Until November

Chapter 30

Jocelyn 

ALISHA.

Alisha-let-me-help-you. Let me use your restroom. I'll watch Noelle. Go take a shower, Jocelyn. Is that men's deodorant in the bathroom? How are you doing? I will put Noelle down for a nap...I will put groceries in your fridge. I will look at you and lie to your face. She wasn't here for me. She did not show up at my door to help. She had an agenda. Of all the disloyal, rotten, vile actions she could have done. To me. To my brother. To her children. She had been snooping in my bedroom. Every. Chance. She. Got.

I never saw that one coming.

A headache throbs at the base of my neck, I idly rub it, releasing a monster-sized sigh. Mike is coming from the police station. He will be here any minute. Last night railed ahead to this morning when we learned more information. Officer Reeves picked up Alisha at the resort after the press conference to bring her in for questioning. I have no idea what Mia's status is and Ben doesn't either.

Ben. For a spellbinding, fearful moment I thought he was going to blame me in front of the cameras. But he did the opposite. He said my name. He let that secret go so that there would be none left to expose. Even with his impressive scores, his fame, I have never been prouder of him for standing up for me and Noelle. There had been a glimmer of fierce protectiveness when he spoke of his niece. I imagined Jack and Hannah standing on either side of him, a hand on each of his shoulders, right there with him with loving smiles, backing up his every word.

I check my phone. Ben's last message was at three a.m. when he should have been sleeping. Not that either of us got any sleep. Too much was unraveling to find a quiet space in my head.

Ben: What I wouldn't give to have you in my bed right now.

We have spoken briefly, he explained about Mia coming to his suit. He was upset and Eli was hovering and doing damage control. We didn't have a chance to really talk. The tournament begins in three hours and the last couple of days have widened the space between us. The outside of my property has been taken over by the press, to which I have stayed inside with Noelle instead of going to the resort.

Motion is detected on my phone and I go to the window, peeking through the blinds. The cameras, the reporters, a cluster of people hoping to see something worth talking about. Someone brought coffee. Are those bakery boxes from Double Shot? They stay back, not encroaching past my driveway, but making me feel like I'm in a holding cell. The car rumbling up the driveway is Mike's. He's here.

I unlock the door as he walks over, keeping his head partially bowed, avoiding eye contact. He lets himself in as we discussed. His weary eyes meet mine, the lines at the corners of his mouth appear like they are now a permanent frown. "Joss," he says like his voice is muggy and heavy. He folds me in a hug. "I—I don't even know what to say."

I don't know either. "Maybe you could start with Alisha? Where is she?"

"She's going to be charged in multiple counts, I'm sorry I don't know the official names, Officer Reeves spoke so fast. Burglary, attempted assault—she admitted to everything." He runs his hand through his hair.

"Do you want to sit?"

"No. I need to rush back home to be with the girls." He looks like he's in deep pain, his breaths roll out slow. "We had a great life. I have no idea why she did this." His posture deflates with every breath until I think he's going to fold in half. The wrinkles on his shirt are from being awake all night. The bags under his eyes are darker than they looked when he arrived. "Maybe I do."

Mike is in the middle of this and I have no idea what to say or what to do. "Do you want to tell me?" 

"The past year she's been restless. She revived her lifelong dream to be a network anchor. She's not happy with covering a T-ball tournament or interviewing someone for Bingo charity dinners. These stories never boosted her social media following at the station. She was never called to New York for a special assignment. She wanted bigger. She has for some time. I don't know if it's because Brittany is filling out college applications or what or the fact that the new hires at the station are barely legal to drink alcohol. She's been applying for jobs in bigger cities even though I told her to wait until all the girls are out of the house. She tells me she'll be a has-been by then. When she saw that photo of Ben helping you to the hospital, it's like she couldn't see anything else. She was obsessed with this idea she got in her head that you were the surrogate for his late brother and she was going to deliver this case on a silver platter to the networks."