Friendship Heirlooms Series, Book 7: All Good Things by Karen Wiesner

Chapter 1

Six months later...

A familiar sound threatened to bring Vashti to the surface of consciousness, but she fought anything that might wake her from slumber. She'd gone to bed late after staying up well past midnight with a group of authors attending the same conference she was in British Columbia.

The sound she recognized as a song--a ringtone--refused to go away yet she continued to resist its pull. Better not be Alexa, her mind grumbled, only semi-awake.

Against her will, the question who else might be calling her at this time of the morning--it had to be an ungodly hour--intruded so she found herself rousing despite continuing to cling to the fringes of sleep.

Groaning loudly, Vashti swam through the blankets she was immersed under, peeking out into the pitch-black room. Even as she saw the red numbers on the hotel room's digital clock, telling her it was 5:30 in the morning, she recognized the ringtone on her phone.

Mom! Mom wouldn't call me this early unless...

The last time she'd been home had been when Roz died. She hadn't stayed for the funeral. She'd sent sympathy cards to Roz's parents, even to Justice's mom because she couldn't go away from Estella without saying a word. She hadn't given explanations, but she'd written what she could.

While she'd made Justice a promise she hadn't actually intended to keep when she gave it, she'd been true to her word. She hadn't tried to see him again. She'd thrown herself into her work--churning out three books on the topic of legal answers to questions authors frequently asked--attending conferences, taking contracts from countless writers for research projects. She'd called the members of her family at least once a week, sometimes every night, to make up for the damage of her absence.

Missing Christmas the first time in her life had been a nightmare. She'd gone back and forth about what to do, but, when the time came to get her butt home, she'd found herself paralyzed. As if the promise she'd made to Justice had been some kind of binding magic spell, she couldn't cross the threshold, couldn't get herself to return to her hometown of Peaceful. A part of her felt like the memories, the sense of betrayal and trauma would overwhelm her if she tried and she wouldn't survive the fallout this time.

Her hand thrust out of the sea of blankets for her cell phone, and she swiped with her thumb even as she put the device to her ear. "Mom, what's going on?" She did the calculation in her head for time difference and knew it was actually a decent hour in Wisconsin right now--two hours later.

Maybe she just misses me. She gets nostalgia in the early morning when she's up before everyone else. Nothing happened this time--

"Honey, there was an accident--"

"Another accident?" Maybe I'm dreaming. Just don't say Justice. Don't say--

Almost at the same time, she spoke out loud as her mother said the exact same thing she did: "Justice."

Vashti squeezed her eyes shut, aware she'd been waiting for this for six months. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. The words he'd spoken in that hospital room--words meant for her, God, Roz--a memory, dead, a ghost; maybe any and all--had been those of someone at the end of his rope. "How much more punishment? How much do I deserve? Get it over with! You could've ended it for both of us, but you're not done with me yet, are you?"

"Where is he?" she asked instead of "How is he?", praying double-time that her mother wouldn't answer the question she'd avoided by saying the one thing that would have destroyed the last of her fragile soul. "He's in the hospital. But Roz-- Roz is...gone. Killed. There was an explosion."

"He's actually not far from you, and that's why I called you, honey. Estelle called me because I'd seen her recently and mentioned you were speaking at a conference in Vancouver. In any case, Justice is there...close by. He was spring skiing at Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort."

Vashti had considered extending her own trip for a little spring skiing. That Justice was skiing was no surprise. He'd been a hound about the sport most of his life, just as she had been. Because they'd gone together most of those times when she was younger, she knew firsthand that Justice was an okay skier, not a great one, and he was best on the easy to moderate difficulty hills. Trying to steer him from the difficult or expert ones hadn't been easy because, while she and Roz had never gone off-piste, they'd enjoyed the black runs. Sometimes Roz and Justice had stupidly lost all sense with their ski-bombing, but Vashti had refused to join in that recklessness, afraid of hurting others along with herself.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she asked, "What happened?"

"You can guess. He went on the most difficult trail currently open."

"And broke something?" Vashti wasn't ready to be relieved yet.

