Jackson

After we had returned to the department we sent in the toothbrush to forensics. Elisa and I had gone our separate ways after work, but I told her I would pick her up at 6 o’clock sharp for dinner. It was nice being home early and being able to relax before a date. ‘This is a date, right?’ I felt my face heat up. I was pretty pale, so anytime I blushed I would look as red as a tomato.

There was a sudden knock on my door. I frowned. I pulled out my phone, pulled up my security camera footage, and laughed to myself. It was Daniel at my door. After that night with Sarah, I mentioned a DNA test every chance I could when Lucas wasn’t around. She didn’t seem like she was going to, but now I had the chance to at least see if she mentioned it to Daniel.

I opened the door. His eyes widened as he saw me. “I uh…” I smirked. “Here to see my wife? Sorry, she’s not home.” The color from his face faded. “I, ah,” I raised a hand. “Stop. I know you’ve been coming over when I’m not home. I’m not sure if it’s for Sarah or Lucas, but regardless I know. I’m guessing this is a time you two usually have set for you to come over?” He slowly nodded. “Well, I’m glad to see you. I have a question to ask you.” He rubbed nervously at his arm. “Has Sarah mentioned getting a DNA test done for Lucas?”

“Uh, no. She hasn’t. Look, I only come over for Lucas.” I doubted it. “It’s true! I’m always here an hour early before he gets home because I clean up your house.” He crossed his arms. My eyebrows raised. “It makes sense why I always came home to a clean house. Sarah was never one for cleaning. I appreciate you doing that.” He nervously nodded.

“Oh, Jackson, what are you doing here?” Sarah walked up behind Daniel, guilt written all over her face. “Uh, I live here? Why are you here?” She glared at me. “I live here too.” I shrugged. “Or, I could kick you out right now. I told you to go get that DNA test done for Lucas, if not, I was going to make you. If he isn’t mine, you won’t be living here any longer.” The color from her face drained. I couldn’t help but be satisfied. “Daniel, leave.” He nodded at her words and scurried off in the other direction, she pushed past me to get into the house.

I followed behind her, closing the door shut. She walked up to my room and I frowned. “What are you doing in my room?” She looked flabbergasted. “It’s our room.” I shook my head. “No, this house is strictly mine. This is my room. You can have the guest room for now.” She crossed her arm. “We’ve been sharing a room up until today. Why the sudden change?” “I shrugged. “Well, we aren’t together,” “We’re married!” She screeched, cutting me off. “The divorce is being finalized so not for much longer. As I was saying, since we aren’t together I thought it would be best to stop sharing a room. Get all of your stuff out by the end of the night.” I said.

She gritted her teeth, looking at the clothes I had laid out on the bed for dinner tonight. “Are you getting all dressed to take me out?” I scoffed. “No, I’m not.” She turned to face me, her face getting red from anger. “Then why are you going to be dressing up tonight?!” I rolled my eyes. ‘Not this shit again,’ I crossed my arms. “I’m taking someone out for dinner.” This pissed her off more. “Jackson, we still have time to fix our relationship! Shouldn’t we be working things out?” I laughed. “No! I told you that night that I was done. Remember the statement I made you sign? That also said we aren’t together. I’m done with your bullshit. You have Daniel to take care of you, run off to him.” Before she could get a word out I was already nudging her out of my bedroom.

6 o’clock came faster than I had expected. I was dressed up in a nice suit, minus the jacket. I had my hair slicked back. Downstairs I heard something shatter. Lucas started crying. I groaned.

I ran down the stairs, finding Sarah on the ground, glass in front of her, Lucas crying. “Lucas, buddy, back away please, okay?” I gently pushed him away, careful to avoid the glass. I touched Sarah’s shoulder. She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. Her face was flushed. I looked down at the floor once more and noticed the dark stain. ‘Great, she’s been drinking.’

“Jackson,” she groaned. “Please, please don’t go!” She pleaded, reaching out for me. “What’s going on with you?” I glanced back at Lucas, his worried expression broke my heart. “I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay and work things out!” I rolled my eyes. “Sarah, pull yourself together. You need to get to bed.” I helped get her on her feet and frowned at the shattered glass. “When you sober up, I want you to clean this up. Got it?” She nodded, tears continuing to fall down her cheeks.

