Page 93 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“No, I get that, but I think I should. You’re in good hands now. You don’t need me.”

He fought to swallow again. Damn annoying throat. “I do, you know. I always will.”

Therese looked wistful.“We’ll always have Paris.”

Noah barked out a laugh before rubbing his eyes. “You hated that movie.”

“It was Bergman. She was always so stoic. I just wanted to slap her.”She reached up to cup his cheek, and he told himselfhe felt the warmth of her hand against his skin.“If you ask me, Sam was the best character. He was dependable, creative, a greatpiano player.”She flashed him a mischievous grin.“So good with his fingers.”

He focused on breathing as he waited to be able to talk again. “Will I see you again?”

“You can see me whenever you want. All you have to do is close your eyes. After all”—Therese smiled widely—“I’m a figment of your imagination, right?”

“I-I hate letting you go.” His words came out as a growl. “Ihateit.”

“Would it help if I told you I was going to a better place?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I am. Atlantic City is far superior to Houston.”

His chuckle was weak and his vision had blurred. “No goodbyes,” he said fiercely.

“No.”Therese dropped her hand from his cheek.“I’d say, see you in Heaven, but it’s a bit trite.”She cocked her head to one side.“What happens when you love two people, and you all end up in Heaven? Do we have to share you? Is it a ménage à trois situation? Because I don’t roll that way.”

“When you find out, let me know.” He let out a breath. “This isn’t how I wanted life to go.”

“Me neither.”Therese glided toward the loft’s exit, as though she had to physically walk out of his life. As though seeing the last of her leave would somehow make it easier.“Have Annabelle put me in a book,”she called back to him.“In a sexy catsuit.”

He sniffed, nodding. “Will do.”

“I love you, Noah. Be happy,”she said, and then, she was gone.

Noah doubled over, the sight of her leaving for good a physical blow to his gut. He rubbed his hands over his face as hestumbled toward a stool at the breakfast bar. Once there, tears like razor blades sliced his cheeks as they fell. He wasn’t sure how long he sat with the raw, wrenching agony of their final goodbye, but eventually, he registered the loft door open.

He sat up straight, sniffing as he blinked away the last of his tears. Rodrigo appeared on the other side of the kitchen island and set a bottle of Scotch and two glasses on the counter between them.

“I was watching the cameras,” he said as he poured them each a drink.

Noah didn’t reply, and they silently drank together.

Chapter Thirty-One

Noah spent his morning watching over Annabelle while she ran another online art session with his sons. Hearing their joy as he paced the loft made him feel more complete than he had in years. The hushed murmur of their voices, their laughter, all wove together to make him feelhome. It was a sense of rightness and belonging that’d been missing since Therese died, and he hoped she was there with their sons, enjoying the lesson too.

If ghosts even existed outside of his head.

After lunch, yet another street-food find by the triplets, Noah left Annabelle safely ensconced in the small office on the second floor, going over her testimony with the assistant district attorney. Today’s visit was a little different in that the ADA had brought along a technician with a boatload of specialist audiovisual equipment to trial.

The new setup had made their resident geek giddy at the sight of it. Designed to take highly sensitive court testimony at a distance, it was supposedly impervious to hacking and physical tampering. Of course, telling a hacker something was hack-proof was like waving a red flag to a bull, and it’d taken Evan exactlyten minutes to get the ADA to officially invite him to test the system. He hadn’t stopped grinning since.

But before Evan could run off to his happy place, Rochelle asked for a debrief on their progress with Eddie Hanson’s money.

“We think we’ve found all of Eddie’s personal money and most of the Demons’ accounts too.” Impatience rendered Evan unable to sit still. “And, with Abasi’s help, we finished taking it this morning. Go us!” He held up his hand for a high five. Abasi just stared at it until Evan dropped it again.

“How much are we looking at?” Rochelle asked, her elbows resting on the desk in front of her.

Evan bounced in his chair. “Close to forty million.”