Page 48 of Unraveled Love

I was already on the move, rushing to the living room. Shawn’s footsteps were hot on my heels, but the rushing roar of a windstorm was drowning everything else out. Charlie had soundedpanicked.

I pressed button after button on the remote, my hand shaking until Shawn’s clasped mine.

“I can’t figure it out—”

Shawn slid the remote from my hand. “I’ve got it.”

The television flared to life, and at the sight, bile rose in my throat and shock rooted me to the carpet beneath my bare feet.

My father’s face lit up a small square at the top right.

Apparent suicide of person of interest in the Johannsen case

“What?”Oh God.My hands flew to my mouth and an elephant sat on my chest. This couldn’t be happening. My dad wasdead?

“I gotta go, thanks for calling.” I vaguely heard Shawn in the background, the windstorm in my ears picking up as I blinked to try to clear my vision. Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, and for once, I found no solace in them as the newscaster raised a microphone to her mouth as she stood outside the building where my father worked.

“Roger Marquess, the financial manager of Matthew Johannsen, who is currently awaiting trial with his bail revoked, was found dead this morning in his office. While the police haven’t released all the details, it is said to be a suicide as he was alone in his office at the time and there was no sign of foul play. As you know…”

The television blinked and then turned black. I stared at the screen, the printed words and the reporter’s words tumbling through my mind.

“There’s no way,” I mumbled and reached up to wrap my arms around Shawn. “No way he’d do this.”

My dad was too arrogant. I didn’t care that he had been missing or in hiding since I was taken, but I didn’t for a single second believe he would have taken the coward’s way out and done this to himself.

My shock turned to something else, something that burned brighter and hotter in my gut.Fury.

Shawn pressed his mouth to the top of my head. “I’m sorry.”

I held tight to Shawn, allowing the warmth of his body to seep into mine and letting the comfort in his hold envelope me as we stared at the blank screen in front of us.

“I can’t even cry for him,” I whispered. My voice was guttural but dry, and there wasn’t a single tear forming in my eyes. I might have hated my dad, but what did it say about me that I wasn’t more upset after the initial shock? “How can I not cry over him?”

“From what you’ve said, your relationship with him was always complicated, and it’s okay for you to process this however you need to. There’s no guidebook, Addi.” He spun me in his arms and brought my cheek to his chest, his hand palming the back of my head. I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight.

This was not at all how I wanted our day to go, especially after confessing we loved each other, but like so much of the last few weeks, I had to keep moving on. Daniel had taken enough from me, and I wouldn’t allow him to take away my inner strength, not when I was only just beginning to discover how deep it ran inside of me.

17

Shawn

My pulse thrummed with impatience, and I felt the beginning twinges of a headache. Every time we turned around, something new was getting thrown at us. We’d assumed Roger had either gone into hiding or been taken, and now, with him being found dead, I had no idea which way to turn. Something had to give. We kept chasing trails that twisted like a maze, and if we didn’t find our way out of it all soon, I was at risk of exploding.

The only thing keeping me sane was Addi, and with her in my arms, pressing into me as if the only comfort she found in this mess was me, I never wanted to let her go.

I clasped the back of her head and pressed her tight to me. I’d give her all the time she needed to get through this, to take this hit and keep on rolling like we’d been doing for weeks.

How she could keep handling all of this without reaching her breaking point impressed me and worried me in equal measure. At some point, all of this would cause anyone to break.

“I should call my mom.” Her arms fell from my waist, and I kissed her temple before peering down at her.

I knew she should be there for Rachel, but I worried about the safety of Addi contacting her.

“Can you let me make some calls first? Talk to Maxim?” He and another guy on Jaxon’s team had been down in Charleston keeping an eye on her. One of them, Bull, whose real name I didn’t know, had already left to head to North Myrtle Beach to see what he could find there.

“Yeah. I need…I need to get my phone…use the restroom.” She pressed her hands to her cheeks and dragged them down, groaning. “God, this sucks so much.”

I pressed my thumb to her chin, tilting her head up.

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