Chapter Sixty-Eight Maya

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Maya

August 2023

The sound of cartoons from my childhood on the television. The Jetsons. A familiar laugh. Dani.

I slowly blink my eyes open. I’m back in Brooklyn, lying in bed with an ice pack on my forehead. It’s dark, save for the flicker of the television, a strip of light creeping through the crack in the curtains.

Sensing I’m awake, Nate sits on the mattress next to me and smooths my hair. “How ya doing, Bruiser?”

A laugh escapes me, sending a sharp pain up the base of my neck. “Oh god.” Bringing my hand to my head, I wince. There’s a lump where I must have hit my head on the side of the ditch. My ankle throbs with a sharp pain, and when I try to move my foot, I realize it’s in a cast.

Nate laughs and kisses me gently on the cheek. I vaguely remember being driven to the hospital, the hazy sequence of events that led me here. God, it feels good to be home.

Seeing us together, Dani stands up from the armchair and crawls into bed on the other side of me. She kisses my arm before looking at me with a worried expression.

After we sit like this for a minute, Nate sits up. “Big news.”

“What happened?” I ask.

Nate grabs the remote and switches the TV from cartoons to a news channel. I prop myself up onto my elbow for a better view.

It’s footage of Cecily from around town, nights out at galas and functions.

A news anchor says, “ Cecily St. Clair’s body was found in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, on her family’s property. The property was consumed by fire, her body found with severe third-degree burns. A longtime employee of the family witnessed the fire and gave a statement. ”

I stare at the screen. Marta…

“ The Manhattan gallerist had been wanted for questioning over the murder of former Princeton professor Matthew DuPont, after her DNA was found at the scene of the crime. ”

“Cecily killed Matthew…” Nate shakes his head in disbelief. “I didn’t think she had it in her.”

I swallow, unable to drag my gaze away from the screen. They’re wrong. But I don’t tell Nate what I know: Cecily would never have hurt Matthew. She loved him too much. Cecily and Matthew were together then…And I think this entire time! It made sense that her DNA would be on his body. Maybe he’d been on his way back from visiting her.

The news segment cuts away from the anchor to a photograph of Cecily and Matthew and begins to explain how they had been having an affair since she was in college. Affair isn’t really the word I’d use to describe his manipulation of a student, though.

Seeing her face sends a mix of emotions twisting inside me. That sharp feeling of betrayal stabs deeper into my side. How could she do something so awful? After all these years? Someone who I thought was a friend, with whom I’d spent every Thanksgiving, shared so many memories, was being groomed by Matthew the whole time? I hated her for it, but I also felt like I’d failed my friend by never noticing she was in a toxic relationship with one man who was unfaithful and another who manipulated her. Two horrible men who controlled her.

“You burned the place to the ground,” Nate says, and I shake my head. It still doesn’t feel real. “I’m glad you’re home.” Nate smiles and gently wraps his arms around me. I don’t realize I’m crying until my cheeks are wet with tears.

Dani looks at us, concerned. “What’s wrong, Mama?” she asks.

I smile, holding my arms out for her. “Nothing, Dani, I’m just glad I’m home.”

She turns to me and I pull her in, breathing in her sweet smell and holding her tight against my chest, remembering how I’d imagined this moment seconds before I thought I would die.

—

The next morning, I’m lying on the couch in the living room, lost in thought, when the doorbell rings. Nate answers it, and moments later, a hand touches my shoulder.

“Hey, Maya.” Daisy moves to the other side of the couch so I can see her. She’s holding a bag from my favorite deli, one where we’ve gone many times before. “I brought your favorite.” She smiles and carefully sits down next to me, places a hand on my knee. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” I reach up to feel my head and wince. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”

Daisy smiles. “It’s not your fault, none of us saw it either.”

I close my eyes and let a warm tear fall down my cheek.

“After what Marta told me, I went to the police,” Daisy explains. “I told them about the video and everything I knew about Cecily and Matthew. They already had an APB out looking for her by the time she abducted you.” I try to breathe, but my ribs are bruised and painful. “Also, I brought along someone who wants to see you.”

She gestures to someone behind me. Marta steps into the living room, stands awkwardly before me. “Hello, dear.”

My eyes tear at the sight of her. “Marta.” I hold out my arms for an embrace. “Thank you so much for saving my life.”

She leans down and gives me a careful hug. “I wish I had done something sooner. Maybe I could have saved your sister too.” Her expression breaks and she looks like she might cry.

A sudden memory, just before I’d passed out: Marta standing with the shovel over Cecily.

She explains how she’d been too scared to help Naomi—how Matthew had threatened to have her family deported, how he’d collected information about her loved ones. “He was with Cecily for a long, long time, many years he was with her. When she was a student, he was. Oh, I wish I had stopped him.”

“It’s not your fault,” I tell her. “I know you tried.” I hold her closer and don’t let go.

—

Afterward, I turn to Nate. “Could you take Dani out for a minute?” He nods and takes Dani out so that we can talk.

Once they’re gone, I turn to Daisy. “Can I see it?”

Daisy hesitates, then hands me her phone. I stare at the video, a stone in the pit of my stomach, and force myself to breathe.

The low-res video shows us passing the living room, beers in hand, the back patio, all of us in the hot tub. Memories of the night come flooding back. The taste of tequila. The smell of the fireplace, the pulsing music, the shouts and raised voices. To think that Cecily had been with Matthew at the time, or shortly thereafter, that she’d likely been jealous of his relationship with Lila.

I scan forward. Several hours later, the camera moves. Marta’s face appears on the screen, like she’s holding the camera. She frowns into the lens and sets the camera in a new spot, facing the back door.

“I think this is it,” Daisy says now, pointing at her screen. My chest fills with a familiar panic. All the blood has left my face and pools in my stomach.

Now two people are, oh god, they’re dragging Lila’s body across the floor. One is definitely Matthew, and the other is smaller, wearing a ski jacket with a hood. It’s hard to make out her face in the dark, but I know, when she turns to the side…it’s Cecily.