Read Listed: Volume V for Free Online Page B

Emily said, hoping she was speaking lucidly. “Can I stay with you?”
    “Of
course.” Stacie reached down to help her up. “Come on. Let me get you out of
here.”
    Emily
leaned on Stacie until they’d reached her car. Then she slumped into the
passenger seat, still hugging her bag to her chest.
    “What
happened, Emily?” Stacie asked, as she pulled her car away from the curb. She’d
been parked quite illegally in a loading zone. “I thought you were married.”
    “I
was. I am. I was.” Emily rubbed her face and tried to think. Of course, Stacie
deserved an explanation. “It’s not working. I just need somewhere to stay.”
    “You
can stay with me.” Stacie glanced over at her. “I feel bad about never getting
in touch with you, after I heard…after I heard about everything. But I thought
you’d still be mad at me, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was…”
    “I
understand,” Emily mumbled, brushing away a few stray tears. She didn't even
know where they had come from. “It’s all right. I was going to call you anyway.
I was going to do it before I die.” She reached into her bag and pulled out her
folded list.
    After
she unfolded it, she put her finger under the second item from the bottom. It
said, “Make up with Stacie.”
    Stacie
had stopped at a traffic light, and she read what a twelve-year-old Emily had
written there. Her face twisted briefly. “Shit, Emily. You’re gonna make me cry
like a girl.”
    Emily
half-laughed, half-sobbed. “I’m sorry. I should have apologized a long time
ago.”
    “Me
too,” Stacie said, brushing at her eyes impatiently. Her smile was sharp and
almost teasing despite her obvious emotion. “I should have reached out to you.
I’ve always been the bigger person, after all, and I should be a role model for
you in maturity and beneficence.”
    Emily
huffed softly at her cousin’s attempt at humor and felt a little better.
    “So
why didn’t things work out with your husband? I was really surprised when I
heard you married him, since I always thought him a spoiled, entitled asshole,
but—”
    “No,”
Emily choked, glaring at Stacie in outrage. “He’s not . Don’t call him
that. He’s…he’s…wonderful.”
    Stacie’s
brows drew together. “Then why did you leave him?”
    Emily
shook her head and couldn’t answer. She just felt too bad to have this
conversation, and it hurt too much to think about.
    “We
can talk about it later,” Stacie murmured, evidently recognizing that Emily
wasn’t up to it. “You look like you feel like crap.”
    Crap
was an understatement, although her fever still hadn’t risen as much or as
quickly as it had during her last round of fever, just a few days ago.
    “It’s
gonna get bad, Stacie,” Emily mumbled, tossing her head restlessly against the
headrest. “Sorry to do this to you.”
    “Don’t
be sorry,” Stacie replied. “I want to help. I should have helped a long time
ago.”

Twelve
     
    Paul was just numb.
    His
emotions had taken such a battering in the last hour that he couldn’t seem to
feel anymore. He sat stiffly behind his desk in the office of the apartment and
tried to sort out options and possibilities in his head.
    It
was useless. His mind was a hopeless blank.
    For
long, agonizing minutes, he stared at his phone, which—over and over
again—didn't ring.
    He’d
been worried for Emily went she’d gotten up to use the bathroom in the restaurant
earlier. She wasn’t looking well. He’d been afraid she might be getting a
fever. When ten minutes passed and she hadn’t returned, he’d gone to ask the
hostess to check on her.
    The
other times he'd gotten someone to check on Emily in the restroom, she'd always
eventually emerged. This time was different.
    When
the hostess came out to say that no one was there, Paul had simply barged in.
That was when he’d seen her rings lying without explanation by the sink. That
was when his concern had shifted into bewildered panic.
    The
bodyguard