Aftermath: A Snapped Novel by Brown Tracy

Author:Brown, Tracy [Brown, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Red-Handed

February 2008

Gillian stood at her father’s gravesite, fighting back tears. She missed him with all of her heart. She had always been the apple of her father’s eye. No matter what she did, whether it was making some toast for breakfast or winning a golf tournament, Doug thought it was the most amazing accomplishment and would always tell her how proud he was of her.

The winter air was breezy and the cloudy sky only made her dark mood worse. She felt so alone. Frankie was preoccupied with the drama unfolding in his family. And she was still too angry with Baron to forgive him for their father’s death. Her mother wasn’t grieving the way that she was. In fact, Gillian was beginning to wonder if Mayra had ever loved her father at all.

She had hoped that settling the score with Jojo would make her feel better. She had been waiting for some sense of closure to come over her. But it never came.

Gillian’s tears fell slowly and she bent down to touch her father’s tombstone. “I miss you,” she said softly. “I feel so alone.”

She closed her eyes and felt the wind wrap itself around her body and imagined that it was her father hugging her tightly, reassuring her that everything was going to be all right and that he was still there with her. The thought made her smile and she opened her eyes and peered up at the cloudy sky.

“Thanks, Daddy,” she said. “I needed that.”

* * *

Camille had only returned to her Staten Island home to retrieve her mail and to gather some more of her belongings. She had finally accepted that this house she loved so much was no longer the haven it had once been for her. Reporters were fewer now, but still present. Her neighbors still stared at her and offered to lend a listening ear if she needed to talk just so that they could get into her business. She had put her beloved house on the market. She would miss the luxurious estate, but was eager to move on to a new chapter in the lives of her and her unborn child. These days she was staying with her mother out on Long Island. It allowed her to achieve some sense of normalcy in her otherwise chaotic life.

In her bedroom, she packed some of her underwear and sweaters, her important papers and her pictures. She zipped the duffel bag and was descending the stairs to the living room when the doorbell rang. Camille sighed, assuming that it was one of her “concerned” neighbors. She glanced through the peephole and was surprised to see the cop who had escorted her out of Gillian’s house a few weeks ago. He wasn’t in uniform, but she recognized him nonetheless.

Camille opened the door and he smiled at her, said hello.

“Hi,” she said. “Officer King, right?”

He nodded, flattered that she remembered his name.

“What did I do now?”

He laughed, shook his head. “No, you didn’t do anything.” He looked around as if he had something painful to admit.

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