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“And you expect me to be okay with you dating my sister when you treat your own family like that?” Sammy asked, arms crossed over his chest now.
It wasn’t me that came to my defense, though.
It was Sierra.
I had seen her walk out of the back hallway just as the words had left Sammy’s mouth, but I hadn’t thought she was close enough to hear what was going on between her brother and me.
“I know that you know nothing about Malachi, his family, or me,” Sierra said softly. “But, in case you were curious, you remember that dog that I got from the shelter a few years ago?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “They were supposed to watch that dog while Malachi was deployed. Guess what? They didn’t. They gave him to a shelter instead. All the while lying to Malachi saying that he was ‘doing great’ and ‘loving life’ in Florida.”
Sammy’s eyes flicked to me briefly.
“And, just sayin’, but I’m really fucking irritated with you right now. I think you need to step the fuck back and get out of Malachi’s face before I make you,” Sierra seethed.
Sammy stepped back, giving me the space that I desperately needed.
“You have no right to judge him. You only have about half a minute worth of conversation that you overheard. You don’t know that that man and woman came to my house yesterday and all but demanded that I be kicked out so that they could move in. For a couple of weeks at that,” Sierra continued. “But, could that be because you’re mad at me over your stupid friend and I breaking up? Did you ever stop and think that there was a reason for that?”
Sierra patted me on the hand then and said, “I’m late for work. I had to come by and make a police report because those stupid fuckers are trying to dick me around.”
I frowned hard at her and followed her, leaving her gaping brother behind.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I followed her out.
She pulled out her phone and showed me the text that she’d gotten this morning.
Unknown number: we’re no longer funding your new ride. Sorry.
“What exactly does that mean?” I asked curiously.
“That means that, according to the insurance adjuster that called me this morning, that they’re saying that they were ‘coerced’ to file the report. And that I was blackmailing them,” I said. “They’ve escalated the ‘proceedings’ to a different department and that I can check with them on Monday once all the information has been gone over on their end.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” I admitted. “I wonder if it was because I talked to that adjuster the other day.”
“I have no idea.” She sighed, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes. “This was really the last thing I needed.” She pointed at the car that she was driving. “And then I got a call from them today, the ones that dropped that off to me, that I would either have to pay the bill in full—and since this has been going on for as long as it has, the bill is now sitting at about seven hundred dollars—or they’d come and pick it up, and then they’d be sending the bill for me to pay or they’d start proceedings with their own lawyer.”
My hands clenched into fists.
“I called the number that the parents had originally given me and they blocked me.” She kicked at the grass underneath her feet. “And so I came up here to press charges against that stupid asshole kid. I can’t believe they talked me out of doing it, then tried this.”
She was lucky that the police had been involved at all. Luckily she hadn’t just let him go and then he did all of this.
“So I go up there, right? I talk to the traffic guy involved and found out that the ticket had been dropped that they issued. Apparently he needed ‘proof of ID.’ So When they showed up with it later that day to get the ticket dropped, they thought nothing of it. But I know for a fucking fact that at the time of that accident, that kid didn’t have an ID. He straight up told me that he didn’t. But the paperwork that officer in there just showed me says that he has a hardship that was issued for his job. A job that he doesn’t even fucking have.” She gritted her teeth and growled. “He told me that he didn’t work because his dad and mom wanted him to focus on his studies. How the absolute hells bells is he able to get a hardship, that requires you to have a job, then?”
I didn’t know, but I’d be definitely finding out.
“Go to work, honey,” I said, tucking her hair around the shell of her ear. “I have some time this morning. I’ll look into it.”
