He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 07

He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 07

Half an hour later, Derek walked into the sheriff’s office with Paige.

“I’m here for Nora Bennett.”

“Tell her to knock it off and come out here to apologize.”

The deputy on duty looked him over, frowning.

“You’re Derek Sinclair?”

Derek lifted his chin.

“That’s right. I’m her boyfriend.”

“Where is she? What hole is she hiding in?”

The deputy stood and handed him a folder.

“She’s not here. She’s at the Pinebrook County Hospital morgue.”

“These are the scene photos. Take a look.”

Derek accepted the folder with a sneer.

“Pretty thorough setup. Even photoshopped some photos?”

He flipped open the first page, and the smile froze on his face.

In the photo, a withered, twisted female body lay in the yellow sand.

The corpse’s fingers were caked in blood, sunk deep into the sand.

And beside the body, two unopened bottles of water lay scattered on the ground.

Derek’s breath caught in his throat.

He stared at those two bottles of water.

They were the ones he’d thrown down beside my hand the night before, with his own hands.

Paige leaned over to look and let out a shriek.

“Ah! Why does this photo look so real?”

“Derek, did Nora hire someone to make a fake body?”

Derek ignored her and grabbed the deputy by the arm.

“Where did this photo come from?”

“She can’t be dead! She still had half a bottle of water in her pack! Her stamina is better than anyone’s!”

The deputy shook off his grip.

“The medical examiner already confirmed it.”

“The victim suffered extreme heat exposure and died of dehydration. She didn’t even have the strength left to

twist open a bottle cap before she died.”

Derek’s knees buckled. He stumbled back two steps.

“No. That’s not possible. It’s not possible!”

“I need to see the morgue! I need to see her with my own eyes!”

Derek drove like a man possessed, straight to the county hospital.

Paige sat in the passenger seat, pale as a sheet.

“Derek, don’t scare me like this. There’s no way something actually happened to Nora.”

Derek clenched his jaw, hands locked white-knuckled around the wheel.

The car screeched to a stop outside the hospital.

Derek didn’t even shut the door. He sprinted straight for the morgue.

The medical examiner pulled open the cooler drawer.

Derek’s eyes found me instantly.

My face had been scorched beyond recognition, lips cracked and peeled back.

Every fingernail had been torn off, exposing raw white bone underneath.

That was from clawing at the ground, again and again, just to press down on that walkie-talkie button.

Derek’s legs gave out. He dropped hard to his knees.

“No! This isn’t real!”

“Nora, get up! Get up right now!”

Tyler and Chase arrived just then.

They rushed into the morgue, saw my body, and froze in horror on the spot.

Tyler pointed at me, trembling all over.

“D-Derek… Nora’s… she’s really dead?”

Derek knelt on the floor, gripping fistfuls of his own hair.

“It’s me…”

“I saw her with my own eyes last night, and I called her a liar.”

“I threw two bottles of water at her…”

Derek lifted his head, eyes shot red.

The afternoon before, he’d heard my cry for help over the shared channel.

And he’d cut the signal off without a second thought.

He’d stripped away my last chance to survive.

Tyler stumbled to his feet, shaking, and buried his face in his hands, sobbing.

“We thought she was faking it.”

“There was room in that rescue truck. We lied to the rescue crew and said everyone was accounted for.”

Chase crouched on the floor, slapping himself hard, twice.

“We’re the ones who left her out there in that hellhole!”