Chapter 8

Connor's funeral was scheduled for the following Sunday. The medical examiner in California, at a loss to explain the injuries any other way, had accepted the explanation of wild dogs. It set off a search for the missing pack and the story made the local news. Damon, and three other pack members who accompanied him down to California to bring the body back on Friday.

Isabella hadn't heard anything about Damon's investigation. He'd called her once, in the middle of the week, to confirm a few details, but he didn't provide many of his own. He stayed on the phone as long as he could and asked how she was doing. Hearing his reassuring voice again made her feel warm inside.

While they waited for everyone to return, Bella patiently endured two conversations in which she assured her mother that, no, there was no chance she was pregnant. Bella dodged the more invasive questions about her sex life with Connor, choosing to let her mother believe she had never slept with him during his last visit. It was easier than than trying to explain that she had always been very careful about using condoms and Connor had enthusiastically honored her request. Bella thought some werewolf kin, like her mother, could be worse than Catholics when it came to the subject of contraception.

She knew what her mother hoped for — that her wayward daughter would redeem the family honor with an unplanned but fortuitous pregnancy. The pack would deal better with the loss of their up-and-coming star quarterback if the girl who was supposed to marry him had come home with his child.

Her father seemed bothered by something that week, perhaps work related. He was the least emotional person in the household, making it difficult for Bella to know what he was thinking. He did try, a few times, to console her in his own way, which mostly meant trying to distract her with offers to play cards or watch tv, none of which Bella really felt like doing. She appreciated the effort — she just couldn't. Not yet.

Sunday came and the entire village turned out for Connor's funeral. It was a closed casket service. Bella sat between her parents, all of them wearing funereal black purchased for the occasion. Bella wore a prim, knee-length dress and had her hair up in a french braid.

During the ceremony she studied the portrait of Connor framed by a wreath. She recognized it from a professional photo taken for his senior pictures. He was smiling in that lopsided way of his, as though he was sharing a joke with the viewer. She thought it captured him pretty well. Bella wondered if life with him would have been so terrible. If she could rewind, would she still trade his life for her freedom? Right now, with his casket not twenty feet away, she couldn't imagine she would. Bella tried not to think about the fact that she was probably the only person present who knew what Connor's body looked like inside that casket.

Connor's family sat on the opposite side of the church. His two elementary-aged siblings clung to their mother. Their faces showed mournful confusion. Connor's mother looked like an absolutely broken woman. Ordinarily very pretty, her eyes and nose were red from crying, and her shoulders hunched over.

After the funeral, Bella walked in silence behind her parents. Her father had an arm around her mother's shoulders. Her mother was crying silently and dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

"What are you doing here?"

The loud, clear voice came from somewhere behind her. It was jarring, hearing it cut above the low conversations and relative silence of the cemetery. Bella looked around, curious.

"What... are you... doing here?" It was Laura, Connor's mother. Bella blinked in surprise as she realized the accusing question was directed at her. "I don't understand. Why would you come here?" The words were pleading, full of heartache.

Bella realized everyone had turned to look at her.

"I asked you a question," Laura continued. Her husband tried to draw her away, but she shrugged his hand off. "Why are you here?"

Bella looked at her parents and back at Laura. "I— I just came to pay my respects—"

"How dare you?" Laura took a few staggering steps closer, but kept a good distance between them. "How dare you come here when you rejected him? My son wasn't good enough for you. It was all set. We finally had the chance to bring our families together. Everything would have been perfect. And then you got it into your stupid little head that you didn't need him. You have ruined everyone's lives. My son would be alive today if you hadn't run off."

Bella didn't know what to say. She kept looking at all the faces staring back at her, some with pity, some sharing Laura's contempt. "I—"

"You didn't even stay to bring back his body. You just fled home and abandoned him. His body was left alone in a strange city for almost a week. You left him. Again. So why would you bother to show up here today?"

Bella felt herself starting to cry, so she turned and ran in the direction of her parents' car. She heard them talking, arguing without trying to further upset the grieving mother, but she didn't stop to listen to what anyone was saying. She only heard Laura's voice above the others, aimed straight at her.

"You killed my son!"

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