Stubborn

Chapter Twenty Five

Melanie's POV

I know about a lot of things. I can help with a lot of things. But, when it comes to this situation with Jermaine and Ashley, I'm at a lost for words. It's been a week since Corey made that phone call, and now I understand exactly what he meant when he said that he couldn't tell me what he did. Two days later, the media was swarming the case with these two. Chanel hadn't been located yet, but Ashley and Jermaine were taken into custody. While the police did their thing to try and find out where the little girl was, I felt powerless. I didn't know where she was, but it was a baby. Do I not have a right to feel sad for someone else's child? This was my son's little sister, regardless of how I felt.

I was sitting in the conference room with Corey and some detectives from the case today. I refused to speak to these people alone. I've worked with cops before, but not when a case is closer to me than anyone else could realize. I know I messed up with getting involved with this case, but I had to take Jermaine out of the equation. I had to think about Chanel for a second. You had a child that seemed obviously scared, and she didn't want to talk to anyone about anything. I was actually shocked when she came in my room that day and told me that she had missed her mother.

Speaking of mother, Ashley's mother has been trying to contact me. I felt sorry for the woman, because I didn't have any answers for her. I didn't know what the courts were going to do with Ashley or Jermaine. All I knew was that right now, they were simply worried about the child. The officers continued to press the issue that the child was their first priority, and I loved that.

"Okay, Ms., could you tell us all you know?" Detective Bardon asked me.

I opened the file and scanned over it before telling him everything. "Jermaine came to me one day and showed me all of these bruises on his daughter's back. He said that it was the second time that he'd picked her up from Ashley's house like that. The time before, he was told that she was jumping in the bed. I recommended a social worker to them and I left it alone. He comes back and tells me that they were getting nowhere with the social worker. The little girl didn't talk to her. He once again, asked me to help with the case and I gave in. I remember the girl wouldn't talk to me about anything. But, one day she entered my bedroom and told me that she missed her mother. That was when I found out that Jermaine wasn't letting her speak to her mother. They came in for a session and during the session, Chanel said that she missed her mother. I told Jermaine that and asked if he could call Ashley. Jermaine told me that he didn't know where Ashley was. I asked him if he had gone to Ashley's mother's house and he told me that he hadn't."

The detectives wrote and nodded their heads as I spoke. I could tell that they were getting information from me, as well as slightly doubting my judgement with all of this.

I decided to continue going. "That same day, I decided to go over Ashley's mother's house. That's when I learned that Ashley hadn't seen Chanel because Jermaine was supposed to be taking her to Disneyland. Ashley didn't want to talk to her daughter, because that would make Chanel want to come home earlier."

"Wait," Bardon said, stopping me. "Jermaine and Chanel are supposed to be at Disneyland?"

"They were. I'm pretty sure that the 'trip' is over."

"So he never went?"

"Nope."

"Ashley's mother is aware of this?"

I simply nodded my head. "I asked her not to tell Ashley, because I didn't want Jermaine to react."

"Then finally, there was the night you guys were called, I guess. He came over to my house unexpectedly and I asked him where his daughter was. He said that she was with Ashley. I dismissed the notion, because that was their business, and I wasn't in my social worker mind then. We went out to see my sister, then ate, and returned back. My son wanted to watch a movie together with Jermaine and I, so Jermaine was in my son's bedroom helping him change clothes. Jermaine's phone began ringing and it was Ashley, so I answered it. She simply asked to speak to her daughter. I lied and told her that Chanel was sleep."