I pushed myself out of the bathroom again, running my fingers through my hair as I walked back to our table. I had decided to play it off with a joke, maybe some self-deprecating jab about being a lightweight, but very quickly, I realized that something was wrong.
He wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere. Ben had left.
And that’s when it hit me: The sudden awkwardness of that kiss.The way his smile had looked so different when I pulled myself away. The way he had been standing there, arms at his side, somewhat rigid. Not moving.
He hadn’t kissed me back.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I push the memory from my mind and make my way back to the dining room—but before I get back to the list, I turn toward my computer and launch a new browser window, Googling myself. My name auto-populates immediately—I’ve done this so many times before—and once the results load, I click on News and sort chronologically.
As predicted, there’s an article, less than two hours old, about my keynote at TrueCrimeCon. I wonder if Ben has Google Alerts set up to notify him anytime my name is mentioned. The thought is endearing for a second, until I realize that he isn’t keeping tabs on me because he cares. He’s keeping tabs because he’s angry.
I click on the link and skim.
Isabelle Drake headlined at TrueCrimeCon this weekend, the largest true crime conference in the world, which draws a global attendance of over 10,000. The keynote focused on her son, Mason Drake, who disappeared from his bedroom on March 6, 2022, and has yet to be found.
While the case has captivated the curiosity of true crime fans across the country, it remains unsolved one year later, with no viable suspects or legitimate leads. Detective Arthur Dozier of the Savannah Police Department implores the public to exercise “patience and trust” as they continue to investigate, although Drake has taken matters into her own hands, speaking openly about the case at conferences and events across the country.
While some see Drake as a determined mother fighting to find her son, others believe her intrusion into an open investigation may come with consequences.
I stare at the picture of myself, openmouthed as I speak into the microphone. I’ve managed to do a pretty good job of hiding my insomnia from others: white eyeliner to make my eyes pop, extra blush for a pretty convincing kick of life. Nobody knows, other than Ben, what my existence really looks like now.
How long the days drag on; the nights, even longer.
The bright auditorium lights are reflecting off the wedding ring I still wear in public, and I snake my hand down the neck of my shirt again, feeling the cool metal of Ben’s ring around my throat. It isn’t his wedding ring—I couldn’t get away with taking that—but a gold college signet ring with his name and graduation date engraved around the outside. I found it, months ago, tossed on top of our dresser as he packed his belongings into various boxes. I remember picking it up, feeling the familiar well of tears erupt at the thought of losing yet another person in my life that I loved.
Then, before I could think twice, I shoved it in my pocket.
I don’t even know why I did it. I guess it was because he was leaving, leaving me, and this was a part of him that I could hold on to. Or maybe it was because by leaving me, he was taking the very last scrap of hope from me—hope that things would somehow wind up okay—and I had wanted to take something from him, too. Even if it was something small, something replaceable. I didn’t even know if he would notice it was missing, but if he did, I wanted him to know how it felt: to look for something and never find it. To wonder where it could have possibly gone, the same way I looked into his eyes and searched for the feelings for me I knew he no longer had.
My eyes flicker across the rest of the image, taking in the crowd. I recognize some of them: the one with the T-shirt and the mousey woman in the front row, tears dripping. They’re watching me hungrily, like vultures ready to pick at something not yet dead. The flash from the camera has done something strange to their eyes, making them look even more ravenous. Making them glow.
They look like they want to devour me whole and lick the blood from my bones.
I stifle a shudder and scroll down to the comments, the real meat of the story. Already, there are dozens.
That poor woman. Can’t imagine. Her talk was great!
Let’s not act like she’s doing this for any reason other than self-promotion. She’s a writer. You know there’s a book deal coming.
Shut up. I hope your kid gets taken so you know how it feels.
Isabelle Drake is a baby killer. Change my mind.