Chapter 19
Jenna did stay at the Zarin house with Jack for about a week following the funeral, though she stayed in Lilly’s room at night.
When no charges were brought against her father, Jenna had no choice but to go back to him.
Jack could understand Jenna’s torn relief about this.
She didn’t want to leave, but at the same time, she was grateful her father was not involved in her mother’s conspiracies.
Unfortunately, Chief Cunningham showed up at Mr. Zarin’s to inform Jenna, per her father, that she needed to return to Seattle or Mr. Scanlon was going to be pressing kidnapping charges against Jack and Mr. Zarin.
Though Jenna did begrudgingly return, it was different than the separation they had suffered over the winter.
With the return of her allowance, Jenna was able to purchase a new phone line to her dorm room and she kept the car.
Jenna speculated that her dad didn’t notice or was too busy dealing with her mother’s legal battle to realize that she did not remain in Seattle over the weekends.
If Mr. Zarin suspected that Jack and Jenna’s relationship had turned carnal, he said nothing.
He welcomed Jenna into his home as he always had.
Just as before, Jack and Jenna were not allowed in his room with the door closed.
She was allowed to sleep over, but it was either in Lilly’s room or on the couch—which really meant Jack took the couch and Jenna took his bedroom because he refused to sleep in a large, comfy bed while Jenna slept on the living room couch.
Over summer break, Jack and Jenna had gotten inventive on places they could go to spend time together that was not under the Zarin roof. Neither of them wanted to disrespect Mr. Zarin by disobeying his rules.
They were both patient with the other as they learned the ropes of lovemaking.
Jenna had nearly thrown up the first time she tried to give Jack a blowjob.
She’d triggered her gag reflex so badly that there had been tears.
Yet Jack hadn’t judged. He’d taken her into his arms and rubbed her back as she fought through the reaction to breathe again.
It wasn’t entirely smooth sailing for Jack either.
He’d fumbled and faltered too. It had taken a lot of practice to get Jenna to come either on his hand or with his mouth.
From magazines and a dirty movie he’d rented on VHS, Jack had gotten the wrong impression of how easy it would be to get her to orgasm and he’d been too rough.
He’d also gotten into the habit of filing his nails regularly.
They both discovered through trial and error what worked for them.
There was something to be said for the learning process. Knowing that you were discovering things about your partner’s body that they didn’t even know about themselves.
Following Mrs. Scanlon’s arrest, a media scandal broke out.
In order to save face and his business, Mr. Scanlon found a loophole out of their marriage that allowed him to keep his integrity and money while essentially throwing Mrs. Scanlon overboard without a lifeboat.
As Jenna explained it, the prenuptial agreement Mrs. Scanlon had signed allowed Mr. Scanlon to keep all of his assets and divorce Mrs. Scanlon without being required to pay for any of her legal fees.
He was also able to take back the stock he had gifted her as her wedding present without needing to buy her out.
With Mr. Scanlon’s army of lawyers no longer at her disposal and the inability to access the millions she was used to having at her disposal, Mrs. Scanlon was forced to settle with a public defender.
Rather than suffer the humiliation of a trial with an overworked, underpaid lawyer, Mrs. Scanlon pled guilty to all charges of conspiracy to commit theft and insurance fraud, along with accessory to involuntary manslaughter.
Since there was no trial, Jenna did not need to testify against her mother and the legality of the videotaped confession she took was never brought into question.
Within six months of Mrs. Zarin’s murder, it was all over.
Mrs. Scanlon was divorced and in jail. Mr. Scanlon was working on rebuilding relations with his stockholders and public image, which involved a lot of traveling.
Jenna and Jack were starting their senior year of high school and trying to make decisions about where they would go to college.
Jack was picking up as many hours at the grocery store as he could to build up their savings account.
Lilly was starting third grade. Jack now drove Lilly to and from school, which he didn’t mind but it was bittersweet.
