PARADISE LOST | JJ Maybank VS Rafe Cameron

SIXTEEN

S I X T E E N

CONRAD WAS STANDING WITH HIS HANDS ON HIS HIPS WHEN SHE GOT BACK. It was right after the sun had completely risen on the sky, and he had sunglasses perched on his nose. He waved at his daughter as she walked up to meet him on the front yard of the Camerons' estate. Juliette wondered how the renovation of their house was going.

     "Hi, father," she said, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her shorts as she stood in front of him. Her own sunglasses were on her face, and her long blonde hair was unbound and fell behind her shoulders and down her back.

     "Hey, daughter," Conrad replied back, cocking his head to the side at her. "Did something happen yesterday?"

     Juliette froze, avoiding her father's gaze as she glanced down at her white-painted toes exposed in her sandals. "What do you mean?" she mumbled, flashes of the movie tarpaulin catching on fire and her pointing the gun at Rafe crossing her mind.

     He shrugged. "You seemed pretty shaken up when you came home last night after hanging out with JJ and the crew. And then you left at dawn this morning to go out on the Benjamin. What's wrong, kid?"

     "It's nothing, Dad, don't worry about it."

     "Hmm, that's either a very coincidental response or a rehearsed one."

     She snapped her head up to meet his eyes. "What are you talking about?" Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

     Conrad snorted at her reaction, slinging an arm over her shoulders as they walked towards the house. "I managed to catch Rafe this morning before he went out to his early morning run. He had that same look you had last night."

     She fought the urge to wince. "Did he look bad?"

     "Miserable. Like remember when you were twelve, and you, Sarah, and Wheezie all went out for ice cream and came home to find Rafe alone at home really upset none of you invited him? That kind of mopey. But anyways — I asked him if everything was okay, and he said, and I quote, 'It's nothing, Mr. Starling, don't worry about it'."

Juliette poked her tongue against the inside of her cheek as she quietly mulled over what she'd done to Rafe yesterday. She did feel immensely guilty for having pointed a killing object at him — but not for standing her ground against him for what he'd done to JJ and Pope.

She opened her mouth to tell her father what she'd done, knowing he'd never judge her for it, only to be cut off by her phone ringing. She checked and saw the caller ID wasn't anyone she knew, and she mumbled, "Can't be anyone from the cut — they don't have service. Hello?"

What she didn't expect was to be greeted by a hysterical Kie.

"Woah, woah, Kie — slow down. What's wrong?" Juliette halted by the foyer, causing Conrad to stop walking as well as he worriedly looked down at her.

"Julie, you need to come quick please. It's JJ, we don't know what to do. I don't know why he did that — Pope is panicking." Kie was breathing raggedly, she seemed as though she were about to have an anxiety attack.

"Kiara, what happened to JJ?" Juliette repeated, her heart skipping a beat as she waited with baited breath on her friend's next words.

"They caught him, Julie," Kie said, still in distress. "Shoupe came to Heyward's, tried to arrest Pope for sinking Topper's damn boat, but JJ lied and said he did it. So now he's in jail, I don't know if his dad is gonna bail him out or if he's gonna end up staying here. Please, Julie, come here."