Page 60 of Justice Denied

“So no one from your family ever met Kyle?” Seth tugged Bingley away from a flower bed as the streetlights came on to illuminate the dusk.

“No. Jenna asked the right questions about his over-reaction to a change in plans, but I wasn’t ready to hear it. I still thought he hung the moon, as my grandmother used to say.”

Bingley barked at a neighbor walking a black lab, and Seth tightened his grip on the leash. They passed a neat brick house with a freshly mowed lawn and few ghosts hanging from the small tree in the front yard.

“I don’t get why people decorate for Halloween.” Jetta pointed to the extremely tall skeleton on the lawn. “It’s not even October.”

“I guess because pumpkin spice comes out in early August, people think it’s time to break out the Halloween decorations in late September.”

“Maybe.” She swiped across her face with the back of her hand. “I’m so tired of these blasted tears. Every time I turn around, I’m bawling like a baby.” She pointed a finger at him. “And don’t you dare say that’s because I’m having one.”

His lips twitched, but Seth managed to turn his head so she wouldn’t see his almost-smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I found out Kyle’s true colors around Halloween last year, two months after Jenna’s visit. It was such an ordinary day. We were supposed to go to a Halloween party, one of those adult dress-up affairs. He’d bought costumes for us but hadn’t shown me the outfits, saying he wanted it to be a surprise.” She snorted. “He certainly succeeded. He came dressed as a pirate complete with swashbuckling sword and eyepatch. My outfit was much skimpier. The skirt, if you could call it that, would have barely covered my rear. The top consisted of a laced corset type thing, a bustier I think they’re called. I took one look at the scraps of fabric and said no. Kyle was furious. He exploded in a rage, calling me all sorts of nasty words and threatening to leave me if I didn’t go get dressed in the wench’s costume.”

Seth was glad Kyle was in Chicago because the urge to plant one in his face grew with each snippet of Jetta’s tale. He never understood the sheer selfishness of some men in the way they expected their women to behave.

“So I called his bluff and said fine, leave me. I wasn’t wearing the outfit.”

They had rounded the block with their houses in sight. Seth said a prayer of thanks for her courage in extracting herself from such a volatile relationship. Although if she broke up with Kyle last October 31, then the baby must not be his because the math didn’t add up. Babies didn’t take eleven months to be born.

“He stormed out and didn’t call me for two weeks, during which time I had a good, long think about our relationship.”

“What did you conclude?”

“You mean besides the fact that I was better off without him?”

“Yep.”

“That I had been a fool, but at least God had opened my eyes at last.” She halted at the walkway leading to her front door and laid a hand on his forearm. “Seth, I’m so sorry for those terrible words I said about you. You’ve been nothing but kind and generous and caring toward me and my mom, and I let my fear about my mom and uncertainty about my own future cloud my judgment. I hope you can forgive me and that we can be friends.”

His heart, which had begun to beat faster at her light touch and her complimentary words, slowed as she friend-zoned him. “Of course I forgive you.”I’m in love with you. I’d forgive you anything.He swallowed the words he wanted to say, knowing it wasn’t the right time. It might never be the right time, not if she continued to vacillate between flirting and friending.

She squeezed his arm. “Thank you. I don’t deserve someone like you.”

“I think you do, but that’s a conversation for another day.” He handed over Bingley’s leash. “You look about to drop on your feet.”

She stifled a yawn behind her hand. “The day’s caught up with all of a sudden.”

“I’ll keep praying for you and your mom. Sleep tight, Jetta.”

With a wave, she trudged up to her door. He watched from the sidewalk until she and the dog disappeared inside, then went to find something to eat. He hoped his roommates hadn’t eaten the leftover chicken, or it would be cereal for dinner. If only his love life could be so easy to solve as feeding his stomach.

* * *

Mae huffed asshe searched the shelves in the supply closet for binder clips. The office manager assured her the company had recently ordered more, but Mae had yet to find them. Ryan preferred the clips to staples on his reports, so she regularly ran through her desk supply. She made a mental note to assign the office manager with the task of organizing the spacious closet on the upcoming office cleanup day. Mae would attach Ryan’s name to the order so the woman wouldn’t dare not comply. Samantha Layne would know it was Mae’s revenge for the binder search, but she would still have to re-organize the supplies.

Mae moved to the far corner of the room where a stack of boxes had been opened but not put away. She grabbed a single step stool to use to peer into the box, which held packages of multicolored sticky notes. Moving the top box to the floor, she tried the middle box. Rubber bands, dry erase markers, and Sharpies. After stacking the middle box on top of the former upper box, she sat on the stool to go through the bottom one. This one held even more of a hodgepodge of supplies.

She dug into the box, shifting the contents around as much as she could without removing anything. Ah, there at the very bottom sat a box of binder clips. She excavated her find but froze as the sound of voices filtered to her.

“What did you find out?” a familiar woman’s voice said.

“You sure we’re alone?” a male voice answered.

“Still scared of closets like when we were kids, Gene?”

Mae put a name to the taunting feminine voice. Yasmine Topher, who, in her opinion, had more brains than her two brothers but because she’d been born female—and the third child—she’d been largely regulated to the sidelines. But Mae saw through her façade of indifference and spied a woman hungry for power, which spelled trouble for Ryan. The middle child, Gene, struggled to find a place to shine outside of Ryan’s shadow. Gene wasn’t as brilliant as his older brother and not as engaging as his younger sister. If they found out she was eavesdropping, Yasmine would give her an earful or perhaps even complain to Ryan. Mae would simply shrink down even farther to avoid detection.

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