Towards the end of September, Jack and Lilly returned home from school to hear a loud banging noise coming from the backyard. Curious and concerned, they walked around the side of the house to find Mr. Zarin standing by a half torn down shed with a sledgehammer in one hand and a beer in the other.
Normally, Mr. Zarin was very careful about drinking in front of Lilly and Jack. It would seem that day was going to be the exception.
“Why don’t you head inside?” Jack urged Lilly.
She looked like she wanted to argue, but then ducked her head and headed up the back stairs. Jack dropped his backpack to the stoop before crossing the yard.
None of them had spent any substantial length of time in the backyard over the past six months.
Even the grill that had been on the back porch was now out front at the top of the driveway.
The grass was overgrown and Mrs. Zarin’s garden had never been replanted at the end of last winter.
Additionally, dark curtains now hung in the kitchen windows to block the view of the backyard.
Jack was fairly certain Mr. Zarin hadn’t stepped foot inside the shed since that day. Until today, it would seem.
Mr. Zarin set his beer down on what looked to be the table that had once been inside the shed. “How was school?”
Jack was taken aback by the casual question, like the man wasn’t half-drunk and tearing down the building where his wife was murdered. “Fine. I submitted the paperwork for my senior project.”
“Good.” Mr. Zarin fixed his grip on the sledgehammer and then let it fly into the side of the shed.
Jack flinched at the contact. “I appreciate you letting me interview you for my project. It works out nicely since, as far as the school is concerned, you’re my landlord.”
After a court battle, this time in front of a family judge, Jack had become emancipated and gained custody of Lilly.
He had to prove he had an income, transportation, and a place to live.
Mr. Zarin had testified that he had rooms for Jack and Lilly to rent.
There was a house inspection and interviews with various adults.
Jack wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure Chief Cunningham had also spoken privately to the judge to help smooth the process over.
Then, suddenly, Jack was a legal adult. It seemed anticlimactic in a way, after all those years he’d spent counting down to his eighteenth birthday. But at the end of the day, Jack and Lilly were able to stay with Mr. Zarin and that was all that mattered.
Mr. Zarin nodded, clearly not paying all that much attention to the conversation. “Whatever you need, son.”
They were silent for another minute. Mr. Zarin picked up his beer, took a swig, put it back down, and then swung the sledgehammer again.
Jack cleared his throat. “Anything happen here today?”
Mr. Zarin had not been back to work since the day he’d arrived home to find his wife had been murdered.
Another swing at the shed. “Nope.”
Jack debated on leaving the man in peace.
Perhaps this was something cathartic he needed to do.
Mr. Zarin had been going through the motions recently but not living.
There were no smiles or laughter anymore.
The closest he’d come was on Lilly’s ninth birthday over the summer.
He wasn’t hurting himself or anyone else by destroying the shed and maybe this would help bring him closure.
Bring them all closure. None of them could stand the sight of their own backyard anymore.
However, the man had been drinking. Jack didn’t see any other bottles around but Mr. Zarin’s eyes said that the beer he’d just put down wasn’t his first or only.
Jack looked beyond Mr. Zarin to see a pile of his tools and supplies that had been inside the shed. At least he wasn’t destroying all of that too. The Zarins had had decent savings but they were not well off enough where he could scorch-earth his shed and rebuild his entire supply of tools.
Before he could think better of it, Jack walked around Mr. Zarin and picked up a chopping axe. He stood with some distance between Mr. Zarin and himself. Mr. Zarin watched him for a moment before seeming to nod to himself and let his sledgehammer fly again.
Jack gripped the axe and aimed for the panel siding.
25 DAYS
Jenna was having a hard time believing her birthday was less than a month away.
For so long, her eighteenth birthday had seemed a distant dream.
She knew that was entirely unrealistic. Time moved, second by second, but it moved.
It was the one constant, unchanging aspect of life. She would turn eighteen.
Their plans had not changed. Three days before her eighteenth birthday, they were going to go to the courthouse to apply for their wedding certificate. Then, in front of God and his family, they would have a small ceremony and be legally married before either one was a high school graduate.