Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
“I’m so sorry,” the guy finally spoke, his meek demeanor shocking me. “Alyssa was adamant that she’d been invited for brunch for her son’s birthday, but clearly, that’s not the case, and I apologize.”
Raven’s lips pursed. “She didn’t tell you that Caleb was going to be here?”
He shook his head. “No, just that we were invited for brunch.”
“Yeah, well, you might want to go and see if you can calm her down,” Remy suggested.
The man frowned as he glanced back at Caleb and Alyssa, and now what looked to be the manager of the club, trying to talk to a hysterical Alyssa. Very reluctantly, he headed in their direction.
As soon as he was gone, Remy grabbed Alyssa’s purse, set it on his lap, and started rummaging through the contents.
“What are you doing?” Raven asked, looking and sounding a little shocked at her husband’s behavior.
“This,” he said, and pulled out a sealed baggie that was filled with prescription bottles and other smaller baggies with various colored pills. “Trying to find the proof that Caleb needs to show that Alyssa is abusing drugs again.” He smiled grimly at his wife. “I’m a private investigator and sometimes I have to be a little creative to get the results I need.”
Raven and I both gaped at the vast amount of drugs Alyssa had on her.
“Oh, shit,” Raven said, echoing my own thoughts.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Remy swiped open his cellphone and started taking pictures of everything, including the names and prescriptions on the bottles. “Jesus,” he muttered to himself. “There’s oxy, Xanax, tramadol…all prescribed by different doctors. And who the hell knows what’s in the smaller, unmarked bags or where she got the pills from.”
He finished collecting the evidence, then shoved the large plastic bag back into her oversized designer purse. He set her bag on the table just as our server came by our table.
The young girl grimaced in apology. “I’m so sorry about the disturbance. “I’m just grabbing her purse since our manager is escorting her off the premises.”
We all watched through the windows as the server gave Alyssa her bag, while the manager of the club tried to reason with Alyssa, who was livid and still yelling. Surprisingly, it was the guy she’d arrived with who calmed her down with something he said to her, and they finally left.
Caleb came back inside, his expression grim, and I knew it was about to get much worse for him when he learned what Remy had discovered.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Caleb
I drove back to my apartment late that Sunday afternoon, exhausted by the events of the past few hours, starting with Alyssa showing up at the club, demanding to see Owen. The fact that Owen had been afraid of his own mother’s erratic behavior had been shocking, and revealing, telling me that Owen had most likely experienced this unstable side to Alyssa before.
After the scene Alyssa had made at our table, my only concern was to get her as far away from Owen as possible, and it was when we were outside on the restaurant’s patio, with her yelling at me, that I realized she was high on something. It wasn’t just her frenetic, hysterical, and initially loud protests, but when the guy who’d accompanied her finally came out to talk to her, to try and calm her down when I couldn’t, her entire demeanor changed. She’d gone from irritable, to confused, to telling him she felt nauseous. That anxiety Alyssa’s mother had mentioned seemed to take hold, and she’d mumbled frantically beneath her breath, “Where is my purse? I need my purse.”
The hostess arrived with her bag, and Alyssa was near tears as she told the manager, who was ready to escort her off the premises, that she needed to use the restroom before they left the club.
The whole scene was bizarre, and concerning.
When I returned to the table, Remy informed me of what he’d found in Alyssa’s purse, and the amount of prescription drugs she’d had on her had been alarming. Not to mention all the different pills that were prescribed by various doctors and pain management clinics to feed her addiction. He’d texted me all the photographs he’d taken so I’d have the evidence I needed to take to her parents.
Unfortunately, I had to cut the day at the beach short, asking Remy to take Stevie, Cara, and Owen back home because my only concern was to confront Alyssa’s parents with the truth of what had been discovered.
With that done, I’d texted Stevie to let her know that I was heading back to The Cortland, and she asked me to stop by her apartment first, which I would have done anyway since I wanted to tell her what had happened with Alyssa’s parents. Not to mention Stevie and I had unresolved issues of our own to discuss.