License to Love (34 page)

“So once again, Bev, why did you call me down here to tell
me? If Alicia needs to talk to me, she will.” Molly started to see Bev took
extra pleasure in hurting her.

“Why don’t you stay there? You’ll ruin David’s marriage if
you come back.” Bev hung up on her.

Ruin David’s marriage? Could Bev actually care and worry
that much about him? Or did she just want Molly to stay in California and let
Trent return alone?

So now what could she do? She considered calling Alicia,
asking if it were true about his dead fiancé and about him making Alicia
choose.

She heard Trent’s footsteps and realized he’d gone to the
bathroom and maybe missed all of the conversation. She could always ask him
about David’s fiancé.

He came into the room with the words, “Was that important?”
She shook her head and he went on, “I don’t want to rush things, but we need to
find out what’s in those filing cabinets.”

Since she wasn’t ready to tell him what she’d just learned,
she nodded. Maybe they could discuss it downstairs while they searched through
papers.

“You can’t possibly think there’s another bomb shell waiting
for us, do you?” she asked. If only he knew just how many bombshells had
exploded that day. Her mind whizzed in too many directions, so she let it all
go for the moment. For now, she let him take her hand and pull her towards the
basement door.

One glance at her face told Trent that Molly had something
on her mind. Of course, there was a lot going on for them to think about.
Apparently the shooting was bothering her still. He flicked the light on before
going down the stairs first. He’d considered telling her the rest about them,
maybe downstairs, but not if something else was bothering her. “Are you doing
okay?”

“I’m still
shaky, but okay.
You must have nerves of steel to keep your cool like that.”

“I need it for my job.” He’d been through tough training,
not just from his job, but from life. After losing Molly, there were times when
he thought it wouldn’t be so bad if a bullet took him out. Then he would remind
himself he might find her again.

He went right to the file cabinet. “It’s locked.”

Molly sighed, but Trent went to work on the lock with the
tools he found by the basement door. She peeked in a few boxes while he worked,
looking like she was thinking more than looking.

“There.” He slid it open, but didn’t flip through the files.
“Would you like to look first?”

“I ought to, right?” She stepped closer and he rubbed her
shoulders and back. This would be a great time to fill her in. “Thanks, I
needed that. These are just financial and medical records, taxes, business
papers. I wonder why they locked this.”

“People tend to lock up their financials and health records.
Are the files properly labeled?”

“What do you mean?” she asked while she pulled out a paper
from a file labeled 1985 taxes. “Yup.” She closed that drawer and opened
another one, finding more years. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Well, most cases aren’t solved in a day.” He stepped closer
and quickly flipped through the files, then pointed to 1990, which looked twice
as thick as the others. It appeared her parents kept excellent records so he
guessed they’d find answers to at least one of their questions in there.

“Aha.” She pulled it out and flipped it open on top of the
cabinet. She pushed aside the year’s tax papers and found newspaper articles
from Ridge City about their disappearance. “They did know about the havoc we
left behind.” He held her arms still and read over her shoulder. After reading
a couple of the articles she glanced at him with sadness in her eyes.

“What’s behind those?” he pressed, wanting to see the white
papers underneath. It’d be good for Molly to read the articles in depth to fill
in the events four years ago, but he knew that story by heart. He held his
breath as she picked up the article clippings to reveal a packet of official
papers.

Molly froze.

Trent read the paper and wanted to grab it, but she knew
already.
How did her parents get those?
He’d looked all over …. That
didn’t matter now. Damnit, this answered a big question for Molly, but he
should have told her. This wasn’t right.

“Trent?” He heard both hurt and confusion in her voice which
sounded close to tears.

“Mol.” Somehow he’d need to explain, fast, because she
couldn’t miss the big diamond ring taped to their marriage license. He stood
behind her so he couldn’t see her face, her reaction, and probably her anger.

Trying to tell her about their marriage went on the back
burner when he realized she might truly be in danger. Since the day he saw her
in Ridge City, he ached to confess how much he loved her, missed her, wanted to
hold her forever and ever, and share everything: their love, eloping, and
dreams for their future together. How do you tell that to someone who can’t
remember you?

Would she understand that?

The silence grew.

What could she be thinking?

He’d hurt her in the worst way and vowed he’d never hold
anythin
g from her a
gain. No more wimping out,
waiting for the right moment, procrastinating. What had he been thinking?
Alicia was right:
spineless
.

He saw her hand shaking on the papers before she turned and
looked at him through her tears. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The quiet, slow way she asked seemed worse than an angry
yell, but at least she was giving him a chance to explain.

“I didn’t know how you’d react.” Speaking proved hard as he
stared at her. “I’ve been scared to tell you, like it’d take the choice away
from you. It’s been four years. I thought you might not want this anymore. I
just couldn’t face that.”

“We’re married.” The way she looked at him, he thought she
was taking him in again, like it was the first time. “You’re my husband.”

“Everything’s coming at you so fast. I wanted you to
remember slowly. But today, I realized someone might want to hurt you. I wanted
to get to the bottom of this.” He waited, painfully, but she didn’t speak. “I
was wrong. I knew it on the way down from Ridge City, knew I should have told
you. That made it even harder.”

“So when
did
you plan to tell me?”

“When you remembered more.” That second it hit him. He’d
been waiting for her to remember. If she remembered, maybe that meant she
wanted it. However, his logic didn’t hold up for him now. “I thought maybe you
would remember more of our relationship, remember that I proposed.”

Her shock gave way to anger, and she paced the small floor.
Trent expected her to turn at any minute and throw a punch into his face. He
wanted her to. It’d make him feel better.

“Everyone kept this from me?”

