CHAPTER 70

CHAPTER 70
The ride to the woods was intense and suffocating, to the point where I fought back the urge to roll down the window and get some air.

I didn’t want Dan to see that I was nervous; I need to own up to my problems, and he needs to know that I will never let anyone come between us.

Luca, in the back seat kept sighing with each turn we made. I whipped my head to glare at him. “Sorry, I’m nervous.” He said scratching his head. 

“We’re about to dig up a body, for fucks sake how could I not be nervous?” Luca said looking at me with an annoyed look. I turned around not wanting him to see the guilty look on my face.

“Who said anything about digging up a dead body?” I asked giving Dan the side eye hoping that he was not going to make up dig up the body.

“I did.” He said with a calm look on his face staring up ahead into the deep forest, I noticed one of the tree marks and my heart skipped upon realisation that we are close.

“We will do no such thing, Dan,” I said scared that he might be serious. “You don’t make the decisions Emily. I do.”

“Dan, you can’t make Luca dig up a dead body. It was my fault, not his.” I said desperately trying to change his mind before we make it to our destination.

“Then that means you are the one who will dig up the body then.” I laughed in disbelief, but a part of me relaxed a bit feeling confident that he would never make me dig a body.

“You had the guts to kill right? I need that tonight.” I instantly felt sick to my stomach at the thought of digging up a rotting body. 

“Stop the car,” I said feeling bile rise, I held my mouth to prevent vomiting in the car. “Emily...”

“Stop the car, Dan!” I shouted and he stopped the car. I was already half out of the car. The cold air hit me like a slap, I stumbled out onto the gravel shoulder, one hand braced against the door, the other clamped over my mouth. The bile came splattering on the dirt between my boots. 

Behind me, the car idled. I heard Dan’s door open, then the crunch of his shoes.

“Emily.” His voice was low. His hand found the small of my back, steadying me. It wasn’t comfort. It was a claim. “You’re buying time and it won’t work.”

I spat, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and turned to face him. The woods loomed past his shoulder. That tree with the crooked scar the one I’d carved with my house key weeks ago was only twenty yards in. 

“I can’t do this, Dan.” It came out before I could stop it. The truth I have been avoiding telling.

His hand on my back went still. For a second, the only sound was Luca’s breathing from the back seat, sharp and shallow through the open door. 

Dan’s eyes dropped to my stomach, then back to my face. His expression didn’t change. That was the terrifying part. 

“Let’s go back home, I don’t feel so good.” My voice shook. I hated that. I needed him to see strength, not fear. 

Dan exhaled through his nose, a slow drag of air. He looked past me, into the trees. “Get back in the car.”

“Dan—”

“Now, Emily.” I climbed in, defeated that I can’t even soften my own husband. My legs were wobbly and I could feel my baby lying still.

Luca wouldn’t look at me. He stared at his hands, knuckles white where he gripped his knees. The car door shut with a finality that made my chest ache. 

Dan pulled back onto the dirt road. No one spoke. The tires crunched over twigs and dead leaves. Five minutes. That’s all it took to reach the clearing. 

He killed the engine. The sudden silence that followed was worse than the drive. No crickets, no wind. The cold made my body numb and my abdomen cold and tingly.

Dan got out first. He walked to the trunk and popped it. Metal clanged and that’s probably the shovels.

He tossed one to Luca who already had the door open. Luca caught it on instinct, then stared at it as it had bitten him. 

“Dan, please,” I said. “Don’t do this. I’m begging you.”

He leaned on the roof of the car, arms crossed, looking at me over the door. “You need to make this right.”

“I was protecting you!”

“You were protecting yourself.” He pushed off the car and came around to my door. He opened it, but didn’t reach for me. 

“You and Luca put a body in the woods. You think I’m gonna let that happen? With a baby on the way?” My heart stopped. Then slammed back to life. 

“So you do care,” I whispered. 

“I care that my kid has a father who isn’t in prison.” He nodded toward the trees. “Which is why we’re making sure there’s nothing for them to find.”

Luca made a choked sound and I knew he was at his breaking point. “Man, I can’t. I’ll puke, I’ll—”

“Then Emily digs,” Dan cut in, his eyes never leaving mine. “You chose to pull the trigger, Em, you choose what happens next.”

The word “trigger” hung in the air. I hadn’t told Dan how it happened. Just that a man was dead, and it was my fault. 

He’d filled in the rest himself. He was wrong about the details, but right about one thing: I’d chosen. 

I looked at Luca. His face was gray. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cold. 

I took the shovel from Dan’s hand. It was heavier than I remembered. Or maybe I was weaker. 

“Show me where,” I said, I was unsure about the specific spot even though I was sure we buried her somewhere here.

Dan’s jaw ticked. He hadn’t expected that. For the first time tonight, I saw something crack in his calm. Surprise, or even respect. 

Luca led us into the trees. I counted steps. Seventeen to the scarred oak. Forty from there to the dip in the ground. The earth looked undisturbed well that’s what I thought until Luca turned on the flashlight. 

I drove the shovel into the ground. The smell hit at two feet. Sweet, rotten, wrong. I gagged unsure what was going on, the ground was disturbed.

Luca stood behind me, breathing like he was running a race. Dan watched from a few feet away, arms crossed, saying nothing. “Can you see this?” I asked my body shaking with fear.

“Yeah, looks like someone got here before us.” A small gasping sound left my lips when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my abdomen and liquid soaking my yoga pants.