Chapter 107

Things were tense in the following days. Will and Alex were working hard to get him bailed out, which left Emma and Sabrina alone a lot. They set each other messages and photos of their babies. Emma would also send some to Alex to show Will since he obviously didn’t have access to his phone. It was a difficult arrangement, but they were managing.
Minnie worried. Emma was more stressed than she would have cared for.
“Sweetheart,” she soothed. “I know things are crazy now. But I need you to try and stay calm. This stress isn’t good for you or baby Lizzie. You’re still breastfeeding her. Your emotions can carry on into her.”
“I’m sorry. No matter what, Will still has a way of making me crazy, I guess,” she laughed. The sound was sad and tight.
“He’s a handful,” Minnie smiled. “But his heart is in the right place.”
“How do you know him? He seems to trust you implicitly.”
“I’m not sure he’d like me to say. I can tell you that an unsavory situation brought us together and I’d like to think I had a hand in helping him out of it. I am glad for his trust.”
“How about Kelly?”
“No, darling. Just me.” Before Minnie could continue, Emma’s phone rang. “Better answer that. We don’t want Lizzie to wake up.”
“No, we don’t,” Emma smiled. It had been difficult to get the baby to nap over the last couple of days. So anytime she slept was a blessing. Emma, Minnie, and Kelly would barely breath while Lizzie slept.
“Hello?” she answered, not recognizing the number.
“Emma.” The voice was familiar. It was one Emma hadn’t heard for a long time. Her heart couldn’t settle on one emotion. Overwhelming joy, sadness, confusion, betrayal swirled within. Tears stung the corners of her eyes.
“Jess,” she whispered. “How… where… Jess…,” she stammered. “I thought you died or something. Oh my God.”
“I’m sorry,” her voice cracked holding back tears of her own. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“I’m missed you too, but…” Emma still couldn’t place her feelings.
“Listen, I’m sure you’re confused. Probably even angry with me. And I understand.”
“I don’t know how to feel right now.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
“That’s fair. I want to see you. And Sabrina. Can you guys meet me? At our old spot?”
“Yeah. For breakfast?” A watery giggle punctuated her question.
“Like old times,” Jess laughed. “See you tomorrow.”
The next morning, Emma got ready to see her long lost friend. Sabrina had a similar reaction to hers. She had gotten up earlier than she would normally had. One, she couldn’t sleep. Second, she didn’t live down the street from their café anymore. She lived over an hour away. Minnie and Kelly assured her things would be fine while she was gone and arranged for a car to drive her. Minnie had specific instructions from Will to ensure that Emma always had someone watching over her. Without her knowing, bodyguards and security always had an eye on her.
“Have fun, darling,” Minnie hugged her as she left. “Kelly and I will take care of everything while you’re gone.”
“I’ll be sure to have something great whipped up for dinner,” she smiled.
“Thank you both. I should be back this afternoon, no later than early evening.”
“No worries. We’ve got it handled.”
Emma hugged them both and left. As promised, there was a car and driver waiting for her outside.
“Good morning, Miss Wells.”
“Jack!” Emma’s face brightened up and a large smile stretched across her face. Sometimes it felt like all the good parts of her old life were an almost forgotten dream. The memories lived on her periphery as though she were trying to remember a story someone told her a ling time ago. Jack was a direct reminder that those good things that happened were real. “It’s good to see you!”
“You as well,” he smiled. “Where to?”
They chatted during the long drive, catching up with each other. It was a nice buffer to the much larger reunion she was headed towards. Pieces of the life she had left behind were coming together. But she wasn’t the same person as before. Her life may have fallen apart, but she was never more together.
“Thanks for the drive and chat,” Emma said when they arrived.
“It’s my pleasure. I will stay in the area and take you home when you’re ready.”
“How will I contact you?”
“Due to security concerns, the protocol is that you call Minnie and she will contact me. The utmost priority is your safety.”
Emma flinched. She hated that this was her reality, but understood. After what happened to Will, they couldn’t be too careful.
“Right,” she said, scratching the back of her head. “See you later.”
Jack nodded at her. He waited until she was safely inside the café before driving off.
Emma was the first to arrive, as she anticipated. Her hands were clammy and her heart raced. Jess was a fireball. Radiant, explosive, dangerous and full of life. Her full, bouncy, curly hair and flawless milky chocolate skin always ensured that she made an entrance. Eyes followed her everywhere she went. Her voice, her very presence, commanded attention. And if you found yourself on her bad side, it would best for you to run. She was fierce, beautiful, and intelligent.
