The press had consequences. The media flurry had worked with the speed of light, so faces that were usually neutral or curious were now guarded and hostile.

Jessie stepped back closer to Jimmy who encased her in his arms. People would usually be all over this, but not this time.

"Should we leave?" someone whispered from behind. "Is there a chance of attack with them here?"

Jessie wanted to mention that since they were in a bank, there was always a chance of attack, but she stayed small and cuddled against the person who made her feel safe. These people had a point. But she wished she could just be ignored, be another person just waiting in line to open an account.

"It's going to be okay," Jimmy whispered in her ear.

"You really don't care about the hostility, do you?" she asked, advancing another few steps.

"Nope, not at all."

She bit her lip as she tried to keep her heartbeat steady for the next question. "You thing or serum thing?"

They'd agreed to keep this in the open between them. Whenever Jimmy needed confirmation that he wasn't turning into a coldhearted robot, she provided. Just like she always pointed out things she found weird in his behavior. It was the only way they could keep track of what the serum was doing to him.

So far, it apparently made him immune to sickness after his last cold in France. His physical strength had increased which lead to a decrease in healing speed, but other than that, the emotional detachment didn't seem to have gotten worse.

He paused, doing an internal search. "Serum thing. I think I'd at least feel guilty or embarrassed about this."

"Lucky you," she mumbled. "I feel like the bearded lady at a circus."

"You'd be sexy with a beard, too."

She chuckled, but the amusement dissolved into worry almost instantly. It was very hard to keep smiling these days. First because of what Christine had done, now because of Tom and Angie as well. It sort of made her scared. Scared that some strange lightning bold would fall from the sky and singe her and Jimmy.

"I wish everything wasn't falling apart," she whispered.

"I know what you mean. The thing with Sam and Tom sucks. But Kyle and Kay are fine and I have a hunch that Jerry might have a secret girlfriend."

Jessie turned to him in shock. "Really?"

Jimmy shrugged, though he was grinning. "Texting at odd hours, a little distracted, not half as moralizing... I'd say there's a fair shot."

"I wish." Jessie turned back and they advanced another few steps. "But it seems as if everything is just going downhill lately. Kyle and Kay are both exhausted from work. Kyle's not talking to Tom and Kay is worried sick about Angie and..."

"What about us?"

"That's the thing. I'm afraid something might happen to us, too."

She whispered because she didn't want to say the words out loud. Because she didn't want him to ask what that something might be when she didn't have anything specific in mind. Just a heavy heart and a desperate longing for sunnier days.

"I miss us. The way we all were a couple years back. Happy, free, innocent."

"You mean more innocent than now," Jimmy pointed out. "We've lost our innocence long ago."

"Tell me about it," Jessie mumbled. Even if she couldn't complain about the present, it still felt like the better days were so far behind.

Fortunately, they reached the teller and she could pull out of her gloomy thoughts. Jimmy was right, they were great. She'd never thought she'd suffer so much for the others though. For heartbroken Sam, for irrational Tom, for lonely Jerry, and exhausted Kyle. For Angie who was missing and Kay who seemed in way over her head.

Nothing she could do about it now, though, so might as well focus on the task at hand. The pleasant task at hand.

"How may I help you?" the teller asked.

"Hi," Jimmy said, putting on his charm. It still worked, despite the press making them into bad guys. "We spoke over the phone. We would like to open a joint account."

The tall woman started searching her computer and Jessie wanted to point out she didn't have their names, but it didn't seem to be a problem.

"Of course Mr. Grant. You're at table three. Miss Daniels will be with you in a minute."

They headed that way and sat down in front of the table, giddiness overtaking Jessie.

"I can't believe we're doing this."

"Not too late to back out," he said with a grin. "Don't want to be overbearing or move too fast."

He knew it was bullshit and she'd never back out. This was an entirely new form of commitment. They'd decided to do it on a whim. Open a joint account where they would both save up for a house. A house, not an apartment. A place that would be theirs, where they would move in together and start a family.

None of them had said it, and it was not official, but Jessie knew that was the point. Because Jimmy had proved time and time again that he was all in. And so was she. There was nothing in this world that made her happier than the thought of their little house and future family. She still wasn't sure how the Agency, the other agency, and Snitch Gravel fit into all that, but those were details. They could do it.

"You look adorably excited," Jimmy pointed out.

"Um, yeah." She blushed, aware that she might freak him out if she told him she was picking out names for their kids inside her head. They were a long way from that. "It's a big deal to me."

"It's a big deal to me, too."

The tenderness with which he watched her melted her heart. Especially because seeing him relaxed and happy had become a rare occurrence. Even if the effects of the serum didn't seem to be getting worse, they did show more often. So this... This was special.

