Sandcastles | Completed

31 | bliss

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Jailyn Smith

Time ticked by, and eventually, he came in and closed the door behind him, walking towards me, "I thought Kensley would've told you there's cameras in here."

"She-" I swallowed hard and tried to subtly back away, "She didn't."

He nodded, "She probably forgot. Did you need some more time to go through my desk?"

It didn't seem like he'd have to kill me, I'd probably die from the calmness at which he was speaking.

"No."

I grabbed the edge of the chair to stand and was walking towards the door when he grabbed my arm, it wasn't hard– more firm. I looked at the hand, then back to his face, still nothing there.

"Walk with me."

Prayer usually worked, so I prayed down the stairs, through the kitchen, onto the patio where he finally let me go and looked around.

"This is the only place in my house that doesn't have cameras."

"Eli I-"

"I can't imagine what you feeling right now, but I'm telling you to let it go. Coby died in a car accident. Raise ya' baby and tell her that her daddy was a good person."

"While the person who killed him walks around like nothing?"

He rubbed a hand over his face, "Everybody get what's coming to them, Jai."

"He didn't deserve to die. Yeah, it was fucked what he was doing, but he still didn't deserve to never meet his child."

"I'm not disagreeing witchu'. All I'm saying is, the only thing worse than losing one parent, is losing both of 'em."

He made it sound so simple, to go on as if nothing had happened when it was exactly the opposite.

It wasn't so much as the fact that Coby was my boyfriend, but because the daughter we created together would only know one of us.

I'd have to lie to her and pretend that her dad died in a car accident when the truth was that he was killed because he chose to cheat with someone who was married.

Lauren picked tonight to tell me that, upset by the fact that he was trying to his buy his way out of what he did.

I still didn't know how she got my number, but she sent me a long text that explained everything, the duration of her and Coby's relationship, the night he was killed– everything that couldn't be proved.

Insert me searching Eli's office.

"What am I supposed to do then?"

Eli didn't answer immediately, staring into the darkness, "Just wait."

"Why would I wait? Lauren can tell them they were together, she saw the whole thing."

"You talked to Lauren?"

When I said yes, his expression changed to understanding, "So you're the next pawn in they lil sick ass game. I'll tell you how this'll play out. You go tell what you think happened, they start investigating, Marc hires me as his lawyer, I find out who the main witness is," Eli gestured to me, "They find you, I console Kensley when she crying about her best friend missing."

I couldn't form a response, and he kept talking, "Jai, this not nun you'll win. I gotta find a way to make some stick, so it doesn't lead back to us."

"Then you're helping me?"