Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
I couldn’t live in the bathroom. I was going to have to face the world, and I was going to have to tell Jason. I walked back into the salon and found Macy staring at me with questions in her eyes. I nodded once. Unable to contain her excitement, Macy put her magazine down and hurried over to me. She grabbed my hand and pumped it twice, wanting to do a happy dance but understanding that maybe I didn’t want the other residents of the salon to know.
“Oh,” Macy said before she scooted over to the product shelf and held up a bottle of hair gel. “I thought I saw something like this at the drugstore. Will you come with me so I can show you?”
I turned to the part-time girls. “I’ll be right back,” I said.
They smiled and nodded. I was the senior staff member, and I couldn’t walk away for too long, but a quick trip outside where I could talk freely was too good to pass up. Macy and I practically ran out the door.
“Where can we go?” Macy gasped.
“Your car,” I said, lunging for the passenger seat.
We climbed inside, and Macy pulled me into a fierce hug across the gear shift. I laughed. This whole time I had been paralyzed with fear, thinking of nothing but breaking the news to Jason, and here Macy was, giddy with excitement for me. She knew something I didn’t. She knew all about giving birth and being a mother, and she was over the moon with joy.
I started to feel some of the terror drain away. “I don’t know what to do,” I confessed.
“You’ll have to make a doctor’s appointment,” Macy said. “And you’ll have to tell Jason. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”
“I don’t know.” I hesitated. “He and his ex were married for ten years, and they never had children. What if he doesn’t want children?”
“Honey, he loves you. What you have with him, he doesn’t feel a single inch for whoever that woman was.” Macy patted my hand. “I can see that every time he looks at you. It will be okay.” She wagged her fists in excitement. “We get to plan a shower, and pick out baby names, and decorate the nursery.”
“Hold on,” I laughed. “You don’t have to do all that work.”
“I want to,” she chided me. “You’re gonna love being a mother.”
I looked down at my phone. “Didn’t you say you had a client this afternoon?”
“What time is it?” She looked at her own phone. “Oh no!”
I gave Macy one more quick hug before climbing out of her car so she could go to work. She roared out of the parking spot and took off down the street. Alone, but armed with the knowledge that I had a friend, I returned to work and finished out the day.
Coming home that night, I found Jason’s truck in the driveway. I wasn’t sure if I could stomach the conversation right then or if I would chicken out as I had done before. This time, there was no getting around it. For better or for worse, I had to tell him. I was rehearsing my speech when I stepped in the house and stopped.
The love seat was turned on its side, its stumpy legs sticking up in the air. The couch cushions had been ripped, and stuffing was leaking all over the floor. My spider plant was nude and potless in a corner, the pot shattered, the dirt smeared all over the kitchen island. Our clock had been torn from the wall and was floating in the full sink. I stepped into the battlefield shell-shocked, gently touching all my things as if I could will them back together.
“What happened?” I asked Jason.
He stood in the middle of the living room, surveying the damage. At first, he didn’t respond, lost in his own dark thoughts. Finally, he looked up and answered my question with a shrug. “Looks like someone broke in.”
“I looked at the front door which looked no worse for the wear. How did they get in?”
He shook his head, unsure.
Then I remembered opening the office window earlier that day. I had thought the chemical fumes were making me sick, and I had forgotten to close it. I raced to the office to confirm my worst fears. The window was open wide enough for someone to get in. My mannequin heads were smashed, and the wig I had spent hours dyeing had been shoved into the toilet.
I ran to my room, discovering my blankets were torn, my closet emptied out onto the floor, and my dresser overturned. I fell to my knees, grabbing fistfuls of what had once been expensive blouses, and sobbed.
23
JASON
Today was the day I was going to close the case. Ryan was ready, and we had three uniformed officers who were going in with us.