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Where am I?
Then it all hit me in a rush. The shots of whiskey. The gas station. The car crash. The fact that I’d been arrested and booked on felony charges.
Rising from the bench, I followed the officer through the labyrinth of corridors to the police station in a haze of fear and panic. The distant sounds of clattering keyboards and hushed conversations over donuts and coffee echoed from somewhere out of sight, nothing more than background noise for the march of my doom.
We reached a small room with a single phone mounted on the wall. The officer gestured towards it in silence, and I nodded in acknowledgment, saying nothing in return. I stepped over to the phone and stared at it for a long moment.
Who could I call?
I chewed my lip. My parents were dead, and so was my grandmother. Ryan’s parents might help me, but the chances were slim. I hardly knew them and even though they’d checked in on me over the years, I doubted they’d lend me enough money for bail. I had no other family to speak of. No aunts or uncles or cousins.
There was literally only one person that came to mind.
My godfather.
I hardly knew anything about the man besides his name, Nikolaos Kaligaris. I’d met him once when I was a little girl, but I didn’t really remember anything about him. He lived overseas in Athens, Greece, I think, but I wasn’t certain. I’d spoken to him on the phone on a handful of occasions, mainly a couple of times on my birthdays as I was growing up and more around the time that my grandmother had passed away.
With his help, I’d been able to make the arrangements for her funeral and burial. He’d ensured that the liens against her house were squared away, paid off the mortgage for me, as well as all the bills that came with owning a home. He hadn’t been too excited over the idea that I wanted to take a year off instead of going to college right away, but he’d made sure I had more than enough to live comfortably. He’d always been kind, but I didn’t know about something like this.
Maybe if I explained what happened last night, he’d help me.
I didn’t have any other choice. There was no one else.
I reached for the phone and pressed it to my ear. The dial tone buzzed, and I paused, holding my fingertips over the keys.
What was his number?
For a moment, my mind went blank, but then I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I recited a few facts about Greece to myself, which was something I did sometimes to slow my mind down, and then it finally came to me. I sighed in relief and dialed his number with trembling fingers.
After a few rings, a rumbling voice answered on the other end. “Hello?”
His voice caused the hair on the back of my neck to rise, just like it always did. It reverberated through me like a summer storm, rolling down my spine and settling in the pit of my belly with a finality that left me breathless.
The relief in my voice was palpable as I replied, “It’s Maci. I… Ummm… I’m in trouble, and I was hoping that you maybe would help me.”
A heavy sigh on the other end conveyed a mix of concern and disappointment, which made my heart pound even faster in my chest.
The silence stretched on until he finally asked, “What have you done?”
I took a deep breath, struggling to find the right words. My heart hammered in my chest, and I opened my mouth, only to close it again before I could figure out what to say.
“I made a really big mistake…”
A lengthy pause followed before my godfather’s voice softened. “Where are you?”
“At the police station,” I answered softly, my voice breaking a little bit. I didn’t want to cry again. I’d already cried for much of the night. For a long moment, the other end of the phone was silent, and I worried that he’d hung up on me. Then he cleared his throat.
“I didn’t know who else to call,” I added quietly.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice a tad bit weary, and I chewed on my lip. I swallowed heavily and recounted the events of the night to him, not leaving a single detail out. He listened quietly, and by the time I finished, he sighed.
“Okay, take a deep breath, Maci. We’ll get through this. I’ll get you the best lawyers that money can buy, and we’ll sort this out. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Hold tight. As soon as I’m able, I’ll get your bail settled away, and then I’ll get you out of there. Don’t worry. Do you understand me? I will handle this,” he instructed, his voice so firm that it rattled the very marrow in my bones.
“I understand,” I whispered.
