“Sorry about that,” the kid said. “Thing’s been wonky all day. I’ll have to manually enter it.”
She handed over the card, a trickle of unease rolling through her chest.
The machine beeped again.
“Sorry,” the kid said, lowering his voice to spare Charley some embarrassment. “It says the card’s declined.”
“What? That’s—forget it. I have another one.” Charley fished out her secondary card and handed it over, but no matter how many times the kid tried the numbers, the machine kept up its incessant squawking.
“Did you put a fraud alert on this?” he asked. “It’s declining this one too.”
The trickle of unease turned into fear, sinking like a stone in Charley’s stomach.
There was only one reason both her cards would suddenly be declined.
“I have no idea what’s going on.” She held out her hand for the card, cheeks burning. “I’ll have to call the company.”
“Sorry, I have to keep it. Do you have cash?”
Holy fuck.
The reality of her situation slapped her hard in the face.
Those cards were her only access to money.
Without warning, Rudy had just cut her off.
“Charley?” Sasha was at her elbow, tugging her arm. “What’s wrong?”
She met Sasha’s eyes, shame slithering down her spine.
I can’t even buy my sister a movie ticket.
“Something’s wrong with my cards,” Charley said. “I have to call the bank, but for now, I can’t get the tickets.”
“That’sit?” Sasha laughed, her brow crinkling with confusion, as if this were just some minor pothole on the road of life. “Damn, girl. I thought someone died. I’ll get the tickets—it’s no problem.”
Charley tried to refuse, but Sasha was already handing over her debit card. The machine chimed happily, and the kid handed over two tickets.
“Enjoy the show,” he said.
Sasha insisted on paying for the candy too, and as she headed to the snack counter, Charley waited on the sidelines and took stock of her assets, wondering how far she could make them stretch: a few hundred bucks in the false-bottomed cookie jar, a monthly MetroCard that was good for another three weeks on the subway, a coupon for a free latte at Perk…
That was it.
Her mind spun with new worries. What if Rudy stopped payment on the maintenance fees of her penthouse? What could she do about it? Report him to the labor board for unfair practices?
Charley bit her lip, cursing herself for being so naive. She should’ve been taking cash advances out from the credit cards, a little at a time, squirreling it away for a rainy day.
Now, she was about to walk straight into a hurricane, and she didn’t even have an umbrella.
Stupid, stupid girl.
Her whole life she’d been shuffled from one man to the next, never given the opportunity to grow, to change, to be anything other than Charlotte D’Amico, the phantom art thief. She was her father’s, and then she became Rudy’s, and in some ways, even Dorian’s. He’d offered without hesitation to buy her out from Rudy’s clutches—a deal Charley knew her uncle would never take. But even if that wasn’t an issue, how could Charley accept those terms? Well-meaning or not, how could she allow herself to become indebted to another man?
She’d lived for decades in a constant shadow of fear, afraid to speak up, afraid to defy, afraid to truly live. But she wanted to.God, how she wanted to. It was more than just keeping her sister safe, dodging Rudy’s threats, eking out some kind of living that didn’t involve stealing. Deep down, she wanted to give her sister alife, and to build one for herself. She wanted to go to school, to study, to learn something, to be something, to find and follow her passions. She wanted to work hard. She wanted to be free to fall in love.
Love.
