The Trench

Chapter 56 - The Wrap Up

"So, can you wrap up everything with a bow for me? I seem to be getting lost somewhere." Taylor scratches her head as she looks at me with confusion, I sigh and roll my eyes playfully.

"In a nutshell, Mae is nuts." I say matter-of-factly as I pick at a loose thread on the green chairs. She shrugs and waves a hand.

"We know that by now."

"So years ago, she had made up a rumor about Randy hoping to cause so much tension and doubt in the relationship that Emily would break up with him and Mae would be there to help her. Because apparently the poor girl wasn't allowed to have any other friends-"

"Like you also, apparently." Taylor interrupts and waves her hand around at the hospital waiting room we're in and I nod.

"Exactly. So once things weren't going her way and no one believed her, that night after Randy had left Emily's house, Mae got there. Emily accused her of lying and basically being a jealous bitch which of course pissed her off. Mae finally confessed to losing her cool and hitting Emily with a lamp, causing her to bleed out and die. Mae freaked out and that's when Kane got there, she had called 911 and tried to say that Randy did it. The police stations psychiatrist they called in said somehow, after the incident, Mae's mind completely blacked out the whole memory of her killing Emily. Something about a window of amnesia."

"So all these years of her blaming Randy, she actually believed it?" Taylors mouth hung open in shock and I nod.

"Yes. She was so crazy about getting Randy arrested she was institutionalized, after she was let out she started planning revenge. Remember what all of the victims looked like?" Taylor nodded quickly.

"They all had blonde hair and blue eyes, they all looked like Randy!"

"Jesus Christ almighty!" Taylor gasps at the realization and her hand flies up to cover her mouth, a few nurses look up at us questioningly from their post behind the counter across the waiting room.

"So wait, how come they had never arrested her in the first place?"

I nod to my left, where both Austin and Kane were on a phone call with Mae's officer down the hall. "According to Austin and Kane, Mae had gloves on that night and never left any kind of prints. Since she didn't remember murdering her, she passed all of the interrogation with flying colors. Somehow Kane's prints ended up on the lamp, he says he had picked it up to move it without knowing that it was the weapon. He was the main suspect before he was suddenly released, which brings us back to Austin and Valerie. Valerie told Austin she would get Kane cleared if Austin stayed with her, which we've already covered. He still doesn't know what connection she has, but it doesn't matter anymore since Mae confessed."

"So Austin is free to date whomever without blackmail." She gives me a suggestive wink and I chuckle.

"He is, yes, so after this dies down and after I'm done with his class we can be an actual couple." I smile at the thought, I've been dreaming of the day that we're able to go out together and not have to go hours away on a date. Not having to hide our relationship and just be together.

"I can't believe that bitch tried to poison me." She mutters, dumbfounded. This caused one nurse with apparently exceptional hearing to glance up at us again, her eyes wide. I give her a grim, thin lipped smile as I turn back to Taylor who chuckles dryly. I glance around the small waiting room we're sitting in. Our chairs are on the opposite side of the nurses desk, and from my seat at the edge of the wall I can see down the mundane hallway. I glance out the window to my right where the sun is starting to set, I've spent most of my day at the police station with Kane and Randy explaining our story while Taylor and Corbin have been here. I rub my eyes, suddenly exhausted and I realize I haven't slept.

Footsteps turned my attention back down the hall. A small elderly nurse with kind eyes and grey hair approached the waiting room, a small smile on her face.

"Family is gone, you're allowed in now." She says politely and Taylor and I jump to our feet. We follow her, grudgingly slow, down the corridor until we reach room 306. She opens the door a crack and peaks her head in before turning to us and waving us in.

Aimee is laying in bed, flipping through the tv channels frustratingly muttering at the screen. As soon as we're inside she turns to us and her face lights up with a smile.

My eyes feel prickly and I feel tears start threatening to spill over, I hurry over to her bed and bend down, throwing my arms around her with relief.

"I thought you had died." I managed to choke out past the lump in my throat. I hear Taylor sniffle behind me.

"I might die now if you don't stop squeezing me." She wheezes. I let out a small laugh as I let her go, her hand instantly coming up to the large bandage on her chest. Tubes and cables come from her body and connect to bands hanging beside her and the heart and oxygen monitors have a steady rhythmic beep.

"You know she's too stubborn to die, Riley." Taylor whispers as she comes around to the other side and pats Aimee on the uninjured shoulder. Aimee brings her hand up to cover Taylor's for a moment before dropping it back in her lap.

"I owe you my life." Aimee says seriously, eyes locked on Taylor who gives her a nod and a small smile.

We all stand silent for a moment, soaking in each other's company and acknowledging what the outcome could have been. Taylor could have finished her date, Kane and Randy could have followed a different lead, Aimee could be still lying alone and injured at the shipping yard. I could still be trapped in a basement with a lunatic.

But turns out, that wasn't what was intended for us.