Deciding not to push that for now, JJ said, “Maybe I could call Sebastian. Ask him to come talk to you.”
“You would do that?”
“Yes,” she lied. “If you need to talk to him, I can definitely call him.”
The younger woman considered that for a moment, but then she shook her head. “No way. You’ll lie, and he’ll be mad. I have to think about it first.”
“How will I lie?”
“You’ll tell him I’m mean and that I hurt you.”
“No, I won’t.” JJ moved her hands. “And if you untie me, I can tell him you just brought me here to talk.”
Molly’s gaze shifted to JJ’s tied hands but only briefly. “No. Sonny said we need to do it this way.”
“Okay,” JJ conceded. She didn’t want to push Molly too quickly.
“If your mom didn’t cheat, why’d they split?”
“My … um…” JJ composed herself. “My brother died. They were sad.”
“How’d he die?”
JJ knew better than to tell her that Jeremy ended his own life. The last thing she wanted was some religious zealot dishing out thoughts on that.
“He was very sick,” she said instead. It was the truth. His mental illness had led to him doing something he saw as the only way to end his suffering. She didn’t fault him for that.
Molly frowned. “They broke up because they were sad?”
JJ nodded.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It was difficult for them.”More so for me.
JJ kept that to herself. Remembering the day she found her brother’s dead body was one she would never forget. Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she still saw him lying on his bed, on his back, his arms flung to the side, eyes closed. She’d thought he was asleep at first.
“People shouldn’t break up because things are difficult,” Molly noted. “Like Sebastian. He broke up with me because he wouldn’t listen. I tried to tell him it would be okay, but he was mad.”
JJ already knew the answer, but she asked, “Why was he mad?”
“He thought I lied to him about the baby.”
“Lied how?”
“He thinks the baby’s not his. He is, though. He looks just like him.”
JJ did her best to keep her expression blank. She knew for a fact that Molly’s baby was a girl. Molly had told Baz she was having a boy, but, according to Baz, the nurse at the hospital had explicitly stated it was a girl. JJ had found the birth certificate after the baby was born because she wanted to know for herself.
“Do you have pictures of … him?”
“Of course I do,” she said gleefully. “Sebastian Junior is my pride and joy.”
Oh, dear God.
“Can I see them?”
Molly pulled her phone from her pocket. JJ instantly wondered if Baz would think to track Molly’s phone. Surely he would. Or at least Luca would.