"His ankle. He's at Whistler Medical Clinic. He didn't want anyone to know, but he can't be discharged until he's got someone to drive him. He apparently had a concussion and may still have one. He called his mother."

Vashti frowned. "Mom, what does this have to do with me? Justice and I...we're not friends anymore. I'm sorry about his accident." He was probably bombing and that's why it happened.

"Estelle can't get to him as fast as she'd like."

A sigh escaped her, far too large for the circumstances. "Justice doesn't want to see me. He made that clear last time. I told you that."

He blames me...or...I don't know, the sight of me torments me somehow, makes him remember things that cause him to suffer and feel punished by the universe. God Himself.

But I did what he asked me to, what he unfairly made me promise. I went away and I haven't seen him since. Haven't seen my own family because he cursed Peaceful so entering my own home feels wrong. I told myself I could live with not seeing Justice. Forever if I have to. So there's no reason I should ever see him again. Why should I care about any of this?

The mere thought of such a cruel sentiment had her begging the Lord to forgive her for her insensitivity and selfishness. She'd felt it frequently when her mother had unwillingly fed her information about the explosion that had killed Roz and landed Justice in the hospital.

He'd had no choice but to give his testimony during the investigation. He and Roz had apparently had an argument--another one. It seemed the couple did little else but fight, make up, and start all over again. He'd gone to work to escape the latest bout and gotten home late that night. Just as he'd pulled into their driveway, he'd gotten a text from Roz. She'd taken a picture of herself in front of the open gas stove. No flames could be seen on the range. She'd been holding a candle and a lighter. Her text had said "Now I won't be a burden to you anymore, my love. You're free. And I'll always love you even if you can't love me the absolute way I've always needed you to. Yours for eternity, Roz."

Justice had run to the front door. As he'd unlocked it, screaming his wife's name, the explosion had come, throwing him clear with powerful force. While he'd been superficially wounded and lost consciousness, he'd suffered nothing like he would have if he'd gotten inside the house before Roz lit her candle in the gas-filled room.

According to the investigators, she'd been filling the house with the invisible gas for the period of hours. She'd probably been feeling the physical effects of the gas by the time Justice got home, but somehow--maybe by spending most of it outdoors (as the neighbors corroborated she had)--she'd been able to text him the final payoff she'd prepared in advance and delivered almost as soon as he arrived. The explosion had decimated the house--and the woman inside it.

Even as Vashti had wept endlessly for all that'd been lost in the months that followed, she'd understood Roz far longer than even she wanted to. Roz had wanted to punish Justice because he wasn't as obsessed and manic about her as she'd been about him--but she hadn't wanted to physically hurt him. What she'd done had had nothing to do with love, pure love, sacrificial or any other kind. She'd wanted to haunt him for the rest of his life so he'd blame himself and never be whole again.

She wanted to make sure he'd never dare to try to get over her, fall in love again, and live a normal life without her.

Guilty as those thoughts had made Vashti feel to entertain, she'd known they were the truth. There were so many ugly truths she didn't want uncovered even as she did more than anything.

She guilted Justice into choosing her over me. She was never happy, not even when she got exactly what she wanted. If anything, she'd probably been more miserable. Roz would never have gotten herself to believe he would have chosen her willingly, and not because she'd manipulated him. She would always doubt and it would make her insane.

She did everything in her power to make Justice just as miserable--because if she wasn't happy, no one should be. Justice went out of his way to cut all ties with me after she died. He didn't do it because it would help him heal and find closure. He did it because, as usual, it was what Roz would have wanted. And so I did the same.

Despite asking those around her not to tell her what was going on with Justice, they continued to anyway. Since Roz's death, he hadn't gone back to practicing law at their family legal firm. He'd claimed to need time. But what he did with that time...

"Estelle is trying to get a flight out to be with to Justice, but she can't possibly arrive faster than you could."

"Please tell me you guys aren't matchmaking. Because Justice hates me--"

"No one could hate you."

"He doesn't want to see me. He couldn't have made that clearer."

"I promise we're not doing that, Vashti. This isn't about that at all."

