad. Correct ? »
« Yes, » June gulped around the lump of apprehension forming in her throat. But if her daughter needed to go over her whole life and rummage through her traumas to understand her, she'd gladly lay herself bare open in front of her.
« You were neglected and grew up in misery here with your drunken neighbor as sole company. »
« It- »
« You met dad at fifteen, » her daughter wasn't asking question anymore. She was reciting the story. « He was seventeen, older, handsome, nice and came from a much better family than yours. You kept seeing him even after he graduated and went to community college here. It was all hearts and sunshine. »
« Ye-»
« Until he got tired of you. » June froze and her daughter really started. « You were too clingy and needy. He couldn't breathe, wanted out of the relationship but you couldn't bear it. Everyone told you you acted crazy, Ma begged you to go away but you wouldn't listen- »
« No, I- »
« You couldn't let the only person who ever gave you any drop of attention go. But he didn't just leave you, no he moved on to someone better. Kelly Benson was everything you weren't. Pretty, popular, came from an amazing family with rich, loving parents. »
« Eliz- » June breathed out her name pleadingly.
« And she bullied you at school. Now that you went back to being trailer trash without dad's reputation, she started picking on you again. Everyone did. And the anger grew. Dad wouldn't see you when you came knocking, crying at his door. He turned away and left you to bear it alone. It got worse and worse until you couldn't bear it anymore. So on a night you knew her parents would be away… You went over. You begged her to let him go, to give him back though it wasn't her fault dad had chosen her over you. »
« Please, st- »
« You had just learned about your pregnancy and it felt so unfair to be robbed of your dream family so close to it. But she wouldn't listen so you left. You went to get some fuel and came back. This time you weren't asking anymore. »
« No, » June cried. « No- »
« You took a knife from the kitchen, walked into the living room where she was watching TV, slid behind her in silence and slit her throat open, » her daughter made the gesture with her thumb. « But it wasn't enough, you were still mad, you needed more. So you went around and stabbed her. Again and again and again. You drove the knife through her chest. But it still wasn't enough so you stabbed again. Her abdomen this time. Her ribs. Her legs. Her arms. Sixty-five times. You needed her to suffer. She might have already been dead by the time you finished. »
« Stop… » June cried softly.
« But then you heard something. You looked up. Her damn little sister stood here watching you. She was seven years old and as curious as a child was at that age. She was frozen in place when you hit her over the head with something heavy. What was it ? A book ? One of those glass trinket rich people like collecting ? Whatever it was it took her out and you were free to pour the fuel around the house. You wanted a grand exit. Thomas had to suffer for what he did to you. So you stood amongst the flame and waited for death. But the little girl woke up and ran out. You had to stop her. You ran after her but before you could do anything, the firemen arrived. And you were done for. »
« No, » June sobbed, her shoulders shaking with the force of it. « I didn't do it. I didn't. »
« Here. We've talked now. Happy ? » Elizabeth wiped angry tears away and stood up. « I never want to do it again. »
June couldn't do anything but sob as her daughter left.
She was still sobbing when Thomas arrived. He begged her to tell him what was wrong but she couldn't pull herself together and he could only hold her while she emptied herself of tears and passed out in his arms.
—
« No, no, no ! » The girl covered in blood repeated and shook her tiny body to wake her up.
Beatrice's head hurt as she fought to open her eyes.
« Good, » the girl sobbed and wrapped her thin arms around her small body. She grunted as she picked her up. It was only then that Beatrice noticed the flames. She started coughing hard and the girl raised her stained, wet teeshirt to cover her mouth. It felt cold and gross against the child's face but it helped. « Hang on, » the girl smiled down at her through her tears and coughed. « I'll get you out of here. »
Beatrice didn't know why but she trusted her and wrapped her tiny, shaking hand around the teenager's neck. It was hard and so hot, but they managed to make it out of the house.
« Thank god, » the blond fell down on the grass next to the child she had just saved and passed out.
Beatrice felt strangely calm as she reached out to hold the unconscious girl's hand in comfort. They couldn't get her anymore. She felt safe.
They stood like that for an unknown amount of time that felt both extremely long and insanely short. The fire department siren suddenly became loud and close and the blond girl jerked awake. Beatrice smiled up at the relieved face of her saviour.
