A Broken Fate by Cat Mann

  ****

  The three of us had planned to sleep on the plane ride home, but Ari had gotten a ton of emails from Margaux before we boarded the flight. He groaned and started to get to work as soon we took flight. I looked over his shoulder and asked to look at his work for a bit. I needed a distraction, something to keep my mind off the secrets I was harboring from my love. He gladly handed his iPad over and took his glasses off, rubbing the bridge of his nose. I read Margaux’s notes over and shot her back an email under Ari’s name addressing the situation at hand. Her problem was clearly something of importance to her, though not really to anyone else. The issue had a quick fix and I knew Margaux had already seen the resolution...she just wanted to remind Ari that she could demand things at a moment’s notice.

  “All finished, that should keep the devil happy for a bit. I wish Perry were still here. He could do this and you wouldn’t have to.”

  Ari smiled crookedly at me.

  “If he were here, Ava, then I wouldn’t have a job.”

  “True, but you don’t need a job. We could just be beach bums.”

  Ari laughed.

  “Three weeks ago I couldn’t get you near the water and now you want to be a beach bum? Not happening. I want a job, Ava. It’s not a matter of whether I need one or not. I want to provide for you, for our family.”

  “You do provide for me, Ari. You don’t need to work for baio to make me happy. And I do miss Perry; he was so nice to me,” I said as I snuggled my head down on Ari’s shoulder.

  “Really? You hardly ever mention him.”

  I bit at the inside of my lip. I didn’t like to think about Perry because thinking of his death reminded me that it had been caused by my hand. I took a deep breath and very quietly began to tell Ari about my first encounter with cutting the thread. I toyed with Ari’s fingers while I spoke, and I twirled his wedding band around his ring finger. When I finally told him everything about that dream and his death and the funeral, he turned to me, moving my head off his shoulder.

  “So, Margaux and your mom both knew that you cut Perry’s thread?”

  I nodded my head, “I didn’t know it then, but yeah, they knew.”

  “Why didn’t they tell you who you were?”

  “I don’t know, Ari. There is just so much that I do not know.”

  I put my head back on his shoulder and fell asleep.