“I don’t want her money! What am I supposed
to do with it? She thinks she can repay me?
Never!”
Carol babbled incoherently, snatching the debit
<
11:25
card from Robert’s wallet, grabbing the
passbook and gold bars from the drawer, dropping them repeatedly in her haste.
47
“Ashley has cancer! I have to save her! I have to make sure she lives! I have to show her how
much I’m willing to sacrifice for her! She’ll see! She’ll see how much she owes me!”
“Stop it, Carol! You’ll lose something!” Robert tried to restrain her, but she was surprisingly strong, unyielding. Finally, he snapped.
“There’s nothing to save! She’s dead! She’s gone!”
Carol froze, staring at him, her eyes widening, filling with tears. She fumbled with her phone. “No! She just messaged me! Look! 1:16 PM! Just now! See?”
“Those were timed messages.” Robert picked up the dropped gold bar, wiped it clean, and
<
11:25
put it away, avoiding Carol’s eyes. His voice
was barely a whisper.
471
“We identified her body before New Year’s.
Don’t you remember?”
“That wasn’t Ashley!” That was a month ago.
Her Ashley couldn’t be gone. Carol shook her head, refusing to believe it. “That wasn’t what Ashley looked like!”
The face had been so unfamiliar. She didn’t recognize it.
Robert said, “She had a scar on her right pinky finger. From when she cut it on a wire when she was three. I saw it.”
He added, “I didn’t say anything at the time.
You were so sure it wasn’t her…”
Carol froze. She hadn’t looked at the hands.
But she still refused to believe it. “It wasn’t her.”
That wasn’t what Ashley looked like. They’d
only been apart for a few weeks. How could she
have gotten so thin?
Robert laughed, a hollow, bitter sound. “I
looked it up. People with stage IV lung cancer
lose a lot of weight. They can’t eat.” His job
loss had aged him. The realization that his
daughter was dead seemed to break him. He
looked at Carol, a mocking glint in his eyes. “Do
you even remember what Ashley looked like?”
“Of course…” Carol started to say, then
stopped.
She didn’t.
In her memory, Ashley was quiet, withdrawn,
always hiding in the shadows. Her long bangs
always covered her face. Carol used to tell her,
“You’re so young, but you have no spark.
You’re like a ghost.”
<
11:25
((
447)
She hadn’t really looked at Ashley during those last few weeks. Even when Ashley was talking
to her, sitting right in front of her. Her last memory was of Ashley’s face when she’d rushed home after the break–in. Ashley had been wearing heavy makeup. Carol had taken one look and turned away in disgust. “Ugly,”
she’d muttered.
“My Ashley…”
The blood drained from Carol’s face. A wave of cold washed over her, shattering her fragile
pride.
- 35.
They rushed to the morgue.
Ashley’s body had been cremated. Claimed by
someone who identified himself as her fiancé.
He’d apparently been cursing and yelling in the
morgue.
11:25
“How could you let someone else take her? She’s my daughter!” Carol cried.
The morgue attendant looked at them with
disdain, “You identified the body. You said it
wasn’t her. Don’t you recognize your own
daughter?”
