Page 82 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

I reached out and took her hand, looking her in the eye. ‘Jessa’s alive,’ I stated. ‘She had to go away, to buy some time for Breton to gather all the information he needed to truly put him and his siblings in jail and to save the family from scandal and possible ruin.’

Abby went into some of the details, and a half-hour later, Amber was wide-eyed and looking overwhelmed.

‘So, this is news,’ she blurted out after a brief pause. ‘Like, headline news, like, GMA or Barbara Walters exclusive news.’

‘I don’t think Barbara Walters works anymore,’ Steve pointed out.

‘Who’s Barbara?’ I asked.

‘She was a news anchor, did lots of high-profile interviews back in the day,’ Steve informed me.

Amber bent over and pulled her tablet out of her purse and started to type out notes. ‘Ok, so when’s she returning to Boston? What’s Zoe’s plan? Does she want to announce before or after?’ Amber asked Steve, then looked to Abby. ‘What are the legal ramifications?’

‘Well, technically she hasn’t broken any laws,’ Abby said.

‘That the US knows about,’ I added, and everyone looked at me, but didn’t say anything else. The less everyone knew the better.

‘The DA could make a case about fraud, we just need to wait and see,’ Abby said. ‘Breton has a whole backstory that we are using and sticking with.’

‘The plan is for Abby to fly back on Monday morning to deliver the information Breton has discovered to the DA, then make the announcement Monday morning to the detectives, just as we depart Vegas,’ Steve told her. ‘That will give the DA time to review the materials and the police to make their move, should they want to. While this is going on, Zoe will make a press release and if need be, we would like you to handle any public media relations in Boston, as Zoe is out in LA training and I don’t want to pull her away so close to qualifiers.’

‘Does she know yet?’ Amber looked wide-eyed at all of us.

I nodded, ‘Yeah, Colleen is out there with Jessa at the moment, and they drove to LA to meet her two days ago. She’ll be in Vegas when we get there.’

‘I bet she was surprised.’

‘To say the least.’ I smiled recalling Jessa telling me all the details and the vicious, yet playful call I’d received from Zoe that evening.

‘Ok,’ Amber nodded. ‘This needs to be done right, we need the media and people on our side. I’ll need to know what information I can share about Matt…or whatever the fuck his name is.’

‘You and Zoe will work closely, she will be on her phone the whole time to support you through everything. I hope you understand why we need you and we’re not bringing in someone else?’

She nodded and looked at all of us.

‘We need to paint it so everyone can see she didn’t have a choice,’ Steve drilled home.

I looked at them all. ‘She didn’t,’ they turned to look at me. ‘She didn’t.’

Amber looked at me. ‘You’ve been in contact with her?’ I nodded and she looked instantly angry. ‘How long? How long have you known?’ she demanded.

‘I found out about a year ago,’ I told her in a low voice.

‘And in all that time, you neglected to tell me one of my best friends is alive, all the times we’ve seen each other, confided in each other,’ she spits out at me. ‘I’m one of her best friends.’

‘And I’m her fiancé, I had to protect her at any cost.’

Amber’s eyes went wide. ‘Fiancé?’

I nodded, while Steve explained the other reason she was being flown out to Vegas this weekend.

CHAPTER 27

JESSA

Leaving Drew on New Year's Day was the absolute lowest point of this entire ordeal over the past year and a half. Even worse than having everyone—aside from Breton—think I was dead. I cried the entire flight to Vegas. Sure, I was at least on the same continent, but I still wasn’t next to him.

After sulking for a day, I found the gym in the furnished luxury apartment complex I was staying at, went grocery shopping, made a doctor’s appointment, and set a schedule to finish up my coursework.

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