Stay With Me

Chapter 1

Leaves spun wildly. A last gasp of movement, they settled to the ground, sticking to the wet pavement. Chloe walked through the growing piles, unconscious of the leaves sticking to her black heels as she headed in the direction of the people grouped at the top of the hill. The path she walked was made of tiny beaten gravel, adding a more natural beauty and serenity to the tall firs and gray headstones that dotted the rolling hillside. Rain slapped at her cheek, and the wind threatened to snatch her black umbrella out of her numbed hands.

Her mind wasn't in gear, otherwise she would have stopped to admire the long stretch of the beautiful lake that rippled with the droplets of the rain to her left. There was a great gap somewhere inside her brain, as if her whole collective nervous system had shut down.. She managed to tell the cab driver her destination: the graveyard.

The graveyard.

Oh, it had a more suitable name. Something more suitable to senses chafed raw by tragedy. But Chloe had always known it simply as "the graveyard". She and her friends in junior high sneaked over at night and jumped the graves until they were spooked by something and they ran screaming for home and safety.

Today, though, she felt no ghosts, only a pasting sorrow that filled her chest and ached down her limbs, and made her want to collapse on the rain-soaked ground. Alex was dead, and there was no bringing him back. Gone. Forever.

And it was Anthony's fault.

For an instant, a flash of rage singed across the nerves of her brain. Anthony Hale. Her husband. The man responsible for Alex's death. Her grip tightened on the umbrella's curved handle. Resolve tightened her lips. The same resolve that had kept her going since the terrible news of the plane crash. She was going to divorce Anthony and leave this loveless marriage behind her.She should have done it years before. Alex's death was the thing she needed so badly to cut the ties that bound her to Anthony.

"Chloe...."

Jessica Taylor reached out a trembling hand. Alex's mother. The woman who had been there for Chloe all those years of growing up while her childhood friendship with Alex developed into something more. Jessica had always held a special place in her life. She and her husband had taken Chloe in after the deaths of her own parents. Alex's parents had picked up the pieces when Chloe, aged sixteen, was left lost and bewildered. She'd relied on them for love and support just as she relied on Alex. And though she and Alex had grown apart after high school, Chloe had continued to see herself as an 'adopted' Taylor. They were her family.

Until Anthony Hale, that is.

"I'm so sorry," Jessica said now, tears filling her eyes.

"Oh, Jessica...." Chloe hugged her and the grief she'd held back these long, awful days surfaced and filled every space inside her. She wanted to cry out in agony. It was Anthony's fault! He'd been at the controls of the small plane, and if anyone were to blame for the craft's sudden spiral into the Columbia River, it was Anthony.

"We- we hadn't seen a lot of Alex lately, you know," Jessica said, pulling away from Chloe to search in her handbag for a kleenex.

"He was having some problems. You know...."

"Yes, I know."

"Robert and I have relied on you more than we should. But Alex couldn't help it." New tears welled and she pressed the Kleenex to her mouth, her face scrunched up in misery.

"I know, I know."

Chloe couldn't talk about that now. Alex had been a drug user for years. A dabbler, mostly, or so Chloe liked to think. But the ultimate truth was that drugs had controlled his life for so long that he was a stranger to everyone. Maybe even himself.

"If you hadn't been there for us, I don't know what we would have done."

"You were there for me." Chloe reminded her gently, hugging her once more. Jessica was more like a best friend to Chloe, rather than a woman a generation ahead of her. Even in high school, she treated her like she would have treated someone her own age, and Chloe had thrived in the role. Over the past years they'd naturally become more distant with each other; Chloe's marriage had necessitated the change. But it didnt mean they weren't still family, and now, with the Taylor's only child dead just months shy of his thirtieth birthday, Jessica and Robert only had Chloe.

And she only had them.

Jessica's face was as white and fragile as old china. Holding her body close, Chloe sensed the shudder that passed through her thin frame. Over her shoulder, Chloe caught sight of the wheelchair bound Robert, who was fighting his own fight with Parkinson's disease. She smiled sadly at the man who seemed to have aged two decades since the accident that had taken his son's life.

