Page 21 of Echoes
“Should I call you ‘my love’ instead of ‘baby?’ Is ‘baby’ done now? Are people against it? I feel like it’s ‘babe’ more today.”
“I loved you calling me that,” she shared, lifting herself a bit to meet Lydia’s eyes. “So, don’t stop, okay?”
“I always liked that you called me your love because it’s what your dad called your mom, and I know how much they loved each other.”
Eliza smiled down at her and said, “They did love each other. And I love you. I’ve always just… I never want to be without you again.”
Lydia kissed her lips and replied, “You won’t be. We’re not kids anymore, Eliza. I think I let you off the hook back then, but I’m not going to do that anymore. You have to talk to me, okay? When you feel yourself pulling away, you tell me. When you need to talk through something with me or with someone else, I’m still here. You just come home to me every night, and we work through stuff together. No more apart.”
Eliza nodded her agreement and asked, “Will you move in, then?”
“Move in?”
“Here,” she clarified. “The guest room is really just your room because you stay over so much. I know we haven’t actually been together this whole time, but we’re together now. I don’t want to miss anything else with you. Move in here, and let’s really start this new part of our lives together. I’ll come home to you every night, or you’ll come home, and I’ll be here.”
Lydia seemed to be thinking about it, so Eliza worried that she’d gone a little too far too soon, but then, Lydia was nodding and smiling at her.
“Can I move some of my stuff into this closet instead of the guest room one?”
Eliza felt her eyes filling up with tears, but this time, they were happy ones, and she said, “Of course, you can. This isourbedroom now.”
“Then, I’ll move in this weekend,” Lydia replied. “And we’re redoing the kitchen. I can’t stand that light pink on the walls.”
“I didn’t paint that. It was like that when I moved in,” she defended.
“I know. But we’re still painting it a different color that we’ll pick out together.”
“Whatever you want,” Eliza said, meaning it.
“I wantyou.”
“I want you, too, my love.” She leaned down and kissed Lydia once more.
One Month Later
Eliza walked into the room and felt cold takeover her whole body. She knew the room wasn’t any colder than the hallway she’d just come from; it was more her shock taking over at seeing him again. Lydia had wanted to come in with her, but Eliza had kissed her outside and told her that she needed to do this part alone.
She sat down across from the man they’d caught three days prior and glared at him. He had a five-o’clock shadow, wasn’t wearing glasses, and his hair was short, but not as short as it had been at the wake. He looked right back at her with an unreadable expression on his face.
“You killed my father,” she stated.
“I agreed to meet with you, but if it’s confession you’re after, you won’t get one from me,” he replied.
“I need to know why,” she said.
“Why what?”
“Why you killed him.”
Albert looked at the two-way mirror and said, “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Call ithypothetically, then,” she suggested. “And there’s no one back there. Your attorney demanded it right after he told me that I had ten minutes.”
“Hypothetically?” he checked with a lifted eyebrow.
“If someone were going to kill my father…” she began for him.
“Maybe he had something that didn’t belong to him.”