I turned towards Lucas. “Hey buddy, let’s get up to your room, okay?” He nodded stiffly, heading off to his room. I followed him. I grabbed his backpack and a bag with some of his clothes inside. “Tonight we’re going to go stay the night with a friend of mine, would you like that?” Lucas perked up at the idea. “Yeah daddy!” I grabbed his stuff, then picked up some of my clothes from my room, then picked him up and walked back down stairs.

“Where are you taking him?” Sarah slurred. She still hadn’t gone off to bed like I had told her to do. “I’m taking him with me. You’ve drunk too much for me to feel comfortable leaving him here with you.” She balled up her fist. “I can take care of my son! You aren’t taking him!” I rolled my eyes. “He’s my son too, neither of us have custody, so I’m free to take him.” That shut her up, and with that I went out the door with him in my arms.

We pulled up to Elisa’s house and I instantly felt guilty. ‘I shouldn’t just assume that she’s going to let us stay here tonight!’ I bit on my bottom lip. I wasn’t sure of how I was going to ask her.

My passenger door opened. Elisa slid into the seat, smiling at me. She wore a lace pink dress that I felt complimented her looks very well. I hadn’t noticed her walk up to the car. She glanced in the back and gasped. “Jackson, who is that?” I nervously laughed. “That’s my son, Lucas. Something happened at home so I brought him along. I meant to call and talk to you but I just wanted to get out of there.” She looked at me with a questioning look. “I’ll tell you when we get back, anyways, could we also possibly stay with you tonight?”

She stared at me for a few moments, then I started to worry. “Elisa?” She blinked. “Oh! Yes, of course. I would love to have you both over tonight!” I sighed out of relief. “You’re a lifesaver. Ready to go get that dinner I owe you?” She grinned. “You bet your ass I am!”

The restaurant was small, busy but not too busy. It was a nice, laid back seafood restaurant. We were able to grab a booth in the corner. I wasn’t much in the mood to eat due to what happened with Sarah, but I still managed to order a small salad and eat that while Elisa and Lucas had ordered crab. Elisa engaged with Lucas, which I was thankful for.

“Ah, that was some good food!” Elisa said, stretching out her arms as we left. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” I said, opening the passenger door for her. “Are you okay? You seemed out of it throughout dinner and you only ate a salad, this was supposed to be a cheer up dinner.” She climbed into the car, and the moment I shut my door I let out a sigh. “Just stress. Again, I’ll tell you more at your place, okay?” She nodded. The ride back was silent.

On the way to Elisa’s place, Lucas fell asleep in the backseat. I picked him up in one arm and carried his two bags in my other. Elisa held the door open for me and led me to a spare bedroom. I laid Lucas down on the bed and rubbed my neck. “Is there any way I could change into some clothes I brought with me?” Elisa gestured down the hallway. “Last door on the left is the bathroom, feel free to change in there. I’ll meet you downstairs?” I nodded, heading off to the bathroom and changing into more comfortable clothing.

I met with Elisa downstairs in her living room. She had two glasses of wine on the table beside the couch. I sat down and nodded towards the drinks. “For us?” She nodded as she picked one up and handed it to me. “Yeah, I thought you might want some while we talk.” I looked down into the glass, feeling disconnected. “We just had some drinks together the other night. Do you always open a bottle for guests?” I meant for it to come off as teasing but from the look on her face I could tell I came off snarky.

“Sorry, tough night before I had picked you up.” I took a sip of wine. “My wife and I are going through a divorce right now. It’s currently being finalized. One day this guy showed up looking for my wife. Turns out it was an ex of hers that she had cheated on me with.” I rubbed my face. “When Lucas was born my aunt and uncle had come over to see the baby. My aunt and I were in the kitchen alone, and she made a comment that she believed that Lucas wasn’t mine. I pushed it to the back of my mind but sometimes it would come to me. One day I made the comment that I wished Lucas was more like me, Sarah, my wife, lost her shit. She would drink and go out all night all the time, it would cause fights, and she started to get a bit controlling, which caused more issues in our relationship.” I drank more of the wine, part of me not wanting to continue.

