Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 69170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
I was sitting on the back porch enjoying the dying sun when I heard the doorbell from inside. It had been another sweltering day, and I hadn’t done anything more than setting out the hummingbird feeders and making the syrup I make every year to keep them coming back.
I’m still amazed that I find pleasure in the little things even now, without any of that dark anger hanging over my head. Though I keep expecting it to return any minute.
My soon-to-be-ex has been going out of his way to get a rise out of me, but I think when I walked into the kitchen and found him on FaceTime with the kindergartener he was leaving me for and didn’t bat a lash, he finally got the memo. I was well and truly done.
Now, here’s the thing: the more I remove myself from the situation, the more astonished I am at his behavior. Not the cheating, he’s not the first, and he won’t be the last, but his actions since I decided I no longer wanted to fight.
I think he maybe got some kind of thrill out of me reacting the way I did in the beginning. Because even though I tried to pretend that his asking for the divorce didn’t bother me, it had, and he knew it.
But the fact that I walked over to the coffee pot and got myself a cuppa before leaving the room again without saying a word to him or her had sent him spiraling, and now he was on my ass like I was the one who had betrayed him. That’s what had caused Sheila to light into him.
I answered the door and almost had a heart attack when I saw the two policemen standing there. I knew they were cops because of the badges hanging around their necks because they were in plain clothes. “Good evening, ma’am. Are you, Jolene Masterson?”
“I am. Is there something wrong? Did something happen to one of my kids?”
They looked at each other before turning back to me. “No, ma’am, do you know an Anne Thorpe?”
“Yes, I do. How may I help you?”
“Ma’am, where were you this evening at around five P.M.?”
“I’m sorry? Um, I was here all day. Why? What’s going on?” Please don’t tell me that idiot turned me into the cops. What could be the reason?
“Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts, Ma’am?”
“Well, I have the security cameras; you can have a look at those, I guess. Do I need a lawyer?”
“That depends, Ma’am. Are you giving us permission to look at the cameras?”
“Oh, yeah, sure, you can use my phone; it records all day.” I think I was babbling, but I can’t be sure. This was so unexpected I didn’t know my head from my ass.
I grabbed my phone from the back porch where I’d left it and stood and waited while they scrolled through the video. At least they went right to the time they were looking for because I wasn’t too jazzed about them seeing me walking around in my nightie earlier in the day.
Look, I’m a female, after all, and even though I didn’t want my ex, there was no reason why I couldn’t show him what he was missing. At least that was Sheila’s excuse when she brought me the scandalous babydoll nightgowns she’d bought me.
“Thank you, Ma’am, sorry to bother you.”
“Are you going to tell me what this is about?”
“You’re in the clear for now, but I guess you’ll hear about it soon enough. Miss. Thorpe was attacked and badly beaten earlier this evening.”
“And you thought I did it?”
“She didn’t see her attacker, but your name did come up. That’s all we’re at liberty to say right now. You enjoy the rest of your evening.” Is it my imagination, or did that thirty-something-year-old cop just give me the once-over? I do declare.
JOLENE
I’d been so sidetracked by the handsome cop checking me out that I’d all but overlooked their reason for coming here in the first place. I could only shake my head in wonder as I closed and locked the door.
Just what in the hell was going on? Now, I don’t know much about that child’s life, so I don’t know what all she gets up to, but who knows what she’s into? Any young girl her age who would go after an almost middle-aged married man is capable of anything, I guess.
I tried not to let the news stress me or even think about it too much, as it had nothing to do with me at the end of the day. I didn’t dwell on who it could be, and truth be told, I wasn’t too bothered that she’d given my name to the police; at least I was in the clear, and that was that.
I didn’t think about my ex and what he must be feeling because why should I care? Basically, I went back to what I was doing as if my evening hadn’t been interrupted. I picked up the notebook I’d been scribbling in throughout the day and read over some of what I’d written there.