“No.” He stepped closer, hoping she wouldn’t run out of the
room with only half the story. “We were planning our wedding, and wanted to run
off to Reno. So we did. We took a few days coming back, planning to surprise
everyone, and we spent the first day home resting from the trip. We hadn’t
slept much.” If the situation weren’t so serious, he’d probably blush as he
remembered how they spent those few days together.

“And?”

“Then you were gone.
” He felt his
face drain of color. He
tried to swallow before going on, but his throat
was completely dry. Thinking about that day left him feeling like he couldn’t
breathe. “You were going to run to your house and pick up a few things.”

“I was gone, just gone?”

“I called your house after a
couple hours – no answer. Alicia hadn’t seen you in five days, since we’d been
out of town. I ran by the store and around town on my way to your house and saw
your car. Plus two police cars. People. Everyone whispering. When I arrived,
everyone turned and stared at me. We looked everywhere. Called everywhere. No
one saw anything.”

As hard as it was to tell her this, he could see she had a
hard time listening. Her breathing came in quick intakes.

“I can’t do this.” Her voice rose to a shrill pitch while
she threw up her hands. “The world’s coming at me like I’m a boxing bag. What
gives?”

“Mol.” He held his hand out to her. “I’ll do anything to
help, to make this better.”

She whirled mid step while pacing to stare at him. “This? Or
everything? Look at my life, Trent.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you suffered, too. I know.” Tears clogged her eyes
and emotion stuffed her throat. “We all did. But it just keeps going. I lost my
parents before I knew them again. I find out I lost an entire life. Before I
thought I didn’t have much, but I found you and Alicia.”

Wasn’t that her happy ending? That she’d found them again?

“Don’t be sad about all of it,” he pleaded, knowing they’d
lost a lot but couldn’t get it back. “You found your life again. Seeing you
again ... that’s all I need. Knowing you’re safe. Being with you.”

“Safe.” She wiped at her face. “I am glad you’re here. It
does make me feel a lot safer, but everything else feels so messed up. Bev
called today.”

“That was Bev?” The very name made his stomach churn. They
did not need anything else to complicate this for them.

“She said David wants Alicia to choose between him and me.”

“That weasel, if he did.” Trent stopped, not believing that
David would do that to his wife. Everyone needed friends outside of their
spouse. “Bev could be making it up. I’d bet she is.”

Molly paced again. “Did you know he was engaged before?”

Tren
t looked a bit shocked and s
hook
his head, wondering why this was connected to their present conversation, to
their marriage license. He guessed the world really was crashing down on Molly,
jumbling her mind. “I met him after he and Alicia started dating. So I suppose
there are things about his life we wouldn’t know.”

“So you don’t know that his fiancé died?” She told him what
little information she’d gotten about it.

“According to Bev?”

“She’s his cousin, right?” Molly asked. He nodded but
planned to call David about it and help Molly work this out. He wanted to help
his sister and her husband as well. This must have caused some of their
difficulties.

“Things won’t stay like this.” He stepped closer. “Listen,
Alicia won’t do this. She’ll make him understand. And I’m sure she knows if she
turns her back on you, she’s turning her back on me, too.”

“She’s your sister. I don’t want to be the cause of that.”

“You aren’t. Bev and David are. I know we can work it all
out. Everyone involved cares about each other. No one would want a division
like that.” He suddenly wondered how Molly felt about Alicia being his sister
and also how David and Bev were related. She’d come into Ridge City and walked
into a complicated situation. The group of friends was partly based on family ties,
and even if Molly had known that growing up, it was new to her this time.

“I’ve caused a lot of problems. I know what’s going on with
your job, how people blamed you for my family’s disappearance.”

“That’s right,
other
people. A lot of other people are
causing problems while we’re just trying to solve the case and get your memory
back.” He stepped close enough to take her hand. “I care about what you think,
just you.”

“Trent, I could mess your whole life up. I have already.”

“I get to decide that,” he said, steady. “We’re in it for
the long haul whether or not you like it.”

After a minute of simply looking at him, she pulled in a
deep breath and started for the door. “I can’t ruin everything.”

“Mol, no –”

“I think I need to ... need to get some breathing room,
think things through. I’m going up to my room.”

He watched her leave and didn’t move. His vision went black
and he had to grab hold of something to give him balance. Other people
shouldn’t be able to whisper those old rumors, not with her back. Just like
that day she’d first disappeared, he felt like he was falling uncontrollably
into a great, black abyss. Like the most important part of his life was
slipping away.

So now she knew everything. Up in her room, Molly paced
behind her shut door. She wanted to call someone, Karen or Alicia, but didn’t
reach for her phone. If only her parents were alive so she could demand some
answers. Tell them how angry she felt over everything. Tell them how she missed
them.

She fell backward onto the bed and covered her face. Well,
she’d gone to Ridge City looking for answers. She found Trent. A few memories.
And now she found out she was married.

Yeah, she was mad he hadn’t told her, but she wasn’t sure
how she felt about the actual fact that they were married.

“Molly Avery Williams. Mrs. Williams.” She tried it out and
felt excitement run through her. She wanted to remember eloping. No, she wanted
to be mad at him. What right did he have not telling her something so
consequential?
Something
that might have brought her memory back. He could have told her the day he
stepped out into the police station lobby. He could have said, “Molly Anderson?
I mean, Molly Williams? I’m your husband.”

They’d driven all the way down here to discover something
Trent could have simply told her.

Yet, it didn’t. It didn’t bring her memory back. She wished
she would have brought the ring upstairs with her so she could try it on.
Seeing that it fit might make it feel more real – prove to her that she’d worn
it before.

She tried to picture it, hoping for a memory, and saw a
movie of Trent looking for her, calling around. Just married, and missing his
bride. What had he thought? And no one knew they were married. She saw why he
chose not to tell people about their marriage after she disappeared.

Molly didn’t like the feelings that came with that thought.
It muddled things up.