“Yes, I am bushed.”
“I’ll lock up and see you in the morning,” Sam said.
“Thanks, Sam. For everything,” Tessa said. “Night.”
“Good night,” he called out.
Tessa had planned to take a hot soak in the Jacuzzi tub, but she was too tired after the emotionally strenuous evening she had just been put through. She had showered earlier, and that would have to suffice. So she quickly washed her face. She brushed her teeth, reveling in the real toothbrush, not that flimsy excuse for one she had to use in prison, though she had to remind herself not to get too used to these things as there was no guarantee that she wasn’t going to return to FCI, although the chances that she would seemed to be vanishing since Rosa’s account of what had happened on Saturday, when her family was still alive.
Chapter 24
Tessa could not get to sleep. She looked at the clock for the hundredth time and saw it was just after 2:00 A.M. She had wanted to get a good night’s rest, so she would be sharp tomorrow when she saw Rachelle for the first time since being sent to prison. She would need to be at her mental best as she planned to rake the woman over the coals, and then some. Tessa would know if she was lying. She had spent most of her youth with liars, so she knew one when she saw one. Rachelle might act like a grieving mother, but Tessa knew that she of all people would be able to see through her lies.
She rolled over, punched the pillow into a comfortable shape, and closed her eyes. She tried to calm her mind, focus on nothing, so that she could fall asleep, but it was impossible. So she let her thoughts take her wherever they might, and after a while, she drifted into a deep sleep.
Tessa wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep when she was startled awake. Glancing at the bedside clock, she saw that it was after four. She sat up in bed, waiting to hear if what startled her awake would become evident. A thousand thoughts went through her mind. She propped herself up in the bed, pulling the covers up to her chest. Thinking a reporter might have sneaked onto the property, she considered waking up Sam, but she knew that the newly installed alarm system would be blaring had anyone actually managed to get onto the property.
It was probably her imagination. She was so used to being awakened at night in her cell, it was most likely a continuation of her experiences over the years in prison. She had never been a heavy sleeper anyway and hadn’t ever really required much sleep. She remembered that Mama Shirley used to tell her she didn’t need much sleep because she was a true genius, just like the inventor Thomas Edison, who only slept a couple of hours here and there, according to historians. She didn’t agree. If only Mama Shirley had known then why she rarely slept, she wouldn’t have been so quick to compare her nocturnal habits with those of the great inventor.
Glenn. That sleazy slimeball who called himself a foster father had spent much of his nights prowling through the house, making pit stops in her bedroom. She knew she should have told Shirley at the time, but all she had wanted to do was live there long enough to finish high school. She knew that having an education was her only way out of the life she did not want to live, so she tolerated the nighttime visits. He would touch her breasts and tell her she would make a good model for Victoria’s Secret one day. Thankfully, though, it never went further than touching. Little had he known that her aspirations were much grander than wagging her tits and ass in front of a camera for the world to see. But she had kept quiet, and Glenn continued to visit her room until her senior year of high school, when she finally confronted him. She was not long from graduating from high school and had already received a scholarship, so at least she knew she had a head start on bettering her life. The last time Glenn had paid her a nightly visit, she was ready for him.
While she mostly kept to herself in school, she knew a few girls who were not honor students such as herself. She had never judged them for their wild, crazy behavior because she didn’t know what their life circumstances were. She had learned the hard way how hurtful it was to be looked down upon for things beyond her control, so she tried not to judge others when the so-called good girls would turn up their noses at them.
It was at lunch one day, and she remembered it as though it had happened yesterday. Norrine Sellers was sitting alone at a table in the back of the cafeteria. She had dyed, witch-black hair, black nail polish, and deep purple lipstick. Short skirts and too-tight tops garnered her a great deal of attention from the boys in their senior class. Tessa had thought she was quite the character and knew that she wasn’t the slut that most of the school thought she was. They’d shared lunch more than once, and Tessa liked Norrine, and she knew that Norrine felt the same about her. It was during lunch once that Tessa had told her about Glenn and his nighttime visits to her room. Why she had spilled this to her, she wasn’t sure, but she had needed to tell someone, and Norrine did not judge her. In fact, she had told her she had been through the same thing with three of her mother’s boyfriends. She had asked Tessa to meet her after school that day, promising to help with her “problem.” At first, Tessa was afraid she might
