Page 87 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

She moved over to hug him. “I’m glad that isn’t an issue with us,” she said. “I feel like there are enough other ones.”

He didn’t want to address her comment, but he knew it was true.

26

IT FELT DAMN GOOD

The following Friday morning, Justine heard her phone ringing.

She never got calls, so didn’t think to put it on silent mode.

She rolled and grabbed it off the bedside, noticed it was ten in the morning and she’d been sleeping for about three hours.

The next thing she saw was that Elise was calling her.

She sent it to voicemail and rolled back over. She had the ability to fall back to sleep quickly just like her father and sister.

Not a good thing when the phone rang again and she noticed it’d been an hour.

When she looked at it, it was Elise calling a second time.

She’d seen her stepmother left a voicemail with the last call but no text.

This one was sent to voicemail just like the last one.

She closed her eyes, breathed in and out multiple times, and was back to sleep.

Until the phone rang a third time.

“Grrrr,” she growled and picked her phone up.

Elise again.

If she didn’t answer it wasn’t going to end and she was fed up at this point.

“Hello,” she said sharply.

“Justine,” Elise said. “Thank God you answered.”

She let out a sigh. “What do you want, Elise?”

There was silence on the other end. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What?” she asked.

“You’re being mean to me,” Elise said. She heard the crying.

“I’m sleeping,” she said. “I worked all night and got to bed at seven this morning. The phone keeps waking me up.”

“I hadn’t realized you worked nights,” Elise asked.

She ignored that. “What is it that you want?”

There was a noise in the background, like glasses clinking and then Elise drinking something. “I need your help,” Elise said.

“Elise, we’ve talked about this. I’m not helping you. You shot and killed my father.”

The gall of this situation was unbelievable.

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