She leaned in and kissed him. He put his hand on the back of her head to hold her there and kissed her back with a little more enthusiasm than she was ready for.

"Aww, isn't this adorable?"

The voice grated on Jessie's nerves and she pulled back, unable to believe it.

Alice sat at the table in front of them, pushing aside her name tag. Alice Daniels. She gave Jimmy a soft smile that showed no signs of scorn. But when she turned to Jessie, she could see the poison in Alice's eyes and no amount of showing teeth could cover that.

Jimmy seemed a little stunned, too, but he quickly relaxed and leaned back in his chair. "Hi, Alice."

She looked at him a little confused, as if she couldn't remember where she had seen him before, as if she hadn't obsessed over him and made Jessie's life hell.

"Oh, Jimmy," she said, sounding thrilled and surprised. "I couldn't place you for a while there. How have you been?"

Jimmy cocked an eyebrow, obviously not buying her oblivious act since they've been all over the paper for years. "Alright. You?"

She waved her hand around. "Making a career for myself. Girl's got better thing to do than pin for you." She winked and Jessie wanted to shove the stapler down her throat.

"Are you married then?" she asked.

Alice turned to her, smile still in place, eyes ready to murder. "Oh, hi. Um..." She pretended not to remember her name.

"Abigail," Jessie supplied. "Nice to see you again."

Alice huffed, but the playfulness was gone. She focused on her computer, typing away. "So, you'd like to open a joint account. Lovely. Shouldn't take long." She typed some more, her impressively long finger nails ticking along on the keyboard. "Any documentary basis?"

"What?" Jimmy asked.

Jessie gritted her teeth. "She's asking if we're  married. No, Alice, we are not."

"O-kay..." She continued typing. "As far as I know, you both have accounts already open here so I should be able to extract all your information."

Of course you can, you witch. You've probably been stalking us the moment you could. Jessie didn't even feel one ounce of guilt because she was one hundred and ten percent sure she was right.

"That's right," Jimmy said, crossing his arms over his chest, being much too civil with her. Maybe he really had no hard feelings, really didn't care. After all, she was his old girlfriend.

But Jessie couldn't forgive and forget how Alice had painted her as a traitor in front of everyone else, how she had almost gotten Sam, Tom and Billy killed and plunged Kyle into temporary madness. There was no way she had changed. The venom in her eyes proved it.

"True, true." Alice continued typing and they fell into awkward silence.

Jessie's stomach turned and she wished she could talk to Jimmy, but she couldn't in front of her. She suddenly wanted to go home.

"Okay, we're good to go. All we need is an initial deposit which I can easily transfer from your current accounts. So, how much will it be?"

Jimmy looked at Jessie. "Twenty grand? Fifty?"

They hadn't talked about this, but it seemed fair enough. Jessie made some quick mental calculations and decided to go all in just to spite Alice.

"Fifty," she said with a nod.

"Well, looks like fame and adventuring are paying off," Alice said with a light laugh and Jessie was a little disappointed she wasn't green with envy.

"They are. We're looking to buy a house in the future," she said.

Jimmy gave her a confused sideways glance, but Alice laughed again.

"Sure." Her tone was strangely joyful as she continued typing and clicking on her mouse. "All set, Jimmy. The funds have been transferred. Now, Jessica..." She frowned at the screen. "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to make the transfer from your account without clearance."

Jessie blinked. "Clearance?"

Alice pushed her keyboard away and joined her hands on the table. "You see, your account is already a joint account, and if you want to withdraw more than five thousand dollars at once, you need approval from your husband."

All air seemed to drain out of the world and everything swayed in front of Jessie's eyes. Her mind simply refused to work, her head refused to turn and look at Jimmy.

"I don't have a husband," she said, her voice as blank as her mind.

Alice frowned and returned to her computer. "Strange. It says here that you need approval from Esteban Martin Ernesto Velasquez."

"That can't be possible." She'd split from Esteban ages ago and the lawyer was supposed to take care of this stuff. He'd assured her that her account was once again her own.

"Let me check," Alice frowned some more. "No, it's a joint account with documentary basis."

"What does that even mean?" Jimmy asked.

He sounded annoyed and Jessie didn't have the guts to turn and look at him to figure out who he was annoyed at. Her heart beat too fast and her throat had clogged.

Alice leaned forward and delivered the killer blow. "It means it was created on the basis of a marriage certificate."

Deadly silence filled the air and Jessie just wanted to die. But it was still wrong, still inaccurate information.

"I can't still have a joined account with Esteban because we are divorced." Her voice had come out so leveled and reasonable she would've been proud of herself if she wasn't three seconds away from vomiting on Alice's desk.