Elisa’s wine glass was still full, I felt nervous. “You haven’t even taken a sip of that, are you okay?” She blushed then put the glass to her lips and took a sip. “Sorry, I was just concentrating on you. That’s all. Please, continue.” “Well, this guy showed up and was saying that Sarah’s family told him that Lucas was his son. I was heartbroken to find out Sarah had been cheating. Also looking at this guy, Lucas looked more like this guy than Lucas looked like me. I told Sarah that I wanted a DNA test done. Earlier today, I told her that I didn’t think it was best that we continued sharing a room and that since it was my house she needed to get her stuff out of the room and move into the spare room that I had. She wasn’t happy. She also noticed my clothes out on the bed and she asked me where I planned on going. I said I was taking someone out for dinner and she got upset, said we have time to work things out, I told her we were over. I made her leave the room. As I was about to leave the house I heard something. I went downstairs, Sarah was on the floor and there was shattered glass on the floor, Lucas was there with her, crying. She had been drinking, was screaming at me not to leave. So I took Lucas and left.” I finished my wine in one bug swallow, then stared down at the floor.

I jumped at the sudden feeling of arms being wrapped around me. “I’m so sorry Jackson. I’m here for you, if you ever need anything, let me know, okay?” I smiled softly at her. “Thanks, I appreciate it. Let’s talk about you though. Have you shown Elizabeth the picture? Have you gone back and checked any of your cameras?” She tapped on her glass, almost looking ashamed.

“You went through all that hard work to install them for me and I haven’t even checked them yet, I’m sorry. I also haven’t shown Elizabeth yet.” She mumbled. “Hey, it’s okay. Why don’t we go ahead and check back on them now?” She let go of me and got closer, handing me her phone. “I’m sure everything is going to be alright.” I really hoped I was right.

“There!” Elisa practically shouted. I jumped. “What? What’s going on?” She pointed at the screen. The footage showed Rachel walking into Elisa’s room, straightening up her bed, dusting off her stuff. “What’s wrong?” She frowned. “If you look closely, while she’s dusting off near my dresser you can see her slightly open the top drawer and it looks like she dropped something into it!” I rewinded the footage and zoomed in closer. “You’re right. Let’s go check it out.”

I waited outside her bedroom door as she rummaged through her dresser. “You can come in here Jackson,” she said. I walked inside and saw her holding a small photo in her hand. She held it up and frowned. The picture was of Elisa asleep. The only light was light that came in from the doorway from the hallway light. “I don’t know why she would have had this picture. She always leaves when I come home and I always make sure the house is locked up when I go to bed. She doesn’t even have her own house key so there should be no way for her to have gotten this picture!” Her voice was shaky. I pulled her into a hug, it was all I could think to do.

“Look, if you want to confront her I’ll be with you when you do, okay?” Elisa nodded, burying her face into my chest. “Also, in the morning we need to question your sister about the picture.” Elisa pulled away and only nodded. “I think we both need to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning, Elisa.” “Goodnight.”

I crawled into the bed that Lucas was asleep in and covered up. I stared at him while he slept. It was hard to believe that he wasn’t mine. I needed to find out, for my own peace of mind.

I remember being shaken awake, but that was it. I couldn’t remember getting out of bed, getting dressed, and going downstairs. I barely remembered Elisa greeting me with a coffee.

“What time do you have to take Lucas to school?” Elisa asked. I looked over at her, my mind was in a blur. “Huh?” She laughed at me. “Your son? The one you have to take to school since you both stayed over?” I checked my phone and sighed out of relief. I still had time to get him there. “In about an hour, a little over.” I took the last sip of my coffee, not even remembering drinking the rest. “Are you having Rachel come today to watch Elizabeth?” She shook her head. “No. I thought about it and I decided it’s best to get Elizabeth back in school. Could I come along with you when you leave?”

“Of course you can. They may or may not let her start back today, so in case you should bring some stuff with her, okay?” Elisa nodded. “Don’t forget about the picture before we leave, alright?” She looked down. “I’ll go get it now and tell Elizabeth to come meet me down here.” She walked up the stairs, her dread was seeping off of her.

“Morning Jackson!” Elizabeth sang as she approached me. “Goodmorning Elizabeth, how did you sleep?” She smiled at me. “Good! Sissy told me to wait down here for me because she has something to ask me!” She sounded excited. I heard Elisa’s footsteps as she came back down the stairs.

In her hand she held the photo. “Elizabeth, I’m going to show you something and when I ask you a question about it I want you to be honest with me, okay?” Elizabeth looked confused, but eagerly nodded. “Okay!” Elisa held the picture up to her sister. “Is this the man who daddy brought home that mommy freaked out over?” Elizabeth stared at the photo for a while, looking lost in thought before finally giving an answer. “It’s him!”

Elisa’s gaze locked onto mine. I knew what she was thinking. We had to find out who her father was, and fast. He was now a possible suspect.