"So she really thinks he's hurt?"

"Yes. He passed out and was confused for a long time after they got him to the hospital. So whatever's happening may be worse than it seems. As for the broken ankle, you would know best about what trouble that's going to cause him. You had the same injury when you were fifteen."

Certainly, it was true that Vashti had had her share of injuries growing up. She'd been athletic, energetic and adventurous. But the worst injury had come from a skateboarding accident--reckless stupidity.

She'd probably never forget the first few days. She'd felt like she was in a nightmare that would never end. Being utterly helpless was foreign for someone so independent. Her mother used to joke that she'd checked herself into school when she was five and handled all the paperwork herself. She'd had to learn to use crutches, accept help, and she'd hated every traumatizing moment of what she considered the ultimate debasement.

For Justice, who was impossibly more independent than even she was--but with a heavy dose of iron-bull stubbornness--she couldn't imagine how he'd survive it. When he was sick, he was a big baby, for one thing, and for two, he'd never accept help willingly if there was the remotest chance he could do something himself with a little (or a lot of) effort.

"He's going to need help, especially the first few days," her mom said what she well-knew.

"Maybe he should stay in the hospital until Estelle gets here."

"He won't. Estelle says if they don't discharge him, he'll leave on his own, and he'll hurt himself worse."

"I don't know what you guys want me to do. I have no control over him."

"Oh, Vashti, Justice hasn't been the same since--"

Since Roz destroyed him--maybe not physically but in every other conceivable way.

"He doesn't want me there, Mom. He doesn't want anything to do with me. You know that's why I don't come home. If you guys didn't visit me, I'd probably go crazy, but...I feel like if I set foot in Peaceful--"

She shook her head, unable to voice the feeling of dread that was so big and bad, she hadn't been able to fight it in all this time. "I can't bulldoze my way into his clinic room and demand to know if he'll live. Surely Justice didn't lie to his mother when he talked to her and told her he broke his ankle and maybe has a concussion. So he's probably fine."

"She said if you don't want to go into his room, that's okay. She just wants someone there. To make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

"You're saying Justice isn't thinking rationally," Vashti guessed.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Broken ankle or something worse, that's not the part that has Estelle worried."

Vashti swallowed, understanding even though a part of her didn't want to. His mother was worried that this accident was no accident. She thinks he may have been trying to kill himself to escape all that Roz settled on him like a black-magic hex.

"The conference you attended is over now, isn't it?" her mother asked gently.

A bit of grousing brought the answer. "Yes. I have a flight out first thing in the morning."

"It's not even a full, two-hour drive, honey. As soon as Estelle gets there, you can leave. You'll have time to rearrange your flight home while you wait with him...or just outside his room."

Though everything inside her insisted she categorically say 'no', Vashti couldn't refuse. She began the long task of packing--something she tended to wait until the last minute to do anyway--then hopped into a shower, finished packing, and left a note for the conference coordinator she'd planned to have breakfast with. In her rental SUV, she programmed the GPS for the Whistler Medical Clinic.

It wasn't long before her mind settled where it'd been going often lately. That Justice was so close to her seemed like extreme coincidence. Maybe he wasn't in Vancouver, but he was close enough for kissing, as the saying went.

And this isn't the first time in the last six months that I've felt like Justice was near me. I could swear I saw him more than once during my travels. Definitely on the book tour after Frequently Asked Legal Questions Answered for Writers, Volume I came out. And I'm pretty sure I saw him at some of the other conferences I've been to in-between my book tour.

Is Justice following me? Why? Why would he do that?

Just like all the other times she'd wondered, she couldn't get herself to believe he would, nor fathom a reason for such a breach of conduct considering he was the one who'd expressly made her promise to honor his wish for her to stay away from him indefinitely.

Although Vashti had promised her mother she'd stay in the clinic, outside Justice's room, until Estelle arrived, she realized long before she reached the location at 7:30 in the morning and found his room that she wasn't going to be able to stay quietly outside his room and keep vigil. She wanted to know if and most certainly why he'd been following her, or at least keeping tabs on her.