“So you did it,” Ben said. “You pulled the trigger.”
“I had to. She told me to.”
“Katherine’s not here now, Emily. So why don’t you put the gun down?”
“I can’t. I have to finish my valentine to her. Then we’ll always be together. I can come here and talk to her anytime I want. I’ll bring her presents just like I used to….”
Slowly she turned to Anna and lifted the gun.
Before she could pull the trigger, Ben fired from the doorway. The first shot went wild, because of his injury, but the second hit its mark dead-on.
BEN CAME TO SEE ANNA every day that she was in the hospital. Luckily, she hadn’t broken any bones in the fall, and the drug Emily had put in her medication hadn’t caused any lingering effects. But the best news of all was that her heart biopsies had detected no signs of rejection.
Health-wise, she was going to be fine, but mentally she was a wreck. It wasn’t just the terror and horror she’d experienced that night in the mission that tormented her. It was knowing that the heart that beat inside her chest had once belonged to a cold-blooded killer. It was knowing that every time Ben looked at her, he saw Katherine.
He didn’t say that, of course. But Anna knew. She could see it in his eyes, in the way he kept his distance. In the way he refused to touch her….
After the first couple of days, when he knew she was going to be okay, he began to tell her everything he’d learned about the case. Since both Emily and Katherine were dead, much of their motivation was still guesswork, but Gwen had been able to supply Ben and the FBI profiler with some valuable insight into Katherine’s background.
Katherine had been extraordinarily beautiful even as a child, and her father had wanted her all to himself. Katherine’s mother not only turned a blind eye to the abuse, but would sometimes watch. And then afterwards, consumed by jealousy, she’d blamed Katherine and would often beat her until she was nearly unconscious.
When their parents died in a fire, Gwen always secretly suspected that Katherine had killed them. She loved her sister, but over the years, she began to see traits in Katherine that frightened her. The cunning. The cruelty. The pleasure she derived from inflicting pain, both physical and mental, on others.
“She couldn’t distinguish pleasure from pain,” Ben said. “After what her parents did to her, she couldn’t experience one without the other.”
“And all those women she had Emily kill for her… Katherine was having her mother killed over and over again, wasn’t she? She was cutting out her mother’s heart.”
“It’s possible,” he said grimly. “But we’ll never know for sure.”
“What was the significance of the scorpions?”
“I think that goes back to something Gwen told me. She said that when she was a child Katherine used to tell her the fable of the scorpion and the frog. Do you remember it?”
“Vaguely.”
“A scorpion and frog were on the bank of a river. The scorpion asked the frog to give him a ride on his back across the water, but the frog was afraid the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion assured the frog he wouldn’t because they’d both die if he did. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog. When the frog asked why, the scorpion said, ‘Because I’m a scorpion. It’s my nature.’”
“So Katherine knew even back then what she was.”
“And Emily?”
“Her background is pretty sketchy, but the best we can tell, the state took her away from an abusive home when she was four or five. The welfare workers found her chained inside a closet where she was sometimes kept for days on end as punishment. She lived in a series of foster homes after that, but was never adopted. When she and Katherine met, they each saw something in the other that they’d been searching for for a long time. Katherine, someone willing to kill for her, and Emily, someone to love her.”
“Why did Emily kill Michael?” Anna asked.
“It was probably symbolic,” Ben said. “He’s the one who gave you Katherine’s heart.”
“And Hays?”
“She was afraid he’d take you away before she could complete her mission. Her valentine, she called it.”
“That’s why she came back here. To finish her valentine to Katherine.” That was why she’d lured Anna to San Miguel by playing “Heart and Soul” over the phone to her. She could have learned Anna’s identity as easily as Gabby had.
“She pretended to be searching for Katherine’s killer so that she would have a reason to stay in San Miguel,” Ben said. “And to throw the police off track.”
Anna shuddered. “I never knew love could be so twisted. Or so complicated.” She hesitated, her gaze seeking his. “Out of all this horror, do you think it’s possible…that something good can come from it?”
Ben walked over to her bed and stood staring down at her. “I don’t know, Anna. I honestly don’t know.”
LAUREL LOOKED UP from her packing as Anna came into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you sure about this, Anna?”
“Yes. I’m very sure. You need to get back to your own home and your own life, Laurel. I can take care of myself now. The doctors gave me a clean bill of health. I’m fine.”
