The Life of Anna, Part 3: Embraced by Marissa Honeycutt Read Free Book Online Page B

thankful he was right.”
    Anna couldn’t look at anyone. It was her
fault that Ben was dead. She shouldn’t be here. She didn’t deserve
to be here.
    “I…I can’t be here.” She turned and fled to
her apartment at the opposite end of the hallway. Once she was
inside, she closed the door behind her and fell to the ground,
sobbing again.
    “Anna.”
Wilhelm
. Dear Wilhelm. He
knelt next to her. “
Liebling.
How did you know?”
    “How did I know what?” she sniffed.
    “How did you know he was dead?”
    Anna looked up into Wilhelm’s face, shame
filling her. “It’s my fault,” she whispered. “He killed him because
of me. I was so selfish and he killed him.”
    “Who killed who?” Wilhelm stared at her for a
moment. “Ben?”
    Anna nodded. “Devin. He killed him. Right in
front of me.” She stared at the ground. “It’s my fault,” she said
in a broken voice, squeezing her eyes shut in despair. “It’s all my
fault.”
    “Anna, it is not your fault. Devin is…does
bad things, but those things are not your fault.”
    She shook her head. “If I hadn’t wanted to be
with Ben, Devin would have let him go. He asked me and I told him.
He called Ben a distraction. But I couldn’t lie. I told him the
truth. And he killed him.”
    “Anna, the police found his body in his car
early this morning. In the Bay. Are you sure you didn’t just
imagine it?”
    Anna shook her head absently. “He said he’d
put him off the Golden Gate Bridge. The same bridge my parents died
under.”
    Wilhelm muttered something in German. “Oh,
Anna.” He pulled her into his arms and rocked her gently. “Shh, it
will be all right,
Liebling
. It is not your fault.”
    “He was going to ask me to marry him,” she
whispered after she’d calmed down a bit. She pulled the ring box
out of her pocket.
    Wilhelm took the box from her and opened it.
“Very pretty,” he said with a gentle smile, hugging her close.
    “Where’d you get that?”
    Both Wilhelm and Anna looked up to see Matt
standing in the doorway with an accusatory look on his face.
    Anna stared at Matt. “He had it with him when
he died.”
    Matt frowned. “I know. He showed it to me at
the theater. The question is, how did you get it?”
    Anna’s mouth moved but there were no words.
She didn’t know how to respond to Matt’s accusation.
    “Matt, it is not what you think,” Wilhelm
said. “And apparently what happened to Ben is not what we were told
either.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Wilhelm stared at the young man for a long
considering moment. “Matt, if I tell you, you cannot tell anyone.
Especially not his family. They would be in danger.”
    Matt walked in and closed the door. “Tell
me.”
    Wilhelm gave him a brief history of Anna’s
relationship with Devin—reinforcing what Jenna had told him—and
then what Anna had told Wilhelm.
    “Devin threw it on the ground next to him
after he was…,” Anna said softly. “He said it had been in Ben’s
pocket when they took him.”
    “Oh, God,” Matt said, sitting hard on the
floor next to them. “We should call the police.”
    Anna laughed bitterly. “Devin controls the
police. There’s nothing we can do.” She leaned against Wilhelm.
“Nothing.”
    “Matt, would you please take Anna back to
your apartment. I need to make a phone call.”
    “Wilhelm….” Anna clung to him.
    “Anna, I need to call Alex and tell him what
happened.”
    “Is he home?”
    Wilhelm nodded. “He got home yesterday.”
    A cold chill ran through Anna’s body, but she
nodded and allowed Matt to help her to her feet. If Alex really
cared,
he
would be here, not his father.
    Anger at Alex mixed with her anger at Devin
and Ian and the world.
    *****
    Wilhelm watched as Matt helped Anna back to
his apartment and then phoned Alex.
    “Vati?” came Alex’s groggy voice over the
line.
    “Alex, wake up.” Wilhelm spoke in German. “I
need to speak with you.”
    There was a pause. “What happened? Is