Finding Tessa by Jaime Hendricks (best ereader for comics .TXT) 📗

you for no reason. Same reason I assume you didn’t call us yesterday,” he said.

When Jace’s mother was first diagnosed with cervical cancer, the easy fix was a hysterectomy—it wasn’t like she was having any more kids. The doctor suggested a short round of chemo, which she did. It was the easy kind, as if any of it is easy, but at least she didn’t lose her hair and eyebrows. Just some thinning and shedding, and she didn’t look sick. A few years later when it came back, it was bladder cancer, stage two. A quick laparoscopic surgery removed the mass and then she went on a much higher dose of chemo. That one wreaked havoc on her looks and her entire immune system. But it worked, and her hair grew back thick and silver, and she was religious with her anticancer meds.

He hoped it wasn’t back; he suddenly wanted to see his parents. Jace never got the speech from Solomon, the one that said Make sure you don’t leave the state.

Still, the timing was horrendous. What was he supposed to do?

“Jesus, Dad.” Jace refused to choke up with his father on the line. The man was going through enough. “I have to talk to the cops here and figure out what’s going on with Tessa too.”

“So she just disappeared? I don’t know why that woman would say you murdered her.”

“Me neither.” Blood. Hair. Broken glass. His father didn’t need those details. “Look, just do me a favor. If anyone calls, just hang up on them. They’re trying to paint a bad picture of me. We’ll find Tessa. She’s probably just cooling off somewhere. We had a bad fight last week.”

Shit. He’d said that without thinking. If someone called his father and he didn’t immediately hang up, he’d repeat that information, thinking it was exonerating Jace.

His father didn’t know that was a death sentence if any of the reporters found out.

After they hung up, Jace turned on the TV and just as he’d suspected, his outburst was on the local Channel 10 station where Carina worked. It was only the snippet of him acting out, not the entire press conference, because a man begging for the return of his wife doesn’t get ratings or clicks. The violent husband with no control who probably killed his wife is what people want to see. The one who broke protocol and yelled at a woman.

On his phone, he searched the articles online, and true to the way the world worked nowadays, everyone had an opinion. People he’d never met, who didn’t know him, had something to say about every intimate detail of his life. His peers. His neighbors. The people who came into the bank for a home improvement loan or to cash Granny’s ten-dollar birthday checks. Now, everyone knew him as Scott Peterson.

MK1984: I bet he killed her. It’s always the husband. He’s not even sad. Douchebag

AllisonCleaver5: You’re sooooooo 100% right! I hope they fry him!

shellyDGTS214: Someone should teach that fucker a lesson. See how he likes it

KevinKane3: Maybe we should wait and see before accusing him. The guy’s wife is gone!

shellyDGTS214: Just like a fucking man to defend him!

LisaAbbalate: Seriously! Fuck you Kevin!

MomOfThree3: This is gonna be just like that story from forever ago. The guy that killed his pregnant wife and dumped her in the SF Bay.

shellyDGTS214: Yes! Laci something. I bet this douchebag has a girlfriend too

JessOnFire: Totally!! How convenient he wasn’t home when his wife was “taken.” I bet him and his girlfriend hatched the whole thing to give him an alibi

shellyDGTS214: Where’s your wife, Jace Montgomery?!!!!!

JessOnFire: They should check the yard for fresh dirt. We demand answers!

The pitchforks were out.

Jace thought back to their wedding day. Only months had passed since the day he and Tessa went to the courthouse. Her saying she wanted a long dress to cover the bruises on her legs. Her extra time in the bathroom with the makeup, covering the rings around her neck. Carrying a single daffodil because her wrist hurt too much to hold a full bouquet.

Maybe they never should’ve married. It was quick. It was almost deceitful, and a scumbag move on his part, since Joanna found out they were broken up when she discovered he was married to someone else. She lived an hour away and hadn’t heard from him in months—he’d ghosted her. Just disappeared, out of the blue. Another cowardly shit move. She drove to town unannounced, and his old roommate said he’d left and moved in with a girl. Joanna found him at a restaurant with Tessa, having a romantic dinner, and confronted them.

Tessa hadn’t known about Joanna. Actually, the night he met Tessa, he said he’d just broken up with her. He lied. But he managed to convince her to stay, even after she found out the truth. It was her leftover insecurity from all the other Assholes she dated.

Jace called the precinct and got the same runaround from Solomon.

“I’m feeling like more could be done here, Detective,” Jace said into the phone. “Again, I’m willing to cooperate with anything you need to do.”

Solomon cleared his throat. “That’s a funny thing, Montgomery. We’re gathering some information from your friends and coworkers. We’d actually like you to come down to answer more questions.”

“That’s fine by me.” Jace broke out into a sweat. “What time?”

“No time like the present, right?”

Jace swallowed heavily, pushing the bad feeling down to the pit of his stomach where it belonged. If he asked to bring Evan, or asked for a public defender, he’d look guilty, and he was trying to avoid that. “I’ll be there shortly.”

He hung up and finished the last of the coffee that had grown cold because he’d spent too much time reading online about what a bastard he was, then went upstairs to shower and dress before seeing the detective.

From the master bathroom window, he saw two reporters at the edge of the cul-de-sac.

“God dammit,” he muttered to himself as he buttoned his shirt, a