Chapter 19 - THE THINGS SHE LOST
Mara remembered her mother’s voice.
She remembered the smell of her perfume. Cedar and oranges.
She remembered being taught to tie her shoes at the kitchen table.
She remembered rules.
She did not remember Selene’s face.
Noah showed her a photograph.
Mara stared at the woman beside her younger self.
“She looks kind.”
The sentence nearly broke him.
“That’s your mom.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean—”
“I know who she is, Noah.” Mara touched the photo. “I just don’t know her face from the inside anymore.”
Katie recovered badly.
There was no movie moment where stone cracked and a perfect person stepped out.
She vomited. Seized once. Couldn’t move her legs for six hours. Swore at everyone.
Her first clear sentence to Mara was, “You owe me a car wash.”
Mara laughed and cried at the same time.
Then she slept for fourteen hours.
When she woke, Eli’s sister was waiting.
Noah saw the guilt arrive before she spoke.
“Mara,” he said. “You don’t have to.”
Eli’s sister flinched.
He hated himself a little for that.
Mara sat up.
“What did Eli do before the robbery?” she asked.
His sister looked confused.
“He was a mess.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
A long pause.
“He called me. Said he owed money. Said a man offered him five grand to scare a cashier and knock off her glasses.”
Noah went cold.
Adrian had hired him.
The robbery had been a test.
Mara closed her eyes.
“So he pointed a loaded gun at June because someone paid him.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know what would happen?”
“No.”
That mattered.
Not enough to erase what he had done.
Enough to complicate it.
Mara said, “I’ll reverse him tomorrow.”
Noah wanted to argue.
He didn’t.
Instead, he held up his stone left arm.
“This is going to sound terrible.”
“What?”
“I’m getting used to the weight.”
Mara stared at him.
Then laughed.
A surprised, guilty laugh.
He laughed too.
It was inappropriate.
It helped.
The next morning, Mara restored Eli.
It cost her the memory of their first apartment.
She remembered marrying Noah.
She remembered the motel on their honeymoon where the air conditioner leaked.
But the yellow apartment with the broken dishwasher was simply gone.
Noah described it.
She smiled politely like he was telling her about someone else.
That hurt worse than the stone arm.
After Eli could speak, Sheriff Ortiz read him his rights from beside the hospital bed.
Eli cried.
He apologized to June.
June did not forgive him.
Good for her.
That afternoon, Celia brought Noah a list.
Five names.
Five petrified people connected to Selene Vale.
Mara looked at the paper.
Noah watched her face.
“No,” he said.
She looked up.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re thinking it.”
“They’re alive.”
“And every one of them takes a piece of you.”
Mara folded the list.
“Then I have to decide which pieces I can live without.”
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