Only Mine

Chapter 18

"French Affair Gone Wrong" read the sensational title that was splashed all over the major newspaper outlets of France. I had re-read all the articles in all the newspapers, trying to see if any of them had any new or incriminating detail. The media outlets had caught wind of Jean Renauld's warrant for DNA testing and had swarmed our house in the early mornings. Luckily, our main gate was situated a few metres down the road from the main door and we were successfully able to avoid any interactions with the hounding reporters. I had seen a few seconds of live feed from Lorenzo's phone and saw the bustling activity of the news correspondents and cameramen, all of them trying to capture a glimpse of the hotel millionaire who was brought in for questioning for the murder of an international model.

Each newspaper had added slightly juicy elements to their story to sell itself faster than its competitor. Le Monde had found pictures of Jean and Alexa sunbathing on the island of Corsica and insinuated a love affair turned hauntingly sour. Le Figaro had spoken about speaking with 'various eye witness accounts' who had mentioned hearing a loud fight between Alexa and Jean on the night that she was murdered. Le Parisien had dug deep into Jean's past and revealed that he had always sported a bad temper when it had come to his love interests. They had mentioned Jean having an undisclosed case against him while he was underage that was rumored to have been about another one of his girlfriends.

I had snuck out of the back entrance of the house and avoided the reporter. Lorenzo had been kind enough to drop me on his way to the police station. Jean has been held overnight and Alceste had been loyally besides him. Vincent had been holed up in the study and in and out of phone calls the entire night. I hadn't managed to speak to Anna and it was killing me that we were on a silent warpath that could possibly wreck our friendship.

Currently seated in the cafeteria of my college, as the sun set over the old gothic campus, I contemplated messaging Anna. After writing and erasing every text I could compose, I decided to speak to her in person later in the day.

"Ella!" Cheryl's voice boomed in the unusually empty cafeteria. Her perturbed face looked more bothered than usual.

"Cher!" I smiled at her.

She looked around to see if there were any people within hearing distance and then sat down. "Did you catch the news?"

"Yeah, I did," I said.

She continued looking at me through her spectacles. "So . . ?" she nudged at me.

"Cher, you know I can't say anything," I whispered to her urgently. I looked around to make sure no one could eavesdrop on our conversation.

"Okay," I hunched over the table and closer to Cheryl. She leaned in towards me. "When I reached home last night, Jean had come from somewhere and he was looking for his lawyer."

"Who's his lawyer?" asked Cheryl.

"Alceste Niel," I answered. "He's this smooth talking, Gucci wearing, pompous prick who is convinced I'm going to be the reason everyone's incarcerated."

Cheryl snorted. "Well, do you blame him?"she said, raising her eyebrow at me spilling last night's details.

"Do you want me to not talk?" I snapped back.

"No no. Go on," she said.

"Well, Jean came back home. He was covered in . . . blood. I don't think it was his. Then he enters and bellows for his lawyer. Alceste walked in and basically told us that the police were going to be escorting him to the police station for DNA evidence in the Alexa case."