Page 102 of I see you Beauty

“What, that’s it? Some old friend—probably an angry ex—and we’re judging and avoiding him?” June blurts out, stunned.

She looks at me with wide eyes and pierces me with her gaze. And maybe she’s right about what she’s saying. But maybe Ezra is lying, and everything Jenny has told me is true.

June just doesn’t understand. For her, there’s only black or white. She doesn’t see the danger; it’s up to me to protect her.

“Promise me, June!” I interrupt her in a sharp voice.

She flinches briefly as I rarely raise my voice. But when I do, she knows I mean it.

“I’m trying to find out more, but until the doubts are dispelled, we must stay away from him!”

She scowls and looks away, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“And where am I supposed to sleep?” she grumbles, clearly in a bad mood.

I understand her frustration, and I wish I could change things, but it’s just the way it is right now. She’s probably wishing she could return to campus, but unfortunately, the first semester of her new degree doesn’t start for a few months.

“Upstairs in one of the two guest rooms. You can pick. You remember where they are, don’t you?” Kelly answers kindly and smiles encouragingly at her.

June nods and rises without giving me a second glance, grabs her suitcase, and disappears upstairs. When we hear the door slam with a loud bang, we know she’s out of earshot.

“What the hell happened yesterday, and what are you talking about?” Kelly whispers, stunned, and drags me into the kitchen to ensure the children hear nothing.

“Kelly, you won’t believe a word I say when I tell you everything that’s happened in the last twelve hours,” I sigh and settle down on one of her bar stools.

“Come on. It’s better with an enormous glass of wine,” Kelly offers and pours us both a glass before she hands me mine, and I tell her everything that’s happened since I left her house yesterday.

I leave nothing out. I tell her about Thomas’s situation, my feelings for Ezra, that I wanted to be with him, and then about Jenny’s appearance and the new insights she’s given me. Also, how I more or less ran away from Ezra without him even knowing I’d left him.

“Wow. This is… crazy, Cora. This is all completely insane. You’re going to believe this bullshit from some random girl? How you described her to me, the girl didn’t appear believable. Why didn’t you call him out on it?” Kelly asks, shaking her head.

“Kelly, you didn’t see her. She was scared to death of him. She was not playing around! Besides, she showed me an old newspaper article about his arrest. I thought there was something to it, so I had to leave. If only because of June!” I tried to convince her it was the right decision.

“Right, let’s assume the girl was telling the truth. What do you want to do then? Call the police?”

“They won’t help us. Legally speaking, he did nothing, and everything else is conjectured and insinuated, which no one can prove. Ezra has been released from prison. We have to prove he really killed all those girls who disappeared or allegedly killed themselves. Anything else won’t help,” I reply thoughtfully.

“Great. And how do we get this evidence if the police couldn’t find anything back then?” Kelly grumbles, shaking her head again in disbelief.

“Thomas is a lawyer. Just one phone call from me as his secretary, and we get all the files emailed to us,” I shrug.

When my cell phone rings, Kelly is about to say something, which makes me wince. It takes me a moment before I dare to check who it is. When Ezra’s name appears on the screen, I almost drop it in shock. He’s calling me, even though I told him I needed to spend time with my daughter!

The phone rings, but there is a message less than two seconds later, and then there is another. My cell phone won’t stop ringing at all.

“What’s he writing?” Kelly wants to know.

Ezra: Where are you, Beauty?

Ezra: Why aren’t you answering?

Ezra: …

Ezra: Why isn’t your car in front of the garage?

Ezra: And why does your closet look like you’re packed?

Ezra: Beauty????

---