How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

She turned around calmly.

Watts was standing just a few steps behind, his expression unreadable.

He watched her, thoughtful, as if weighing something only he understood.

"How am I supposed to sleep when there's still no word from Jarrod?" she replied, sidestepping his question with the safest answer she could muster.

Watts slipped one hand into his pocket, a faint, elusive smile tugging at the corners of his eyes. "I thought maybe you just didn't trust me. Maybe you were planning to run away."

His words sent a chill crawling up Elodie's spine for no reason she could name.

She met his gaze head-on. “It's the middle of the night. I'm in a foreign country. Where exactly would I go?"

Watts shrugged. "Fair point. Things are a little chaotic around here right now."

Quietly, Elodie slipped her phone back into her coat pocket, then started walking slowly toward the house. "How are my colleagues doing? Are they alright?"

"They're fine. I'm planning to arrange for them to head home tomorrow," Watts replied breezily, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.

But Elodie's guard was up-more than ever before.

think of Watts as a bright, easygoing young man, open and sincere. But after everything that had happened, she realized how dangerous he truly was -far more than she'd

walked toward the house with a calm,

her pace,

never really thought about it before, but now, just strolling quietly like this, it

at the front door and finally looked at him. "How long

an eyebrow and replied, "Depends on work, really. But, to be honest, things aren't looking stable around here. How

realize my husband's still missing? Would it really be appropriate for me to leave

affectionate way she said "my husband" made Watts' smile falter, just for

but now, hearing it from her

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back against the railing sitting so he could look at Elodie at eye level. For once, his face was free of that

Your safety comes first. Besides, everyone back home is worried

something flickered in his eyes—something he himself didn't fully grasp. He reached out, as if to take her hand.

Other women held no

years, aside from Patricia Aldridge,

Elodie made him want to get closer, to

a step

touch, deliberately

the corner

straight through her—her dislike, her