41. Dark Secrets

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"Clair? Are you sure? I don't think we need to do this." Misha stopped as he saw the board of building they were about to enter.
'Susan Foster Care'

"Yes? Why? I thought we both had agreed on this." Clair turned around to face him and saw his baby sleeping in Misha's arms.
"Yeah, look at him, Clair. I don't want to leave him here. I know it's safe and the best. But my heart doesn't agree on this. It might be the last time I see my kid." He, once again, looked at the baby who seemed disturbed now.
"But we have to. I can't risk his life, Misha. Jordan would try to take him away, or worse, he might just kill him if he knows that our kid didn't die that day." She took the kid from Misha and made him stand since he was already half-awake.

"Mommy? Are we there yet?" The kid asked. They had lied that they were taking him to an aquarium. Aquariums have always been their favourite.
"Yes, baby. Now listen champ, we've some work to do and who's my favourite boy?" Clair bent down and asked him softly.
"Me!" The kid grinned.
"No, it's me!" Misha added and they laughed at it.
"So my good boy will listen to me, right? We're going to leave you here with some kids. You can make friends here and we'll be back in a few days, ok?" She rubbed his hair and allowed him to think about it.
"Ok, mommy. Will you buy me that blue car if I do this?" He looked sad, but somehow convinced. He has been always so smart.
"Why not, champ? Give me a hug before we go." Misha bent down to hug the kid.
After what seemed like an eternity, they left their kid at the foster care as Chris had instructed them to do and went back to their apartment.

*********

"Chris? Chris?" Jessica tried talking to her husband who had been actively ignoring her for more than a month now.
"Jess, please. I'm sorry but I'm busy, can we talk later?" Chris opened his computer and noted something on a piece of paper. Without turning it off, he picked up his car keys and ran outside.

Jess saw the condition of their room and sighed. There were too many notes on the floor and almost all of them had some weird incomprehensible numbers written on them. She picked them up and put them in a basket Chris kept beside his computer table.

She had never done this before but today she felt the need to check Chris's computer. She sat on the chair and started browsing through his files.
'J.1' 'J.2' 'J.3' .... 'J.23'
The recently opened files had the same initials and she thought that it might be the name of the case he was working on.

She was about to leave the desk, tired of the encrypted files, when a notification popped on the screen.

'A.23, Christopher, we've got some pretty important news on the J. case. Go check 21 Day Avenue tonight. And we've got a new arsenal. Don't forget to...'

She didn't open it as she didn't want Chris to know that she'd invaded his privacy.
Arsenal? J. case? What does that mean? 21 Day Avenue? That's the darkest and the weirdest place in the city. Why would Chris go there? She was curious and confused so she did what she thought she should.
She stopped by her parent's place and asked them to babysit her baby for the evening so she could spy on her husband.

She was standing outside the place which reeked of alcohol and drugs. It made her nauseous and she instantly regretted coming here. She could've just asked Chris! That won't have been a big deal!

She quickly turned around and bumped into a man. As she looked up, she saw a pair of amber eyes with flecks of gold staring at her. The man was undeniably hot and one thing she had learned in her life was to never trust a man at a place like this.
Avoiding any more eye contact and a possible conversation, she quickly walked back to the Main Street.
She would've reached there in less than a minute if she hadn't heard the man say those words.
"If I'm not wrong, it's Jessica Christopher Shaw?" Her feet froze and she slowly turned around to see the man smiling at her.
"Umm sorry, I didn't recognise you?" She hesitantly smiled back.
"Oh of course, you wouldn't. I'm Jordan, by the way. Can we talk at a better place? I can't stand the smell." Jordan pinched his nose and started walking towards the Main Street.
Jessica hesitated, but ended up following him. They both stopped at a Diner and ordered coffee.

"So can I call you Jess?" Jordan handed the menu back to the waiter and kept talking.
"Yeah, sure. And use skim milk." She replied and gave the final instruction to the waiter.

"So how do you know me?" Jess was now feeling at ease due to the man's calm aura.
"Through your husband. I have seen you with him once or twice." He smiled and she smiled back. His smile was truly contagious.
"Oh, makes sense."

"So Jess, do you have kids?" He asked this out of nowhere and it confused her. Instead of nodding, she shook her head and before she could correct herself, the server came with their coffee.

Jordan smiled to himself, this woman can lie straight to my face. To confirm this, he asked her a few more questions.

"Jess, let's be serious now." For some reason, this scared her to the extent that she started feeling cold.
"Your husband is not a contract engineer. You really think a contract engineer makes that much money? Don't deny it, you already know that he hides stuff from you. And his job is one of those things. He's after me right now. I'm the J. case." They both were now holding almost empty coffee mugs.
"What? Why should I even trust you?" She almost stood up.
"And why shouldn't you trust me? I thought you were smart enough to know that your husband won't ever tell you the truth and you'll have to find it out yourself. You have unpaid bills at home and your kid cries at night, wanting attention from his father." Jordan folded his arms, as if resting the case.

I didn't tell him about the kid, how much does he know about me? Jess thought.
As if he had heard her thoughts, he added, "I already know too much about you and have noticed that you're pretty good at lying. I will help you, Jess. You'll have to do just a little of my work. I can help you financially, and I can make your husband a part of your life again. You should consider my offer. The only thing you've to do is to return me my data. Yeah, he steals stuff too."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence and Jordan slid a card towards her. The card only had his number and J. written on it.
He paid the bill and left her sitting there, thinking about everything she had overlooked. Chris's disappearances, the money he got was always in cash and never in cheque, all of his files were encrypted. There was something really wrong about it and she felt like that the weight on her shoulders just doubled.

********

It was around 9 a.m. when Clair woke up. She freshened up and left the room to see Misha covered in flour. She was pretty sure that he did it on purpose since he was an expert in making pancakes now.

"Good Morning, Baby!" Misha squeezed her into a tight hug.
"Good Morning." She replied in the same excited tone.

They had their breakfast at the kitchen table and were almost done when the doorbell rang.
"It's Chris, probably. I'll check." Misha got up and walked towards the door.

Clair, too, left the kitchen table and went out to see the daily newspaper on the small table in their lounge.
She picked it up out of habit and turned to the last page.
"MISHA! CHRIS! Look at this!" She almost shouted and the two men came running into the lounge.
She turned the newspaper towards them with her eyes wide in shock, they couldn't seem to understand what had happened to her. Not yet.

*******

A/N
Salam people,
Sorry for the late update again. But I've been without internet for the whole week and I didn't even know what to write.
So what do you think Clair saw in the newspaper?
Comment what you think and don't forget to vote and share.

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