“Fine? You were almost killed…when I think about what almost happened…” Laurel’s eyes filled with tears.
Anna reached up and took her stepmother’s hand. “I really am going to be okay, Laurel. But I never could have made it this far without you. What you’ve done for me…I’ll never be able to repay you. And after the way I treated you for all those years… You could have just turned your back on me.”
“Oh, Anna, I could never do that. Not when I see your father every time I look in those big brown eyes….” She smiled wistfully. “He would have been so proud of you.”
Anna winced. “I’m not so sure about that. I never gave him much reason to be proud.”
“But you did. And he was. More than you’ll ever know. You’re a wonderful person, Anna. You’ve just never given yourself a chance. You’ve been so afraid of getting hurt.”
“Well, maybe it’s time I gave myself that chance,” Anna murmured. “After all, I may not get many more.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Laurel admonished. She went back to her packing, but when the doorbell rang, she automatically turned to answer it.
“No, I’ll get it.” Anna rose from the bed. “You’ve waited on me long enough.”
The doorbell sounded again as she hurried down the hallway. “Hold on,” she muttered. “I’m coming.”
She drew back the door and there stood Ben.
She hadn’t seen him in over a week. Not since she’d come home from the hospital.
She’d begun to think…
They didn’t say anything for a long moment, just stood staring at each other until finally Anna stepped back to allow him to enter.
“I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again,” she finally managed.
He glanced around her apartment, as if suddenly at a loss. “Nice place.”
“Thanks. Would you…like to come in and sit down?” She showed him to the living room, but when she sat down on the sofa, Ben remained standing.
He walked over to the window to stare out. “Nice view.”
“You didn’t come here to compliment my apartment,” she said. “Did you?”
He turned. He looked tired, Anna noticed, as if he hadn’t slept in days. She knew the feeling.
“I’ve moved back to Houston,” he said abruptly.
Anna’s brows lifted. “What about Gabby?”
“I’ve asked her to come live with me, but she wants to stay with Gwen. She says Gwen will be lost without her. I have a feeling she’s right about that.”
“Do you think she’ll be okay?”
“She and Gwen are both in counseling. They’re selling the house and moving here so that I can keep an eye on Gabby. I want to be a part of her life. I want to do everything I can to help her, to keep her from b
ecoming—” He broke off, turning away.
“You will be able to help her, Ben. Gabby’s not her mother.”
He glanced at her. “I know that.”
“And I’m not Katherine. I don’t have her soul. I don’t have any part of her except her heart. And it’s my heart now.”
“I know that, too.”
“So where does that leave us, Ben?” she asked softly.
He came to sit beside her, taking her hands in his. “That’s why I’m here. I thought I should tell you my plans and then we can…figure out the rest together.”
The rest?
“I’ve taken a job with BMI—”
“BMI?” she cut in.
“It’s a private investigation firm—”
“I know what it is,” Anna said. “It’s the firm I used to find out the identity of my donor. The day I went there, you were getting off the elevator as I was getting on. We brushed shoulders. You didn’t notice me, but I saw you. And I couldn’t seem to forget you. I even dreamed about you. And then when I went to San Miguel, there you were…” She trailed off. “That day in the elevator…was it really just a coincidence?”
His gaze deepened. “Maybe. Or maybe it was just one more sign that you and I were meant to be together.”
Anna stared up at him. “What are you saying, Ben?”
She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but…what was he saying?
He took her face in his hands. “I don’t care whose heart you have. It’s you I care about. It’s you I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Anna could hardly breathe by this point. “But…my condition…there’s no guarantee how long…”
“I’m not asking for guarantees. All I’m asking is that you give us a chance. We haven’t known each other that long. I realize that. We’ll need some time. We’ll take it slow and easy, and then when we’re both ready…when the time is right…”
“When the time is right?” she whispered.
“I’ll ask you to be my wife.”
He kissed her then, more gently than he had ever done before, and Anna felt tears sting behind her lids at such tenderness.
She kissed him back, not so gently, and as his arms came around her and pulled her close, her new heart beat a steady, reassuring rhythm inside her chest.
A new heart. A new life. A new love.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4074-2
CONFESSIONS OF THE HEART
Copyright © 2003 by Marilyn Medlock Amann
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* The Kingsley Baby
** Gallagher Justice
† Eden’s Children
Confessions of the Heart Page 19