Page 55 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

‘Brett, it’s Drew. Give me a call ASAP, it’s important.’ I had never left him a voicemail before.

After ten minutes, he still hadn’t called me back. I knew that he was out of the country, but he always kept his cell phone near him. So I called him again and it went to voicemail again. It was clearly the middle of the night wherever he was, so I called again, and then again before he finally picked up.

‘What?’ he yelled into the phone.

‘Good morning, sunshine, this is your wake-up call,’ I said in an overly sweet voice. While I was stressed and worried, I needed to lighten the atmosphere in the car for my own sanity.

‘Drew, you better be dying.’

‘Um…’ How did I break the news to him?

‘What is it?’ he said, now sounding a bit more awake.

‘Steve’s had a heart attack and is in surgery. I’m on the way to Boston now to the hospital. Your mom’s also on her way.’

‘Is he ok?’ Breton demanded, worry clear in his voice.

‘I’ve told you everything I know.’ I kept my voice calm. Clearly Breton was upset and rightly so. ‘Colleen called me about a half-hour ago and asked me to come to the city and to call you. She wantsherhere.’

There was a long pause.

‘Does she know?’ Breton asked.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Ok, leave it with me, I’ll get a plane for her and let you know the details. Can I call you back in about an hour?’

‘Yup, I’m about a half-hour from the hospital.’

‘K, give my mom and Colleen a hug for me.’

‘I will.’

I parked the Audi and went straight to the family waiting room in the cardiac wing of Mass General Hospital, eager for more information on Steve. I walked in to find Deb and Colleen sitting next to one another. They both looked up when I walked in. I gave Colleen a hug first, then Deb and took a seat across from them. ‘Any news?’

‘The nurse said a doctor should be out in about an hour or so to update us.’

I nodded, ‘Breton sends his love and will be calling back in a bit.’

Deb looked up to me alarmed. ‘You spoke with Breton?’

I looked to Colleen and then around to make sure no one else was in the small private waiting room before I got up and closed the door to ensure our privacy.

‘I asked him to,’ Colleen told her sister-in-law. ‘I needed him to arrange a sensitive issue for us.’

Deb looked to me as I took a seat, glancing to Colleen to take the lead.

‘Last year Jessa found a bunch of documents in Matt’s condo, illegal documents and such. She confided in Breton so he could look into them. When he did, he uncovered a lot more illegal activities. Jessa was very scared that Matt was going to try to take her away or worse…’

‘I will never forgive that bastard for taking her away from us like that,’ Deb shook her head. It was hard to comprehend that she still hadn’t been told of Jessa. That aside from Breton, who knew all along, her parents and myself, everyone else, including a jury, thought that Matt had killed her.

‘Breton got her away,’ Colleen whispered. ‘Breton and our girl faked her disappearance.’

Deb’s eyes went wide, ‘But all the evidence.’

‘She staged it before she got off the boat that night,’ I leaned in and confirmed in a low voice.

‘But...no.’

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