Page 11 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

‘W-what?’ she asked, sounding confused. ‘What do you mean she’s missing, like, she’s not answering her phone, kidnapped, what?’

‘No, like, the police were here earlier to say she was missing; she went away with Matt and…’

‘Where’s that bastard at now?’ She stood up, fire blazing in her eyes as bright as her hair.

‘I don’t know, I think Steve’s going to give us an update as soon as everyone is here.’ I stood and offered her a hug, to which she fell into.

It was taking everything in me to keep it together, but I couldn’t help the tears from falling. She pulled away from me, wiping her eyes, and looked to me. ‘Are you ok?’ she asked me in a low voice.

I shook my head. ‘No, not at all,’ I confessed. ‘But the family needs us. As much as we’re hurting, Jessa is their daughter.’

She reached out and rubbed my arm. ‘She’s told me about the two of you.’ I smiled, flashes of Jessa exploding in my mind, thinking there had been anus, to tell about. ‘I think she was falling in love with you.’

‘Sheisfalling in love with me,’ I corrected the tense. ‘And it makes two of us,’ I clarified. I wanted Zoe to know just how much Jessa meant to me.

‘Right, sorry,’ she apologized for her slip-up.

‘She can’t be gone,’ I implored, clearly still in denial.

I needed more information, what exactly didmissingmean?

All I knew was Colleen was sedated, and Jessa wasn’t with us.

CHAPTER 5

DREW

Four Months Later

In the days and weeks after Jessa’s disappearance, I was operating on autopilot. Wake up, force breakfast down, exhaust myself with work, check in with the Cahills during dinner, and drink myself to sleep.

Repeat.

However, that only lasted so long before denial eventually turned into bargaining, before anger and depression emerged.

I was passing through the stages, however unbalanced my approach was.

To say I wasn’t functioning would be a great understatement. There had been no real closure for any of her family and friends who loved her.

But the facts were what they were. Jessa was proclaimed dead despite the fact that her body was never recovered. It was all the physical evidence found on the yacht, and the testimonies the detectives were able to pull together from witnesses that led them to ruling her case a homicide.

I had to give a statement. I didn’t tell them everything, I wasn’t going to betray Jessa like that. Nevertheless, when Steve asked me about it at dinner, I told him exactly what had been asked, and what my replies were. They were truths, mostly, some half-truths, but I didn’t think they needed to know everything.

~

‘Mr. Cameron, did you ever see Matt abuse Jessa?’ the young detective asked me. I forgot his name as soon as he mentioned it; I was too freaked out by being interviewed by the cops. It brought back a lot of bad memories from my childhood. At least these guys were detectives in plain clothing, and I had Abby next to me. I was told I didn’t need a lawyer, but she and Steve insisted, so here she was, sitting next to me in Steve’s study the day after the love of my life went missing.

I shook my head, ‘Not physically, but verbally and emotionally.’

‘Can you give us an example?’

I took a deep breath. ‘Just, like, making digs about her weight, that her family should offer him her trust fund when they unloaded her on him, things like that.’

‘Was there reason to think Jessa wanted to end the relationship with Matt?’ the young detective asked me.

‘She didn’t seem happy with him,’ I replied. ‘She was always on edge, not herself when he was around.’

‘Did you know of any blackmail?’

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