Alice searched some more. "I'm sorry, but your divorce hasn't been registered with the bank, so until you do, I can't make any transfer." And she just pulled back and watched them with a despicable grin.

Jessie wanted to jump over the table and punch her smug face. She'd known. Had dug into her past on purpose just to personally deliver it to Jimmy as a sick form of revenge. But the anger got buried in panic because it didn't matter who revealed it and why. All that mattered was that she'd lied and it had finally caught up with her.

"You're married?" he asked, his voice low and guarded.

"Um..." She really didn't want to talk in front of Alice. "Can we talk about this at home?"

"No." He stood, though, and strode towards the door.

Jessie abandoned Alice's grinning face and hurried out after him. By the time she made it through the crowd and out into the pouring rain, he was across the street, in a small park. She darted after him, but he'd stopped walking. When he turned to her, she wanted to die all over again. The pain in his eyes... It looked like he was breaking.

"I'm listening." Rain drops fell down his cheeks like tears, but he didn't seem to care.

"I..." God, she wasn't ready for this. She was too scared, too irrational, too miserable. "When we met, I was married to Esteban."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Wasn't that the one million dollar question. "Because I was in love with you and thought that if you knew, you'd never come near me."

He snarled and started pacing. She let him, because if she were honest, she didn't want to ever open her mouth again. But she had to. It was still her turn to talk.

"I wanted to escape. When Herrison found me, I was running to get away from him. I divorced him after we came back from Mexico. That's why it took me so long to come back. I didn't--"

"How could you not tell me?" He stopped again, the anger in his eyes making her shiver worse than the rain.

"There was never a right time..."

"A right time? I'll give you a few right times. When you told me you were engaged, you could've told the truth instead. When I told you about Izzy. When we promised we wouldn't keep anything away from each other. Every damn fucking time I asked you if something was wrong."

She flinched and stepped back, tears filling her eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"You lied to me for three and a half years and you're sorry?"

"This doesn't change--"

"Doesn't change anything? Are you fucking kidding me?" He clenched his fists and leaned towards her, but was too far away to touch her and wasn't coming closer. Probably wiser. "It changes everything. And you know why? Because you hid an entire part of you. This is not you cheating on a text in high school. It's not some fleeting old boyfriend. It's something that shaped you, something that affected your entire life."

She swallowed her tears and lowered her head. He was right, of course he was and she was nothing but a liar and a fake.

Jimmy continued to pace, swearing under his breath. She had no idea what to do, what to say. The rain should be dissolving her, turning her into a puddle of shame.

"So you're divorced now?" he asked, stopping again.

"Yes," she said immediately, a tiny bit of hope returning to her.

"Are you sure?"

The question sent a shiver down her spine because she was suddenly not so sure anymore. She'd signed the divorce papers and let her lawyer deal with the rest. He'd apparently failed to deal with the bank. What else could be wrong? But she couldn't say that, not now.

"Yes. I served him the papers three years ago. I haven't heard from him since."

"Anything else you want to tell me?"

She shook her head. "I haven't kept anything else from you."

"Except this one small thing." He dropped on one of the benches and lowered his face into his hands.

Jessie sat on the corner of the bench, trying to settle her breathing, her heartbeat. She wanted to hug him so badly, kiss him, take his pain away like she'd done so many times. But this time, she was the cause of his misery and it broke her.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, rain drenching them to the skin. She didn't dare disturb his thoughts and he wasn't saying anything. But every second was torture and all she wanted to do was yell "Now what?"

"Jimmy..." she finally whispered.

"Don't." He lifted his face from his hands. "I can't... I need to think. I..."

His voice broke her all over again because she'd broken him. He sounded distant, hopeless, like he was shutting down. "Is it over?"

He looked at her, his chocolate brown eyes so filled with anguish. "It could very well be."

Jessie bit her lip and lowered her face. Her hair fell and covered her shame, her tears. He had every right because she was nothing but a fraud. She'd long accepted the risk of hiding the truth. But it didn't make it any easier to face.

"I..." He stood. "I need to be alone." And he stuffed his hands in his pocket and walked away.

Jessie stayed on the bench, clutching her face, trying to control her sobs. The pain inside her was tearing her to pieces, killing everything beautiful inside her. All her hopes,  her dreams, shattered.

That morning, she had two homes. And now, she was homeless.

♠️♠️♠️

Kaboom! I'm ruining everything. This has been hinted at so powerfully throughout the rest of the books. Did anyone guess?

Also, nice to see Alice, right? 😁

Back to more important things. How do you feel about Jessie and what she did? Was Jimmy's reaction justified? Should he have listened more? Should she have said more?

I'm not done. Have great things in store for the next part.

Vote and comment because why not?