Lovers and Lawbreakers

Moving In

Not too long after that, Mari found an apartment she could afford with the money she made from her job as a waitress. She thought it best to leave the case and separate herself from David completely.

Ian set down the last box in her new apartment and Melanie came over and hugged her.

"Thank you guys so much for helping," Mari said.

"Thank Ian. It's not like I did much."

"Oh, hush, Mel. You're seven months pregnant."

She smiled and let go of Mari, and Ian hugged her.

"It's good to see you back on your feet."

Mari smiled and looked around at all the boxes.

"Yeah. It's all over now."

Melanie smiled.

"So you're not seeing David anymore?"

Mari shook her head and sighed, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Literally."

"You've completely cut him off, then?"

"It's for the best. He's in love with his fiancé. I can't ruin their relationship."

"Yes but, Mari, he was in love with you too."

She shook her head. "I doubt that, Mel."

Melanie sighed. "Someone doesn't just risk their future marriage like that for someone they're only infatuated with. He loved you."

"Well, now he can't anymore."

"Mari-"

"It's done, we've both moved on, and we'll never have to see each other again. That chapter of our lives is closed. He can go back to loving just his future wife and I can go back to being the girl with the dead boyfriend."

There was a silence.

"What will you do when he comes to tell you who the murderer was?"

Mari laughed. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He'll be a stranger at that point."

Melanie sighed.

"But you love him."

Melanie and Mari looked toward Ian.

"Don't you?"

Mari looked down at the granite surface of the kitchen countertop.

"Sometimes you have to cause yourself temporary pain to keep other people from feeling a lifetime of it."

*

David spun from side to side in his office chair, sliding his engagement ring in circles around his finger.

Mari had quit two weeks before and moved into her own place. He didn't know where she was or if he'd ever see her again.

Someone knocked on his door.

"David?"

Sabrina walked in, looking around the office before setting her purse on his desk.

David opened a drawer and placed a picture frame that had been turned upside down in it.

There were two framed pictures on his desk of an African American woman and himself, and of an elderly couple.

"Are you okay?"

David cleared his throat. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Any progress on the case?"

"We found him."

Sabrina nodded. "So the case is closed?"

"The case is closed."

*

David and Sabrina opened the door to their apartment, and David still wasn't used to the house feeling this empty.

Sabrina sat down and turned on a movie while David went into their bedroom to change out of his work clothes. Sitting on the dresser was a necklace.

Mari took a shaky breath and handed him her necklace. David's eyes widened and he shook his head.

"No, Mari-"

"David, keep it. For me it only reminds me of how painful this is, but for you, it reminds you that the people you meet in your job are real people with lives and feelings, and they're in deep pain. They might as well be as dead as the victim. And that's something you need to be reminded of every day. Don't you dare forget it."

David wrapped his fingers around the necklace and smiled.

"Thank you."

Mari nodded and smiled.

And suddenly, they both knew each other on a level old friends had yet to reach. They understood each other.

And that would eventually become their downfall.

David sighed and took the necklace between his fingers.

He was in love with her, but he was also in love with Sabrina. He wished he could love them both.

Mari was selfless. She taught him to care, and she taught him to put others before himself. This was her final test, letting go of him. If he'd learned all the things she taught him correctly, he'd stay away.

David bit his lip, wondering.

He made a decision and put the necklace in his pocket.

He never was a good test taker anyway.