Love is Murder by Sandra Brown

ignore.
    Mother moved in with me. A temporary situation, she said, until I got back to my old self—although I had to wonder which of us would determine exactly when that moment had arrived. She was using every weapon in her passive-aggressive arsenal to let me know that she was the expert here, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I might never be rid of her.
    Then, on a cold Tuesday afternoon, while Mother was out getting her hair done, my phone rang, and after a long moment of indecision, I answered it, knowing full well who it would be.
    “It’s so amazing to hear your voice,” he said. “You’re all I’ve been able to think about.”
    “Leave me alone, David.”
    “I’ve missed you, babe. You don’t know how much I—”
    “Please,” I said, “you need to stop calling me. I’ve got nothing for you anymore.”
    But if I was honest with myself, that was a lie. This brief conversation alone had sparked something inside me. Something intangible. Irrational. I suddenly felt giddy and alive again, the way I had always felt when I was around David, Mother be damned.
    “Come see me, babe. Let me explain. I didn’t do what they say I did. I swear on my father’s grave that everyone has it wrong. Including you.”
    The invocation of his long-deceased father didn’t come lightly. I knew this. David had cherished the man, and despite what he had been convicted of, I honestly didn’t think he’d use his father to convince me of his innocence, unless what he was saying was absolutely true.
    It took a while longer, but he finally convinced me to come to California for a face-to-face. If nothing else, it would be a chance for me to finally purge myself of him forever.
    To let him know just how much he’d hurt me.
    That was worth a trip, wasn’t it?
    * * *
    I left the next morning, while Mother was still asleep. My overnight bag had a broken latch, so I took hers from the hall closet, filled it with a change of clothes and some toiletries, then left a note on the fridge and headed for the airport.
    She wouldn’t be happy with this decision, but I didn’t care.
    I had to do what I had to do.
    Several hours later I sat at a table across from David, staring into those beautiful blue eyes. Not shifty at all. Not in the least. He was shackled and wore an orange jumpsuit, and I’d felt my heart break the moment I stepped into the room and saw him sitting there.
    He looked smaller than I remembered. Beaten down. But the weight he carried didn’t seem to be the weight of a guilty man, and I found myself once again wanting to believe that there’d been some mistake.
    I guess that was what I was there to find out.
    “I wasn’t having an affair with Kim,” he said. “There wasn’t any sex game. Everything between us was strictly business. I won’t deny I found her attractive—who wouldn’t? But my heart was always with you, babe. Always will be.”
    Normally I would have melted about then, but I resisted. “Why don’t you get to the not-killing-her part?”
    “That’s just it. I was set up.”
    “Oh, please, David.”
    “I swear it’s the truth. We met with a client earlier in the day and had just come back from shopping.”
    “Shopping?”
    He hesitated. “We went to a jewelry store. Kim helped me pick out a ring.”
    I was confused. “For what?”
    “It was supposed to be a surprise,” he said. “And the one we chose was perfect. It was already your size, so I bought it on the spot.”
    I felt my heart kick up. “What are you saying, David?”
    “I was planning to ask you to marry me.”
    The words thrilled me, but at the same time I suddenly felt wary, thinking this was a ploy to get me on his side. But the David I knew would never resort to such a tactic.
    Then again, the David I knew wouldn’t be shackled to a chair.
    “After that, Kim and I went to our rooms—separate rooms—and all I wanted to do was hop in the shower, then take a long nap.”
    And that’s exactly what he did, he told me.