“There’s one way to make me disappear,” she said with a glint in her eyes.
“Always about the money for you, isn’t it?” Tate spat at her. “Your daughter is beautiful, brilliant, and the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and you only cared that she brought you money. Do us all a favor and go and die you cold-hearted bitch.”
“Here,” Jordan said ripping a check off the register he always carried. “That’s it. That’s the last penny you’ll get from me and Mel, ever. Come anywhere near her again and you will be in a jail cell unless I kill you first.”
Jennifer glanced at the check then slid it into her bag before she walked out of the room.
“You think that’ll be it?” Dwight stated.
“Hopefully for a few years at least. I expected her to come back before now I just didn’t expect the bombshell it’d drop on all of us,” he said staring at him.
“Jennifer, Dwight?” Tate said raising an eyebrow. “Really man?”
“I was dumb, thought I was a stud I suppose. Then I saw her with another man and realized I was being played and ended it. If I’d known she was pregnant, that Mel…we need to find her because I need to know.”
“So will Mel,” Jordan stated. “Any idea where she is?” he added to Tate.
“I can check,” he said heading to the computer. “She was headed somewhere but she’s turned off her phone.”
“Where would she go?” Dwight asked the two. “If Mel were this upset about something where would she go?”
“Home?” Jordan suggested. “The office would be too crowded right now, but she might go home.”
“No,” Tate said shaking his head. “She needs space to think, to process. She wouldn’t want to do that at home; she wouldn’t want her being associated with your place.”
“Then where? The only other place Mel feels completely secure at is at a pool table. There are a million places where she could go play,” Jordan stated.
“Let’s try a couple,” Tate said heading to the door. “The burger place, the one back home, Frank’s…those would be the most likely spots she’d go.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Dwight inquired.
“Might not hurt,” Tate admitted.
They headed to the two haunts and after leaving Frank’s with Arthur in tow, they weren’t sure where to try.
“Tate, you and Mel were always sneaking off together, where else could she be?” Arthur asked.
“We’d just hang around the apartment mostly. If I couldn’t find her there and Jennifer wasn’t around, she’d be…hell, the playground.”
“What?” Jordan said not following.
“The old playground. It was on the edge of town, and I knew if she wasn’t at home and the paper hadn’t been picked up it meant Jennifer had been gone again. I could always find Mel there.”
“Wouldn’t it be a bit crowded and odd for her to be there now?” Dwight stated.
“No one uses it anymore, not since they put up the new stuff at the park, it’s more central than the playground was,” Tate said heading towards the car.
They pulled up five minutes later and saw the Jeep but not her.
“Look stay here,” Tate said jumping out first. “I know where she is. Jordan, I know she’s your wife man, but she’s my bestfriend and I have experience helping her deal with shit when it comes to her mother. I can handle this better than you can.”
“Just bring her back to us Tate,” he conceded knowing Tate was right.
“They’re just friends, Jordan,” Arthur reassured him as Tate walked away quickly.
“I know, I’ve watched them for the last six years. I know they’re just friends but she’s my wife and I hate that I can’t make it better.”
“And that it’s possible that Tate can?” Dwight asked. “She loves you Jordan, just like you love her and though I may have thought it strange that you two got married at the time, I’ve seen that for myself. If she is my daughter I can say I’m glad that she found you.”
