It's Not A Game Of Chance When It Comes To Love

Chapter 54

Chapter Fifty-Four…

I sat on Matt’s sofa, cuddled up into Jord’s side with Matt on the opposite couch.

I watched the news with a renewed sense of annoyance building up inside me. It had been a day since I’d visited my parents, but already the news story had built in strength, now that they had the audacity to name me and show a picture.

I noticed with horror that it was my school photo.

Jord’s arm tightened around me and I sighed. “This just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?” I realised as they continued with the same report as last night’s, just with my name inserted in the place of where ‘girl’ had been.

He nodded against my hair. “It does.” He admitted. “But at least they can’t say anything about us directly. They can’t accuse you of being in a relationship with your teacher on live television, as much as they like to imply it.”

I tried to smile, knowing he was right, but still having an incredibly apprehensive feeling about the whole thing.

“People are going to want to talk to you.” Matt warned me seriously. “When it means they can get a story, they aren’t going to care about your feelings.”

“I know.” I replied, grimacing. “And people at school are going to catch on eventually. With the rumours going around it won’t be long before someone puts the two together. At least it won’t be Leonie, though, she’s far too stupid to make such a connection.”

Both brothers chuckled, even though their hearts clearly weren’t in it. “This is going to be one interesting week or two.” Jord commented grimly.

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“Hello Jordan, Jessica.” Anna greeted professionally. “I’d like to introduce my colleague, this is Inspector Rolding.”

The older man she had gestured to smiled warmly, making the wrinkles around his face intensify. “Please, call me Roger.” He said pleasantly. “I want this to be informal. Just a chat where we get to know each other. I’m sure you know it’s more than that really, but I don’t want it to seem like you’re under pressure. Just act normally and we’ll work from there.”

Anna had warned us about this a couple of days previous, when she’d been explaining the effect of the news reports the day after they’d released my name. According to her, the media attention was irrelevant to the case, and that if the jury judged any of their decision on anything media-based information it would be ruled as an incorrect judgement and would be called again.

During that chat, she’d mentioned that her superior would be joining us for a ‘chat’ within the next couple of days and that we really needed to make sure we were prepared. He seemed nice on the outside, but his mind was as sharp as a blade and he would be analysing everything we did. That we needed to act calm, but answer professionally and make sure we didn’t get lulled into a false sense of security. There was a lot riding on this, because this man’s opinion was final.

I smiled warmly at him. I didn’t want to appear too at ease or too worked up. Just normal. That was what Anna had suggested, and when Anna suggested, I listened. “Nice to meet you.” I replied with the same sense of formality. “I’m Jessica,” then I made myself laugh nervously. “Well, obviously.”

Just normal. It was normal to be nervous when talking to the police, at least to a certain extent.

Jord copied my approach, only he was much more professional than me, being older and in a proper career, therefore more used to these situations. “I’m Jordan.” He introduced himself, holding out a hand for the man to shake.