She didn't understand what happened next. In a blur, police officers had jumped on the lost teenager and kept her face down against the cold, wet grass. Beatrice met her scared, confused eyes before her parents ran and picked her up in their familiar arms.
Beatrice woke up slowly, peacefully emerging from her sleep for once. Her face was dry. It didn't last long.
She started sobbing soon after as she digested the unlocked memory.
June had saved her. June had fucking saved her.
—
She had to move away.
It came to her naturally over the months. Julian was graduating in a month and hesitated between the local college to stay close to home and moving away to discover new things. He seemed to lean toward the first option but whatever he ended up choosing, June knew her time in Tarmain was over.
She wouldn't be ungrateful. She had close to two wonderful years during which she made the most of every second she spent with her son and moving didn't mean she wouldn't see him anymore. She would move heaven and earth, live in a car even, if she could see her son at least once a month. He was an incredibly thoughtful child but she didn't want to hold him back while he enjoyed the start of his adult life. And nothing else held her back here.
Her treacherous heart tightened at the thought, calling her out on the lie.
Of course, in a perfect world, in a parallel universe in which she wasn't accused of murder, she would pin him down, confess that she couldn't live without him and make him uphold his promise to marry her.
As it was, these thoughts only reminded her how mad her love for him was and how badly she needed to keep it to herself.
Thomas would understand. He was probably halfway through working her out of his skin by now and he'd move on. Like he had before.
And Elizabeth.
Her daughter would breathe again. She would finally be free of her shadow. It was all that mattered.
A warm hand slid up to cup her naked breast and she chuckled at the hardness poking her in the thigh.
« Morning, » he mumbled sleepily in her ear and kissed the sensible patch of skin right underneath.
« Good morning, » she greeted back.
« What are you thinking about so hard at such unholy hour ? » He asked sleepily and started to grind against her.
« It's already four, » she avoided the question and she knew he noticed it but she didn't give him time to linger on it and rolled them over to straddle him. « Let's get the day started, » she smiled down at him and leaned down to kiss him.
She had to make the most of the time she had left. Because he'd move on but she would only have those few stolen memories to keep her warm for the rest of her life.
—
Thomas sat down and stared at his phone.
« I wouldn't mind some help, » his teammate groaned and fought off an assaillant.
He knew what she had planned of course. He followed her bank transaction and looked through her internet history. He knew exactly what that silly, infuriating minx had planned.
« Oswald ! » Another teammate shouted in panic.
Thomas stood up with a sigh and took a second to look once more at the picture he had put as his wallpaper. June's face was bright as she laughed at something Julian was saying. Her hair were down and blew around with the wind. His son had sent him the picture during a hiking trip he took with his mother.
As if he'd allow her to leave him.
« Fuck ! » He heard one of his men groan in pain and finally stepped in.
The guys had the decency to look embarrassed at their mediocrity when he put an end to the fight in under half an hour. They left him alone on the flight back home while he checked his mail. June's birthday was coming up soon and he had ordered the french jeweler to make a pair of earrings to go with the bracelet she never took off.
It warmed his heart every time he saw it on her wrists. A mark of ownership. She didn't need to know that in fact the diamonds were very real. And very expensive. So was the platinum he had the bracelet made out of. And it was alright that she still hadn't noticed the tiny letters around three of the small flowers. One carried his name. Two others their children's.
He went home and found the twins preparing dinner together. Thomas could never thank his son enough for the patience and compassion he showed his sister. He hurt at everything she did to their mother but never gave her up and didn't allow her to lock herself up in her room with her dark thoughts. They both remembered her junior school years. It had been an awful time.
« Hey kiddo, » he pecked his daughter on the head before moving to hug Julian too.
« We're making shawarma, » she told him softly, still subdued around him after her last outburst.
« That sounds great. »
Dinner went well and Thomas waited until Lizzy excused herself before calling his son over to his home office.
« Let's go through your notes, » he didn't beat around the bush.
« What ? » Julian's eyes widened.
« Let's not act here, » he leaned back in his chair. « I'd like to go see your mom as soon as possible so get everything now. »
« Dad… Are we… ? » Julian trailed off with a dubious frown.
