One Little Sigh: A totally compelling and breathtaking small town thriller by Shannon Hollinger

Author:Shannon Hollinger [Hollinger, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2024-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

40

MAGGIE

Belinda James answers the door, her eyes widening as they land on me. Her expression is a mix of shock and fear. One hand rises to the base of her throat, the other clutching at the casing beside her as she leans heavily against it, as if not trusting her legs for support.

“Chief Riley.”

“Mrs. James.”

Her voice trembles as she asks, “Why are you here?”

“I need to speak with Jenny.”

She frowns as if confused. “Did you need me to come with you? You don’t have more bad news, do you? You can’t possibly.”

Now I’m the one feeling confused. “Isn’t Jenny here?” I ask.

Her head shakes from side to side. “Why would she be?”

“Greg said that she’d left.”

“The house? Or him?”

“I believe he meant both.”

She exhales as her eyes roll toward the ceiling. “Well, if there’s one thing to come out of this tragedy, at least there’s that.”

“You’re not a big fan of his, I take it?”

“Greg and I were classmates. We attended our junior prom together. I can’t imagine many mothers would want to be able to say that about their daughter’s husband, would they?”

“No, probably not.”

“I told her they didn’t have to get married just because she got pregnant. Offered to let her stay here. I would have gladly helped her out. But she’s seen how much I’ve had to struggle over the years as a single mom. I don’t think she wanted that.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. “You have to let them make their own mistakes, you know.” It sounds like she’s trying to convince herself. “I tried to be supportive. And after they made it through the first year, I’d hoped that maybe I was wrong, that they’d be happy together, but all you had to do was look at her to see that she was miserable.”

“Why do you think that was?”

“Jenny was so young. And Greg was absolutely no help with the baby. Not to mention that his other kids were always giving Jenny a hard time, making noise to wake PJ when he was sleeping, sneaking him sugar so he’d get hyper and cranky.”

“I was under the impression that Jenny got along well with her stepchildren.”

“Well, I don’t know who told you that, but I do know it wasn’t Jenny. Those kids did their best to antagonize her. And then when Greg’s mother moved in—” Belinda shudders. “Have you met Franny Warner?”

“I have.”

“Then you know what I’m talking about. Greg tried to sell the arrangement as some live-in help for Jenny, but there’s no way she’d let that woman touch PJ. Franny’s a complete lush. Always has been. Drinks her breakfast and lunch, then takes a nap so she can drink more for dinner.”

She makes a doubtful face as she says, “I have no idea where she finds the money for all that booze. And Jenny was constantly having to clean up after her. She’d find cigarette burns all over the furniture despite telling Franny not to smoke in the house.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.