"I wish he were still here," Jessica choked out.

"Me too." Chloe's voice sounded strangled and raw.

"What are we going to do?"

"I'll be there for you both."

Gently, she disentangled herself from Jessica's embrace, leaned down to hug Robert, then took her position among the ring of people who'd attended the grave-side service. The group was small. Alex possessed only a few true friends and most of them were scattered in places Chloe couldn't even pronounce the names for. Family friends who knew him from high school still called him, "the boy with the brightest future."

Those attending the service knew Chloe as well, and they stopped to talk to her, one by one. But in the back of her mind, she considered what they truly must be thinking: She was the wife of the man who had taken Alex Taylor's life.

A headache started at her temples, but she resolutely refused to succumb. She hadn't lived in the same house as Anthony for the past three years; their marriage had been in trouble even longer. But she was still legally married to the man, and now, with this tremendous burden of grief and blame, which she couldn't quite shake, she wondered why she hadn't taken steps towards divorce and freedom earlier.

What was Anthony doing with Alex on that plane anyway?

A flash of Anthony in the hospital bed froze in her mind; white bandages, unsteady breathing, bruised cheeks and chin, swollen fingers and lacerations. Unwillingly, a pang of sympathy jarred her. He looked so....so pathetic that she had wanted to comfort him!

Imagine wanting to comfort Anthony Hale!

Inhaling deeply, she mentally shook herself. This service was for Alex. She refused to think about Anthony here. Jessica's hand fumbled for hers, and Chloe squeezed it warmly. They stood together like two sentinels and waited. Chloe listened to the minister's final words through a haze of numb resolve as Alex's body was slowly set into the grave. Glancing over the line of black umbrellas rimming the newly dug grave and walnut casket, she couldn't help another thought of Anthony from creeping in. He'd shocked her, opening his eyes like that yesterday and talking to him again this morning had been surreal and frighteningly deja-vu-ish. He'd been so....willing to talk. Just the sound of his voice had raised her heartbeat and lifted the hairs on her arm, making it difficult to shove him to a distant corner of her mind.

Another flash of memory: meeting Anthony Hale for the first time, dazzled by his wealth, social status and good looks, standing like a deer caught in headlights as she watched him across a crowded room, dumbstruck when he weaved his way through the crowd towards her and they'd been standing face-to-face for the first time.

"I understand you work for Tucker," he had said by way of introduction.

"Yes."

"Interior design?"

"Yes."

"If you have any influence whatsoever, can you get him to stop designing those milk cartons and littering up the waterfront?"

She'd laughed then, her wonderment over meeting him evaporating as she broke into peals of laughter. Tucker James, one of Seattle's most influential developers and Chloe's boss, was chalk full of bad taste. He liked ultra-modern buildings and had the Historical Society, the city of Seattle, and most everyone else up in arms at least once every other year. Chloe sometimes wondered why she aligned herself with Tucker, but she truly thought his ideas were good and often stood around in hurt and confusion at all the slings and arrows thrown his way.

"Those 'milk cartons' aren't so bad" she said.

"Really?" Anthony arched his brow. He was a direct competitor of Tucker's in Hale Industries construction division, though his buildings were unfailingly tasteful no matter what the style.

"You should see the interior. They're fantastic, really."

"Your work?"

She blushed, embarrassed. "The design, I mean."

"I'd like to see them."

She lifted a hand, automatically producing a call card. "Call anytime. Someone will be happy to show you around."

Anthony had extended a hand to receive the card and eyed it silently for a while before locking his eyes with hers again.

"I'd rather have it be you than James."

Chloe lifted her shoulders. "That can be arranged..."

