“I’ll walk you down,” Chandler suggested.
“No need,” I said through gritted teeth. “Norma’s heading out with me. Aren’t you, Norma?”
“I am now,” she muttered.
“You could just pretend to leave and then circle back the minute he’s gone,” Laynie said quietly as she handed us our purses from the coat closet.
“Or she could pretend to leave and meet him in the lobby, and I could circle back up alone,” Norma said.
At least Laynie was considerate enough to try to stifle her laugh, try being the key word.
“I will not forget this,” I said, pointing a finger at first one then the other. “Revenge will be mine.”
“I’m sure it will be,” Norma said, patting my arm patronizingly. “Let me just grab a file from Hudson first.”
I followed her into the library where Hudson sat at his desk on the far end of the room, nursing a glass of Scotch as he worked on his computer. Norma and Hudson talked business, while the news played quietly on the television on the main wall. Behind me, I could hear Laynie chatting with Chandler, presumably keeping him occupied so he wouldn’t bother me.
Maybe I’d forgive her after all.
“I’ll have it ready first thing tomorrow,” Norma said, my cue that we could go.
I pivoted to exit the room when a familiar voice on the TV caught my attention. Though I often thought I heard JC when it was the least likely, I couldn’t help but turn to look.
And then my knees buckled.
Because there he was, on the screen, his face clean-shaven, his suit fitting him in that perfect way, his hair combed back to hide his natural curl. He was beautiful and devastating, a mirage, sitting in a courtroom stand as an attorney asked him what his relationship was with the deceased.
“She was my fiancée,” he said and my heart lurched.
The trial. This was the murder he’d witnessed. And, God, it was his fiancée.
“Gwen?” Norma’s concerned voice sounded muddled and far away as the news anchor began his voiceover.
“Prosecutors in the five-year-old murder trial of Corinne Jackson put their key witness on the stand late this afternoon. The case drew attention when New York State Representative Ralphio Mennezzo was named the number one suspect. Before an arrest could be made, Mennezzo disappeared and remained missing for several years during which time two witnesses to the crime were found dead. Police got their break a year ago when a private investigator spotted Mennezzo in North Carolina. When Mennezzo was released on bail, sole remaining witness Justin Caleb Bruzzo was taken into protective custody.”
The screen now showed JC being whisked away by policemen outside the courtroom to an unmarked car, reporters throwing questions after him. His name filled the bar across the bottom—Justin Caleb Bruzzo.
“Gwen?” Norma asked again, placing a hand on my shoulder.
Now the camera focused on the anchor. “Bruzzo’s testimony continues tomorrow with the defense set to begin their arguments on Monday.”
“Hey, Justin Caleb,” Laynie said, coming along the other side of me. “That could be what JC stands for.”
I felt flushed and faint all at once, my pulse racing, my hands sweaty. I leaned into my sister’s touch as I turned to face Alayna. “It’s him,” I said, barely able to get words out, too shocked. Too stunned. “It’s him,” I said again. “That’s JC.”
Chapter Four
Chandler rode down with Norma and me in the elevator.
“This is cliché, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said.
My legs still felt shaky and my head was spinning. “I feel like I’ve seen one too.”
“Who is he?” Chandler asked, standing closer than I would have liked.
“It’s a long story.” I didn’t feel like I had any words within me, and, even if I had, he probably wasn’t the best person to share them with.
Norma eyed me with an expression that was either compassionate or resentful—it was hard to tell which. “Did you know?”
It seemed like a loaded question. Had I known that JC was a witness in a major court case? Yes. Had I known it was for the murder of his fiancée? No. Had I known that he had to go into protective custody? Yes. Had I known he’d be gone for a year and that the first place I’d see him again would be on a television screen in the midst of my friends and family? Oh—and, until recently, current boy toy?
No. I most definitely hadn’t known that.
But I left the question unanswered. Because I could tell that even though she wanted to be there for me, she was also hurt that I hadn’t told her the whole story sooner.