Southern Comfort (Southern 2)

He turns, walking into another room, then waits for all three of us to step in before closing the door. When I see Jacob take a sobbing Kallie in his arms, I realize this is the room where they take you when it’s bad. With the two couches in the room, it’s what’s always described to you when the doctor tells you that your loved one is dead.

I stand here, not moving as my body turns to stone. I hold my breath as the doctor takes a seat and starts. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Five

Olivia

“We need to get her an MRI and see if there is swelling.” The voice sounds far away, but I’m not sure where I am. I feel pressure on my arm, and my eye being forced opened. A light is shining in my eye, and I groan, or at least I think I do. My hand is lifted, and I feel something placed on my index finger. “Her body is going into shock,” someone says, and then suddenly, darkness takes me back into my nightmare.

After being arrested, I was thrown into a cell for over fourteen hours. Fourteen hours of trying to get anyone to talk to me, fourteen hours of sobbing quietly, fourteen hours of sitting in a jail cell. A fucking jail cell. I had never even had a fucking parking ticket, and now I was now sitting in a fucking cell. They finally came to get me, ushering me into a room where two detectives were waiting for me.

The room had a rectangle table against the wall, one chair against the wall while two chairs sat facing the one. I sat in the chair facing the two detectives. “Olivia.” The one guy leaned back in the chair. “I’m just going to cut right to the chase.”

I didn’t know if it was at that moment that I started to shake, or maybe it was the fact that my body went into shock, but one of them got up, walking out of the room. “What am I doing here?” I asked through my chattering teeth. The other guy came back with a blanket and a bottle of water. The first thing I’d been given in fourteen hours.

“You really have no idea what is going on?” one of them asked, and I shook my head. I tried to put the blanket around me, but my hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t even hold it.

“Your fiancé, Dominic Albano, was arrested for swindling over thirty million dollars from his clients in a Ponzi. That is just scratching the surface,” he said.

I looked at them shocked, the back of my neck suddenly heated. “What?” I asked, looking at each of them. “I don’t understand. Dominic works as an investment adviser.” I told them exactly what he told me. “He also dabbles in the stock market.”

They both chuckled. “Dabble? The man is a con artist.” He shook his head. “How much did you know?”

I looked at them. “Nothing,” I told them. “For all I know, he works with the stock market, and he is an independent investment adviser.”

“He was your fiancé,” one of them said.

“Ex,” I told them. “Ex-fiancé, which is why I was at his house yesterday. I was returning his stuff.” They shared a look, and then one looked down. “I had no idea what he was doing was illegal. Had I known, there was no way I would have actually stayed with him.” They both looked at me with blank stares. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I do know this. I had no idea, not one that he was shady as fuck. I walked in on him having an orgy last week, so I was at his place to return his stuff.” I put my shoulders back, looking straight ahead. “With that said, I want my lawyer. I have nothing to hide, but I’m not going to chance it by saying something I shouldn’t.” It took another ten hours to get me out after Dominic admitted I had nothing to do with it. I walked out of jail, not expecting the media to be there camping out as they snapped pictures.

“The doctor said she can hear everything.” I hear Kallie say sniffling, and I could swear she is crying. “So we have to keep it upbeat.” Kallie is the best friend I’ve ever had. Actually, the only friend I’ve ever had who has ever had my back. Who would have thought that after agreeing to do a Christmas special at work, the two of us would get along so well? We work for the same magazine; she is a graphic designer while I am a fashion stylist. I basically tell her what I want, and she makes it happen. We clicked so well that we decided to become roommates.