Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom Read Free Page A

visiting his son in jail. That’s the thing you don’t think about when a young kid goes wrong, the heartbreak that the parent feels. The guilt. The questions. We saw it all that ride back and forth from jail. Drew questioning himself, where did he go wrong. I remember how small Jesse looked behind that glass, on that weird TV monitor. He looked small and defeated not big and tough.
    And there was another aspect that was troubling. And that was Drew’s death and what caused it. I knew Drew was depressed, I mean, his son was on house arrest, but I couldn’t see him killing himself, I just couldn’t. I knew Hollywood starlets overdosed with pain meds trying to quell their emotional pain but someone Drew wasn’t that bad. I guess you never really know, but recently Drew had been dating again. I mean, dating in the flamboyant, I’ve been cooped up for too long kind of way. His latest conquest was Pam, an older woman, with flame red hair who was no lady. Lately Drew seemed to be having fun. Poor Drew. There was just no way he off’ed himself.
    That was what Ben and I decided as we laid in bed talking before sleep last night. There was something I read, one of those relationship self help books, that said the most important 10 minutes of your day happen as you wake up and as you go to sleep. That if couples spent time talking and praising each other and connected during those most important minutes that you’d feel connected throughout the day .I don’t know if it is entirely true, those broad sweeps of generalizations always raised my hackles, but it worked true enough for us. Ben and I decided most things in those last ten minutes of the day, holding each other, cuddling with our dog.
    “There’s no way Drew committed suicide,” I had said.
    “Even Jesse doesn’t believe it, he said he and his dad had been getting along ok and his dad seemed happy with Pam.”
    “Yeah, I don’t believe it” added Ben taking a little too much of the covers for my taste.
    “If he didn’t off himself intentionally, than maybe accidentally,” I pondered.
    “Drew just didn’t seem like the pill popping kind of guy.” Ben was right, Drew worked at one of the large engineering tech firms in the area, made decent money, was a bit of a nerd. Nerds don’t pill pop do they?
    “Well if he didn’t do intentionally or accidentally, what happened?” As soon as I said it, the question hung in the air taking up it is own space. Because we both knew what that meant, Drew was poisoned or fed the pills by someone else. Jesse? No way. The ex-wife? But no, she was away. Who else? With that question between us we both drifted off.
    That next afternoon as I looked for an image of a stressed out man on my online stock photo house, the call from Jesse came. I knew it was him from both the caller ID and the recorded message at the beginning. After accepting charges, he was put through.
    “Jesse, how are you holding up?” “Did you hear, dad’s dead?”
    “I’m so sorry Jesse. Do they know anything else?”
    “They’ve been questioning me all night, apparently there was blood on the pillow and they are wondering if he was hurt on purpose.”
    “Oh no Jesse, how awful. What are they saying.”
    “That maybe it wasn’t an overdose, that maybe he was killed.” “Oh Jesse, we just have to take it one step at a time.” “No, Bee, you don’t understand, they think I did it. At least that’s why they are keeping me.”
    “Oh Jesse, that’s ridiculous, you told me last week when you were cleaning up the front of the house that you and your dad were getting along. This is just a big mistake. They have to have a reason to hold you, is there going to be a hearing?”
    “No Bee, it is not a mistake. At least they don’t think so. I’m going to be arraigned in the morning for violation of community control.”
    “Where are you, are you in holding still?”
    “They have me in a maximum security place, with two other guys, who are