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It dawns on me that my words are true. Now that Declan is gone, Lana no longer has to wait until her divorce goes through. We’re free to marry anytime we want.
“But what about Declan?”
“Declan’s gone.”
“He is?”
My concern is growing that Declan dying in front of Lana has messed up her head. The detective is right; a psych evaluation might be a good idea.
“Would you like to see the doctor?”
“Why? I only have a bruise on my face. Declan was nasty to me today. He hit me when I yelled at him, then he died. He fell on the floor. Did you see him?”
I want to cry because I feel Lana slipping away from me. I want to shake her, but that would be counterproductive. She rises from the chair and tells me she has to go upstairs to her suite. I grab her arm and pull her to me.
“Lana, you don’t live here anymore. What happened to you?”
I cup her chin in my hand and tip her face up to look in my eyes. She reaches up to stroke my cheek, never breaking my gaze.
“Zane.”
“Yes, baby.”
“I don’t live here anymore. Take me home.”
I breathe a huge sigh of relief. She recognizes that she lives with me. That’s a start. I take her by the hand and lead her out to the lobby. Fin approaches us.
“I might need to contact Lana for some further information.”
“That’s fine. I need to take her home.”
I raise my hand to hail a cab, but when it pulls up to the curb, I feel Lana cower against my side. She’s afraid to get in a cab again because of what happened. I wave the driver away and call up the Uber app on my phone. In four minutes, a Toyota Camry pulls up to take us home.
Chapter 19
It’s been three days since Declan died, and Lana is a little better but still has me worried. She hasn’t said as much, but I think she feels responsible for his death even though it wasn’t her fault. He chose to kidnap her and hit her. The exertion and the stress of everything going on in his life were what contributed to his demise.
Graham Blair called me to say that his father’s shares would revert to the living Blair family members. He and his mother had decided that a halt would be put on any existing projects, and any employees with less than a year’s tenure would be laid off. I felt terrible for those who left my company and would soon be jobless. I put feelers out to let the five programmers know they were welcome back to Eltech.
Lana wanted to attend Declan’s funeral, but I told her it wouldn’t be a good idea. Instead, I ordered a large arrangement to be delivered to his funeral service. She moped around the apartment and seemed to be in a deep depression. I thought she would be relieved that he was gone. He was still hurting us even in death. We couldn’t move forward together unless Lana got over what was bothering her.
I told her we should see Dr. Amundsen, or at the very least, she should see him alone. She declined both. I was trying to be patient, but watching her fade from me day by day was torture. She didn’t want me to touch her, nor did she want comfort.
By the fifth day, I went to the office at her request. She got angry with me the night before, telling me to stop hovering over her. It was the most emotion I had seen from her since Declan’s death. I was afraid to leave her, worried that I would come home, and she would either be gone or worse from the isolation she self-imposed. I called Paige to see if she would be willing to talk with her.
“How’s Lana?”
“Not good. She doesn’t want me near her. I’m afraid she’s going to leave me. I won’t be able to handle it if she does. Paige, I need you to talk to her. I don’t mean to sound selfish, but her rejection is torture.”
“What do you want me to say to her?”
“Maybe she’ll talk to you. She won’t tell me anything about that day.”
“I’ll call her and see if she wants to go for coffee or something.”
“Thanks. I have a late meeting and won’t be home until seven.”
“I’ll text you and let you know if she wants to talk. I can’t force her, but I’ll try to get her to open up.”
