My road to freedom

The party

Chapter 3: The party

Onnica's POV 

I had been working for over two hours making notes on new cases and reviewing old ones. Clearly, Jesse and the redhead had no work to do so they were busy making a lot of noise. I frowned and raised my head a bit, just a bit. Lisa was looking at me. When my eyes locked with hers, she looked away. I heard the brunette next to them laugh in a high pitched voice. I couldn't help but laugh myself. She sure needed some laughing lessons. 

It was clear I was the centre of their conversation when Jesse turned and looked at me. I looked away. I took a deep breath and focused on my work. Lord knows what they were saying about me! Well, I didn't care. 

"Onnica..." Jesse's voice entered my ear, making me jump. 

I was so surprised that I scratched some of the words on the document I was reading with my pen. 

"Jesus Jesse! Did you have to do that? Now look what you have made me do", I snapped. 

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to sneak up on you. Technically, I did not sneak up on you, I just walked here". 

"Walk, hop, run, I don't care". 

Just then Max Vercetti walked out of his office. He approached my desk. I hid the scratched words on the paper I was reading with my hands. Jesse did not move an inch. 

"Hastings, stop bothering my assistant!" Max said as he took a playful swipe at Jesse. 

Jesse ducked and laughed. 

"I am not bothering you Onnica, am I?" he asked sweetly. 

"No", I said through gritted teeth. 

"I'm going out. Liam Sanchez won't dare come to my office. Spoilt brat! Hold all my calls. You don't have to go with", Max said. 

"Yes sir", I said. 

"Thought you'd like to look at this", Max said as he handed me a copy of lawyers weekly before walking away. 

I looked at Jesse, indicating that he should leave. He merely looked at me back. I ignored him and started perusing through the magazine. Page six, "Joshua Montgomery arrested for drunken driving out on bail", the headline read, "Court case scheduled for 12-09-2008". A picture accompanied the article. 

My heart started beating faster. That face... that face... I stopped breathing. I put my hands around my mouth without noticing it. Tears pushed against my eyeballs, wanting to be set free. I fought to push them back. Memories rushed to engulf me, sending me back to 5 years ago. 

I was 15 years old. I was free. I was energetic. I was in love. Most of all, I was a teenager. I was naïve, I believed everything. My family stayed in Wales. My father was a factory worker, my mother and estate agent. Mom had found work in Monaco and wished we could move there so she wouldn't have to leave without us. Dad had plainly refused. He wasn't about to leave his hometown and his job. We ended up not moving. Mom visited Monaco on a regular basis and I went with her. Monaco was beautiful, it enchanted me. It also blinded me... 

"Hello... Miss Wheeler, are you okay?" Jesse's voice shook me out of my reverie. 

I stuck my nose in the air. 

"Yes", I said curtly. 

"No, you are not. You are exhausted, I can tell. This is why you need to go out with us tonight". 

I breathed a sigh of relief. The moment he said I was not fine; I thought he would realize I was hiding something and pester me about it until I sang like a canary. I didn't feel at all exhausted, but he'd given me a lifeline, might as well use it.