The bell on top of the door tinkled, signaling someone else had arrived. Emma looked up, her eyes wide. Silhouetted by the sun streaming in through the door, that very light creating a halo against her hair.
“Jess,” Emma whispered. Jess looked in Emma’s direction and smiled.
“Hey, girl.”
“You’re the worst,” Emma cried and tackled her with a bone crushing embrace. “I missed you so much! How could you just disappear on me like that?”
Jess didn’t answer and just hugged her friend. They held each other for a few more minutes before they sat down at their favorite table.
“This place sure does bring back memories,” Jess chuckled.
“It does,” Emma said, looking around. The café was mermaid themed and decorated in hues of purple, pink, and glimmering greens. Their table was right at the window and the sunlight make the sparkles dance on the surface. It gave the space the essence of being underwater.
“So…” Emma began. “What happened? Why did you go away for so long?”
“Let’s wait for Sabrina. It’s… complicated. I only want to tell the story once. What’s… been going on with you?”
“A lot has happened since I saw you last. I don’t even know where to start. It’s also been complicated with me too. Ugh!” Emma tugged at her hair. “I want to be angry with you! I was for a while, but now…”
“It’s the hair,” Jess smirked. “It’s so fabulous that you can’t be mad at me.
“You’re right,” Emma giggled. “It is that majestic mane of yours. It mesmerizes me every time.”
“It’s both a blessing and a curse,” Jess flipped her hair dramatically.
“Well, I’m about to curse you out and that gorgeous head of curls of yours, you beautiful bitch!” Sabrina yelled as she burst into the café. Jess squealed with glee and rushed up to her. Emma jumped up and the three of them hugged each other. They were a mess of squeals, giggles, and shouts. The café employees smiled as they watched the spectacle. To any onlookers, they appeared to be a group of friends celebrating a joyous reunion. While half of that was true, there was another presence that loomed over them.
After the novelty of seeing each other again had worn off, they settled back at their table. A server came and took their orders and left them to talk. To finally talk, after so long.
Sabrina and Emma caught Jess up on their lives. They showed her baby pictures and calmed her down when she went on a tirade about murdering Will for putting Emma through hell. She apologized for missing so much and gushed about their babies.
“I can’t wait to meet them!”
“We can’t wait for them to meet you!” Sabrina laughed. “But I know this isn’t some sort of cozy catch up.”
“Yeah,” Emma agreed. “You were gone. You just disappeared. And I know you knew something,” she gestured to Sabrina. “At least part of the time.”
“It’s true,” Jess hung her head. “I was talking with Sabrina for the first couple of months. I didn’t want to bog you down with this craziness that had fallen into my lap. But I see now that you had your own craziness to deal with.”
“We could have handled it together.”
“No,” Sabrina shook her head. “This was some next level shit.”
“And it got even worse. That’s when I stopped calling you, Sabrina. Things… got out of hand.”
“Well, what happened?” Emma asked. While happy to see her friend, she was still upset for being shut out. Jess was never one to lie though. Before getting too mad, Emma figured she should let her explain what was going on. Then she could decide if she wanted to stay angry at her friend.
“Oh boy,” Jess sighed. “Okay. So you two know my dad is a building contractor. It’s not a big business, but he does all right.” They nodded. “Well, he had a pretty slow month and started having money issues. That’s when I first sort of disappeared. I went back home to help.”
“Out in Darlington?” Emma clarified.
“Yeah.”
“We were still in contact at that point,” Sabrina added. “We lost touch not long after though. You went radio silent.”
“Like, I said. Things got out of hand. The business finally went bankrupt. It was a good thing I had already graduated or else I would have had to drop out. But because of everything going on, I had to quit my own job. I was actually going to ask you guys for help. But then I found out what the real problem was.”
“What?” Emma and Sabrina asked in unison.
“Things were a lot worse than I realized. My dad had done a lot of shady things to keep the business afloat. He got involved with some horrible people. And then he owed those people money. I knew things were bad when one of his foreman, who was also involved, turned up missing.”
“Oh my God!” Emma gasped; her hands flew to her mouth.
“That’s why you disappeared!” Sabrina’s eyes looked like they would fall from her head if they widened anymore.
“And why I couldn’t contact either of you. My dad and I had to go into hiding. We were in danger.”