Page 30 of Fatal Conspiracy

“I didn’t think dwarfism precluded pregnancy, but maybe that just shows my ignorance.”

“It depends on the dwarfism,” she said with a shrug. “My kind of dwarfism is a hard and firm no. My truncal size alone excludes it, but my heart wouldn’t handle the added fluid and requirements to sustain a pregnancy. I had a hysterectomy during one of my rib surgeries when I was sixteen.”

“That had to have been a tough decision,” he said, and she could tell he was trying to assimilate what she was telling him, but she was sure he hadn’t yet considered what it meant for his life if they became involved. He would. They always did.

“It was an easy decision for me, but much harder to convince a doctor to do it. I went to a counselor who agreed I was aware of the implications of having my uterus removed. I was trying to prevent an emergency situation if I were to become pregnant. In my opinion, there was no reason to keep it if I could never use it.”

“That’s fair,” he answered. “I still wish you hadn’t dealt with so much, so young.” After a check of his watch, he sighed. “It’s almost eleven. We’d better get that sleep that Cal talked about so we can get back to clearing my name and finding Hugo’s killer. Once we’ve done that, I haveplans to make, big and small,” he said as he stood and helped her down off the chair.

As they got ready for bed, his words ran through her mind. He had plans to make, big and small, but she was sure as soon as the penny dropped, the small ones would fall by the wayside. She always did.

Chapter Seventeen

After flopping onto his back, Derek couldn’t deny he was a coward. Instead of asking Alayah to come to bed with him, he’d wished her a good night, walked to his room and shut the door. After she’d opened her heart and shared her past pain with him, he’d treated her as though she didn’t matter. When the truth was, she had become the only thing that mattered to him. When he took Alayah’s hand, she grounded him in this whirlwind that his life had become.

He hadn’t realized the extent of her syndrome or the situations she’s faced since birth. Knowing what she lives with on a day-to-day basis only solidified his respect for her in both life and work. It also helped him understand why she was so all-in with helping him. She knew what it was like to be the underdog and didn’t want an injustice to occur on her watch. With a groan, he rolled over and checked the clock. It was only 1:30 a.m. It was going to be a long night.

There was a slight scrape on the wooden floor outside his door, so he climbed from the bed and quietly cracked the door to check on her. He shouldn’t have been surprised to see her sitting at the computer desk, but he still was. When he’d said good-night two hours ago, her eyelids were drooping as she’d climbed onto the sofa bed. Deciding heshould encourage her to go back to sleep, he left his room and padded toward her in his bare feet.

“Alayah? What are you doing awake?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to be productive,” she said. “I started mapping Cal’s route of running the torch.”

Derek couldn’t hide his amusement as he pulled up a chair to sit beside her. “You really should be sleeping.”

“So should you,” she answered without taking her eyes off her work. “But here you are.”

His smile was wide as she leaned in to watch the multiple screens that played videos from different camera angles. “This looks like tedious work.”

“The worst,” she agreed. “But imperative when getting the timeline right. If I can find the last ten-second span of time that’s missing, I’ve got Cal cleared.”

“Really?” he asked in surprise, and she nodded.

“We know he went from the conference room to the stage without stopping, but there’s one stretch that doesn’t appear to have a camera.”

“And ten seconds is plenty long enough to slip poison in a bottle or trade one out.”

Her nod appeared to be her answer as she clicked her mouse, the different camera angles enlarging and shrinking as she searched for her boss. “As soon as I finish this, I’ll start on your journey. I’ve already noted several places where I’ve seen you without the water bottle, so I can work back from there.”

“Alayah, you really do need sleep.”

“What I really need is for people to stop telling me what I need. The only person who knows that is me.”

Rather than say anything, he stayed silent as she continued to watch the feeds until she clicked to pause them.

“I’m sorry. That was rude. It’s been a long week with alot of work, but none more important than this. I can’t do a lot, but I can clear you and Cal of this murder charge hanging over your heads. Once that’s done, I’ll sleep for hours.”

Understanding how stressed she was and that he was partly to blame, he massaged her neck while she clicked the mouse. “I apologize for pushing. You know what you need, and I’ll do whatever I can to help. You can run circles around me in the cyberworld, though, so there’s not much I can do.”

“Keep doing what you’re doing,” she answered. “I’ll take a neck massage all day long after spending hours at the keyboard.” Before he could say anything, she clicked once on the mouse and did a fist pump. “Gotcha!”

“What did I miss?” he asked as she started writing on a notepad beside her.

Her finger moved to the screen on her left. “Watch.” Then she clicked the mouse and started the video feed. A large group of people was milling around in front of the conference room doors. They were obviously waiting for the doors to open so they could find their seats.

“I don’t see anything.”

“Neither did I the first three times I watched it, but I’ll slow it down.” After a couple of clicks, the video slowed, and she pointed to the right side of the screen.