of apprehension, she dropped into a seat next to the small round table tucked in the corner of his room. Her heart was beating too fast, and she took several deep breaths in order to bring her pulse down.
“Who were those men following you?” Nate asked, his tone soft but firm.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I’ve never seen either of them before in my life.”
Nate’s mouth thinned as if he wasn’t sure he believed her. “Okay, then why were they following you?”
“I don’t know that, either,” she said. When his face tightened in anger, she knew she’d have to tell him something. “Listen, Nate, you need to understand, all of this started a long time ago.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “I’m listening.”
She licked her suddenly dry lips. “You remember how I waitressed at the restaurant back in high school, right?”
Nate nodded. “At El Matador, which is still there, believe it or not.”
Still in Brookmont, the elite suburb of Milwaukee that she and Nate had once called home.
The thought of the upscale restaurant being there all these years later was not reassuring. Did it continue to be a meeting point for the upper echelon of Brookmont? Or had they moved their little clique somewhere different after that fateful night?
“Melissa, what happened back then? What caused you to move away and change your name?” Nate asked.
“Something terrible occurred the night after graduation,” she said.
Nate nodded slowly. “Go on,” he encouraged her.
She couldn’t for the life of her find the words to explain in a way that didn’t give away the entire truth. The silence stretched painfully long between them.
“I heard about the drugs that were found in your room,” Nate finally said. “I didn’t want to believe that you were an addict, but your father admitted that he sent you to rehab.”
She snapped her head up to stare at Nate. “You believed that?” she asked in an agonized whisper. “Even though we spent every free moment we could together, you still believed that?”
“You weren’t here to tell me otherwise,” Nate said, accusation lacing his tone. “What was I supposed to think? You disappeared and I never heard from you again, not one letter in response to all the ones I sent you.”
She blinked in surprise. “What letters?”
Nate’s gaze narrowed. “The letters I gave your father to send to you. He wouldn’t give me your address, but he agreed to send you my letters. I kept waiting and waiting to hear back from you, but I never did.”
Melissa’s entire body went numb, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” Nate challenged her. “For leaving without saying goodbye? For not even trying to get in touch with me? I commuted to college my first year because I was afraid you wouldn’t find me when you came back. But you never did.”
The anguish in Nate’s voice lashed at her like a whip. It wasn’t her fault that she’d been forced to leave, but he’d been deeply hurt by her actions nonetheless. And why hadn’t her father passed along his letters? Had her father been afraid that Nate would come after her?
Looking at Nate now, she knew that was exactly what he would have done.
“Well?” he demanded in a harsh tone.
She glanced over her shoulder at the open connecting door between their rooms. “Not so loud, or Hailey will hear.”
Nate’s jaw tightened with anger, and she knew that there was no way of getting around the fact that he needed to hear a portion of her story.
“I was working at the restaurant the night after graduation. In fact, I was scheduled to close. It was pretty busy. The place was packed, but as the hour grew later, there were only a few tables left. A group at one table in particular lingered, so I was trying to get as much of the cleanup work done as possible.” She paused, shivering at the memory of what transpired that night.
“Go on,” Nate urged.
“I cleaned out the large coffeepots in the back room, and then I hauled some garbage out to the dumpsters. Usually the dishwasher does that, but he was busy, and I was anxious to leave.”
“To meet me,” Nate said in a quiet voice.
She bit her lip and nodded, remembering the plans they’d made long ago. “Yes, to meet you.”
“So what stopped you from coming?”
“I couldn’t lift the garbage bag, so I set it against the Dumpster and was about to go back inside when I heard raised voices. The Dumpster was located not far from the alley, so I went over to investigate. The yelling grew louder, and I should have left. To this day, I wish I had followed my instinct to run away.”
Nate’s expression grew grim. “What did you see?”
“Five men arguing. I recognized them from the restaurant. They were the ones who had been lingering at the table in my section. In fact, I’d waited on them. I was trying to figure out why they were hanging around when one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed the guy across from him in the stomach. I was so surprised, I didn’t move. Even after he fell to the ground, blood pooling beneath him, I still didn’t really understand what had happened. Not until the man with the knife happened to glance in my direction.” Melissa drew in a harsh breath and forced herself to meet Nate’s gaze. “That’s when I knew that he’d recognized me.”
Nate stared at her in horror. “Are you saying you witnessed a murder?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. And I think it’s obvious that the man responsible is determined to silence me once and for all.”
Unbelievable. Nate stared at Melissa, stunned by her revelation. He’d imagined dozens of scenarios in the long months after she’d disappeared, but never anything remotely like what she’d just described.
Yet even knowing that she’d witnessed a murder didn’t explain everything. Why had she decided simply to disappear? Why hadn’t she called the police for help? Or talked to him about what she’d seen?
“And the drugs that were found in your bedroom?” he forced himself to ask.
“Planted, as a way to discredit me.” Melissa’s expression was full of hurt. “A ploy that worked, since you fell for it just like everyone else probably did.”
Nate couldn’t ignore the flash of guilt. Twelve years ago, he hadn’t wanted to believe the girl he’d loved had been a secret addict, but what else was he to think when her father had looked him straight in the eye and explained that she’d been sent to rehab? It wasn’t
