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Her words may have been muffled with food, but Sterling understood.
She stabbed her fork into her pile of cheese fries and stared them down. “What is going on?”
They both stared blankly. Getting information out of these two was just as hard as getting it out of her parents.
“You haven’t eaten breakfast in a month?” Her eyes narrowed while she waited for an answer.
Sidney swallowed hard. She heard the gulp from across the table. “Sterling, we—”
“You promised,” Surrey cried out. The evil look meant for Sidney turned into sadness as she pleaded with her eyes.
“Promised what?” Sterling asked. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Sidney lowered her eyes to the table. “Mom and Dad are gambling.”
Shit! She tried so hard to shelter them from their addiction. She had been doing a great job until recently, but not living in the same household meant she didn’t know what was going on every minute of every day.
With a heavy sigh, Sterling said, “I know.”
“You knew,” Surrey wailed. “You knew and did nothing.”
Her stomach churned at the accusation.
“It’s not Sterling’s fault,” Sidney snapped at her twin.
She appreciated the solidarity, but she knew it wasn’t the truth. It was her fault. But what was she supposed to do? The situation was much more complicated than they knew.
“I can’t just snap my fingers and fix it. They have an addiction. They…they need to want to help themselves.”
“You said you would take care of us,” Surrey said, this time it was a yell.
Sterling slouched down in her chair. The other patrons had turned their heads at her sister’s shouting.
“Sidney’s had to go to Jennie’s house all week to use the Internet because mom canceled the service.” Tears threatened to fall from her watering eyes.
“Her parents were nice enough to feed me, too,” Sidney said.
Surrey fisted her hands on the table. “Dad barely even talks to us. We confronted Mom and she made us promise not to tell you.”
It killed her. The sight of her sisters so sad, so helpless, broke her heart.
She let this happen. She left these two bright, beautiful girls with selfish assholes who cared for no one but themselves. She had let them down. And worst of all, the situation had gotten even more out of control over the last few weeks while she was busy having sex. Too busy indulging in pleasure to realize her sisters needed her help.
Guilt nagged at her. She was the reason Sidney looked malnourished. The reason Surrey’s knapsack wasn’t replaced. While Sterling was looking out for herself, the situation had become so much more than just gambling and the threat of losing the house. It was about her sisters’ welfare and the fact that she had been too blinded by desire to notice the writing on the wall.
“I’m sorry.” Sterling leaned across the table and clutched her sisters’ hands.
Sidney half smiled but on Surrey, the look of devastation was too much to take.
“I’ll fix it.” Sterling bit back a sob, but a lone tear broke free and trickled down her cheek. “I promise.”
She didn’t know how. But she would fix it.
No matter the cost.
Chapter Twelve
Sterling attached the embellishment to a square of twelve-by-twelve card stock. Jack’s image smiled at her from the picture she’d glued to the middle of the page, his arm around his mother—he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Every day she spent with him that smile became more constant, a permanent feature she could definitely get used to.
