Page 30 of Justice Denied

Her eyebrows rose. “Ah, I see. Pretty, is she?”

His neck heated. Seth resisted the urge to rub it, taking a gulp of his iced green tea to occupy his hands.

“Hey, I’m only teasing.” Leslie tapped his forearm. “It’s a bad habit of mine, and I should learn not to do it with acquaintances.”

“It’s okay.” He swallowed more tea. “I appreciate your help.”

Her phone buzzed. “Looks like Frank remembers the case and is willing to talk with you. I’ll tell him I’m sharing his number with you now.”

His phone alerted him to the incoming text. He quickly composed a new message to Frank, who replied immediately.

I recall the Ainsley case. Happy to discuss. Free this afternoon at four.

I can do four. Where?

My house. 6909 Bright Avenue, McLean.

I’ll be there.

Leslie drained the remainder of her drink. “I gotta run. Good luck with Frank.”

“Thanks for your help.” Seth decided to finish his beverage and plot out the questions he wanted to ask Frank Warner about the Ainsley case. He texted Jetta a quick update and asked if she wanted to accompany him to Frank’s. Her affirmative response made him smile. Too bad it was because of minuscule progress in the case and not to spend more time with him.

* * *

“Areyou going to tell me what’s wrong?” Emily raised her eyebrows as her daughter glanced at her. Jetta had been milling about her room ever since Seth left.

“Someone tried to kill you last night.” Jetta slid her gaze away.

Children might grow up, but a mother always knew when they weren’t telling the entire truth. Jetta’s tell was that slight ducking of the head as she broke eye contact. Emily would have smiled had she not been worried about what her youngest was keeping from her. She might have trouble walking with this blasted cast, but she still had a sharp mind.

“Jetta.” The single word snapped her daughter’s attention back to Emily. “I’m your mother. I know when something else is bothering you.”

Tears tumbled down Jetta’s cheeks. She dashed them away with the back of her hand before turning her back on Emily. Her posture stiff, she spoke to the window. “Oh, Mom. I made a huge mess of things, and I’m afraid I’ll do it again.”

“About what?”

“I thought Kyle loved me, that we had a future.”

Emily waited for her to say more, grateful her daughter was finally opening up about what happened in Chicago. She hadn’t wanted to push for answers when Jetta had come home seven months ago, drawn and pale, but as her pregnancy became apparent, Emily had known as mothers do something dreadful had happened to her youngest.

“Then Kyle became more and more possessive.”

As Jetta outlined a few examples, Emily’s heart ached as she revealed how bad it had become with her boyfriend.

“I realized I had to break up with him, that this wasn’t normal behavior. He didn’t take it well, said no one broke up with him. Threatened me, but thank goodness I had the foresight to do it during dinner in a crowded restaurant, so there wasn’t much he could do. I left, having arranged an Uber to pick me up. I thought that was that—he would realize it was over and move on to the next girl.” She huffed a laugh. “I knew he’d already lined her up.”

“He was seeing someone else while dating you?” Outrage on her daughter’s behalf slipped out before Emily could stop herself.

Jetta shrugged. “It was the way he operated, I learned later. He’d begun to come onto me while dating the woman before me. I was foolish and stupid and got sucked in by his charm and good looks, and yes, money. He took me to expensive restaurants and concerts, bought me pricey jewelry. He was older—in his late 30s—and I thought I was so sophisticated, so special. It was all an act he used on young women.”

Concern over the direction the tale was taking inched up Emily’s spine, but she stayed silent as Jetta continued her story.

“Then a few weeks after the breakup, I woke up in the middle of the night to find Kyle in my bedroom.”

Emily’s heart stuttered.No, please God, no.

“Earlier, he apparently had taken my key ring without my knowledge and made a copy of the apartment door key. He told me no one walked away from him. Then he…” She hiccuped as sobs tore through her body. “He, he…he raped me.”

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