Standing there as the morgue attendant opened the freezer and slid the tray out, I found myself wishing I could go back to those days of hoping—not the harsh confirmation that was the corpse lying on the table.
Her cheek was cold when I stroked it. I remembered how warm it used to be when I would stroke them to comfort her.
The tears I had been holding back came flooding out.
Distantly, I heard the morgue attendant walk out to give me some space, leaving me and Stephen alone with Bella.
Stephen gave me his condolences, and I laughed at how sad it was that this strange man was being kinder to me about my sister’s passing than my own husband.
"I failed her," I whispered as I stroked her hair, brittle and dry without her rigid hair care routine.
"There was nothing you could have done. And now, you are doing all that you can."
"You’re right. I'll do everything I can to make them pay," I swore, my hands trembling when I thought of Katherine and especially Nathan.
"But first, I want her buried."
"Coming here is already a huge risk. There’s no way you could bury her without them knowing you've found her body."
He was right. No matter how much it hurt, I had to leave her body lying on the cold slab until I could give her justice.
"I'll be back," I promised, brushing her hair out of her face.
My hand stilled when a black shape on the left side of her neck caught my eye.
Carefully, I turned her head to the side until I could see it more clearly and frowned in confusion.
It was a tattoo of a barcode that I was certain had not been there when she first went missing.
"What is this?" I asked, waving Stephen over to take a look at it.
He crouched down and studied it for a few seconds then stepped away from Bella's corpse with a grim expression.
"Stephen. What is it?" I asked again, growing fearful after his bizarre reaction.
"I thought it was just a rumor."
"What rumor?" I demanded impatiently.
"That Nathan Foster’s dabbling in a new kind of business."
He glanced at Bella pointedly and it suddenly clicked.
Human trafficking.
Those two words were the nail in the coffin, burying whatever love still remained in me for Nathan.
"So Bella is one of—"
"Hundreds, maybe thousands of men, women, and children taken and sold."
My hand fell to my belly, and I stumbled away from the body, fearing I would empty my coffee all over her.
"I have to stop this," Stephen whispered to himself.