And so had started her life with Anthony Hale. It was funny. Shortly after they got serious, Alex appeared on her doorstep. He had begged her not to marry Anthony, even before Anthony actually popped the question. She'd laughed at his fears, never believing Anthony ever intended to reach that stage with her. Then she was touched when Alex cleaned himself up and suddenly pledged his love for her. She hadn't listened, of course, because not only was she falling in love with Anthony, but she knew Alex's problems weren't over. They'd just been momentarily put on hold. And she wasn't in love with Alex anyway. Not in that way. They were friends and 'adopted' siblings, and she would never regard him as anything else.

Chloe had been sucked into the wonderful, intense life that came with Anthony. He'd seemed larger than life, and she'd fallen so quickly, so completely, that it was a long time before she faced the fact that she'd made a mistake. She hadn't really known him. She hadn't known then that he possessed the soul of a snake and a miserable, shrunken heart. She'd learned those truths the hard way.

Wincing at her own mental honesty, Chloe came back to the reality before her happening at Alex's grave. The casket was covered and people placed roses on top of the fresh dirt mound.

Staring blankly at the grave, Chloe remembered she had seen Alex two weeks ago. He'd come to her condominium, looking absolutely haggard. He'd broken down and cried and said things were just awful. "My life is over" he's said, words that now lifted the hairs behind her neck and caused her to shiver.

She'd offered him a meal and her couch to rest, but he'd turned her down and seemed to have something on his mind. He pulled her into a tight embrace and apart from saying "I'm so sorry Chloe. I'm sorry. So sorry," he'd pulled away and left without another word. And then he was gone.

It hurt. It ached. Alex had never escaped his desire for recreational drugs. He'd battled, lost time. He was a drug addict and that was it.

But he didn't deserve to die!

"Are you stopping by the house?" Jessica asked as everyone began to disperse. Chloe shook her head. She wouldn't be able to stand about while people drank coffee and ate hor d'oeuvres off paper plates and talked in quite circles about Alex.

"I'll come see you both another time," she told the woman who had once prayed that Chloe would call her mother-in-law. She'd lost out on that to Annalise Hale. Chloe shivered again when she thought about how she would have to see Annalise and Johnathan Hale soon, considering Anthony's current situation.

"I'm heading back to the hospital," Chloe whispered as she watched Jessica's eyes fill with tears again.

"Did he say....anything...why?" Jessica's bottom lip shook as she quickly pressed her lips together to try and compose herself.

"No."

"Is he alright?" she asked.

"Physically, he seems to be improving very well. I'm meeting with his doctor tomorrow for a full update." Chloe breathed out while watching Jessica intertwine and separate her fingers repeatedly as a stray tear broke free from the corner of an eye.

"He didn't say anything?" Jessica pressed once more, needing answers Chloe was unable to give.

"Anthony's memory isn't fully there yet," Chloe was forced to admit.

"Amnesia?" Jessica gasped as a hand fluttered to cover her open mouth.

"No. He's just fuzzy on details. Please....I don't know enough yet. Anthony's barely awake most of the time. Believe me, I'll find out what happened." Chloe soothed Jessica while rhythmically rubbing circles at her back.

"I know you will, dear." Jessica said while nodding her head solemnly.

Chloe turned her head to look over towards the lake. The crash was still being investigated, but there was no question that Anthony had been at the controls of the small plane. Preliminary reports suggested mechanical malfunction. Detectives involved in the investigation were being tight-lipped and unresponsive when the suggestion of foul play was brought forward.

"You'll come to me first, right? Please? When you learn the truth?" Jessica's drowning eyes pleaded with Chloe.

Chloe gazed at her helplessly. "If there's any truth to learn," she agreed.

"Thank you, dear...." Jessica began gazing around the room distractedly.

Chloe knew she was looking for her husband who lifted a hand across the grave beside a tall oak a few feet away from them. Chloe guided Jessica to Robert before standing aside while watching them move towards the waiting car on the nearby driveway. Chloe walked back the way she came, feeling weary all over. The cab she took was still there. She'd requested him to wait and he'd happily complied.

"Where to ma'am?" he asked as she closed the door and leaned her head against the cool leather back of the seat.

"Hale Park Hospital, please." she said as her heavy lids fluttered closed and she was asleep in seconds.