Free Death by Proposal by Jaden Skye

know
him. Give this time, Kate. It’s been a long distance relationship. How many
times have you and Clay actually been together, face to face?”
    “What
about Sean?” another message said. “I’d say you’re jumping the gun. Be careful.”
    Another
message was halting. Must have been from a friend of Sean’s.
     “Come
on, Kate, this is on the rebound. You and Sean just barely broke up. It’s too
soon. Give yourself a chance. I know you were hurt, but -.”
    Cindy
stopped and read the last two messages over a few times. Kate had been hurt by Sean
and soon after that she and Clay met.
    Cindy
looked through Kate’s friends, trying to find Sean’s photo. It wasn’t there. He’d
been de-friended a few weeks before. It made sense.
    As
Cindy kept scanning the page, she looked up and saw that Clay had stepped out
on the patio and was sitting on a chair at the end, watching her.
    “Do
you happen to remember Sean’s last name?” Cindy called to him. She wanted to look
at Sean’s page as well.
    “No
I don’t, Kate never told me,” said Clay. “Sean wasn’t important to her anymore.
She didn’t talk much about him. Why should she, she had me now.”
    “I
know,” said Cindy, “but sometimes girl’s like to talk about what happened with
their ex.”
    Clay
bristled, stood up and walked over to Cindy.
    “I
don’t really consider him her ex, I consider him her nothing,” he said, tossing
the idea aside with the flick of a hand.
    “Her
Facebook page says she was hurt by Sean,” countered Cindy, waiting to see how
Clay would respond. “It also said that you and she just recently met each
other.”
    Clay
stopped walking and froze again. “You don’t understand,” he finally said. “Time
means nothing when you meet your soul mate.”
    Cindy
shivered as he spoke.
    “Kate
didn’t talk about Sean, but she did talk about his girl, Riva,” Clay continued.
“Kate blamed Riva for stealing Sean away. She said Riva was a nasty, low life.”
    “What
did you say?” asked Cindy.
    “I
told her that Sean was the loser, that they probably deserved each other. And, that
no one could ever hold a candle to her,” said Clay.
    “Kate
must have liked that,” said Cindy.
    “She
did,” Clay agreed, “she liked everything about me, adored me, felt completely
wanted by me. But she still would go on about what an awful person Riva was. I
was surprised when I actually met Riva that night.”
    “Surprised?”
asked Cindy.
    “I
didn’t think she was so awful,” said Clay. “She seemed sweet to me. And, since Kate’s
died, she’s been emailing me to offer support.”
    Cindy
shuddered. Then it struck her like a bolt. “Emailing you? She’s still here in
the hotel? Sean’s still with her?”
    “Yes,
of course,” said Clay.
    “Of
course? Some guests have been cleared to leave,” said Cindy. “How do you know
they haven’t?”
    “I
just got an email from Riva a couple of hours ago. She said they were staying
at the hotel for another few days.”
    “Do
you happen to know their room number?” asked Cindy.
     “Of
course I don’t. Why would I?” Clay was becoming perturbed again.
    “It’s
okay, thanks Clay,” Cindy’s heart started beating fast.
    “Do
you want to see the emails Riva sent me?” asked Clay his eyes growing wide.
    Cindy
just wanted to get out of there and let Mattheus know that both Sean and Riva
were still at the hotel, but she also wanted to look at the emails he’d
received.
    “Sure,
show them to me.”
    Clay
came over, took the computer and soon brought up their correspondence.
    Clay,
I’m so, so sorry to hear about what happened to Kate. It’s shocking. It’s
awful. I can’t believe it. Riva.
    Thanks
Riva, appreciate it, Clay replied.
    I
can’t stop thinking about this, Clay, the second email said. If there’s
anything at all you need from me, please let me know. Kate was such a sweet,
sweet girl. Riva.
    Cindy
found that odd. She wondered why Riva made no mention of Sean at