« We're opening the case again, » Thomas looked his son straight in the eyes.
He smiled to himself at the excited, smothered sounds that came out of his son's throat before he ran out to get everything from his bedroom. He knew his son well enough to know he'd never let it go after believing his mother was innocent and Sawyer also warned him that someone from the area had cracked into the police server. Julian was good, but not enough to slip under Sawyer's radar.
« Someone killed Kelly Benson, » his son summed up after they had reviewed everything together and his son had pointed out the loopholes nobody had lingered on. « We just need to find who. »
« They needed motives, » Thomas read over June's testimony again and again. « There is something, » he said after a while. « I don't know what to do with it but … »
« Tell me, » Julian leaned over with rapt attention.
« Kelly and I… » He started and cut himself off with a frown. Trying to place the piece into the puzzle but unable to. « We never really got together. »
« What ? » Julian tilted his head in confusion. « Dad, I really don't want to know about your sex- »
« No, not at all, » he insisted and saw the understanding slowly down on his son's face. « I never meant to leave your mother. When Pa and Ma insisted to drag me around every social gatherings, I figured I should find anyone, kiss once or twice in front of them and they'll see that I wasn't as crazy as my father… » Thomas stared at the paper in his hands but he didn't see it anymore, he was looking at a scene eighteen years in the past.
June stood at his grandparents' door, watching in shock as he stepped out with Kelly on his toes. She started crying and Thomas had the urge to run up to her and gather her in his arms. He couldn't bear to see her suffer. But Pa was here, just behind them, watching. So he let Kelly slid her hand into his own and smirk down at June who looked like he had just pulled her heart out of her chest.
« Thomas… » She forced through her trembling mouth. « What's going on ? »
« I think we need some time apart, » he repeated the line he had learned by heart in an emotionless voice despite the war going on inside his body.
« What… ? » She looked so small and confused as he looked down at her from the three steps he stood on. She had never looked so fragile.
« We're together now, » Kelly held up their joined hands to show her.
« B-but… » June turned to look him in the eyes, begging him to refute her claim, to explain, to speak. But he couldn't. He was afraid he'd crumble if he opened his mouth.
He tightened his hold around Kelly's fingers when she wouldn't stop talking about how he had moved on and he was better off with her, but she kept talking until June ran away choking on loud, heartwrenching sobs.
Thomas remember passing by his sad looking Pa and dragging Kelly up to his room. He pulled his hand free as soon as the door was closed and turned to seethe at her.
« Calm down, » she yawned and went to sit on his bed. The sight so wrong it turned his stomach. « I have to do this since you won't pull in the work. Who could you convince when you look at her as though she hung the moon ? »
« Shut up, » he glared and went to sit at his desk.
« We have an agreement. I need this to be believable too, » she reminded him.
Thomas blinked himself back to the present.
« But I couldn't bring myself to do it, » he admitted to his silent son. « I was about to give up, frightened that I was proving them all right but unable to bear through, when she approached me. »
« Why ? » Julian gaped at the revelation.
« She had someone she loved too. I don't know who but from what she told me her parents wouldn't approve. We got each other. We each were head over heels in love against our family's opinion. She offered a sweet deal : pretend we got together, keep the act up for long enough to get everyone off our back and go back to our respective lovers in peace afterward. »
« Fuck dad ! » Julian shouted. « That's huge ! Why did you not tell the police ? »
« I did, » Thomas sighed and ran a hand on his exhausted face.
« It's not in the reports ! »
« The Bensons wiped every mention of it. »
« Why did you let them ?! »
« Because they had just learned their deceased daughter had been lesbian and seventeen years ago it was a lot bigger of a matter than it is now. They didn't want everyone to learn that detail and focus the tragedy around this, they wanted to carry her into church with her memory intact ! »
« But the lover has to be the culprit ! How could you not see that ? » Julian cried out.
« Because absolutely every fucking thing pointed to your mother. »
« Fuck, we have to find her, » Julian put his head in his hands. « Let's go over the files again. »
Thomas wanted to leave, he ached to be with June right now but he remained and worked along his son. They couldn't be sure about this new trail but now that he looked back on everything, far from the time his emotions had been high and much more mature, he owed it to her to work through every single trail, no matter how insignificant.