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Her mother unwrapped the sandwich and tore off a piece. “Here.”
Angie turned her head away.
“Come on now.”
Her stomach betrayed her and growled. Yes, she was hungry. Her tummy felt gaunt and empty, as though she hadn’t eat well in days. Which, of course, she hadn’t.
She opened her mouth and took the bite.
“Good girl,” Maria said.
She chewed the meat and bread into a tasteless lump and forced it down her throat. And found, to her surprise, that she wanted more. She took the rest of the sandwich from her mother’s hand.
/> “Thank God,” Maria said.
“She’ll be fine, Mia. She’s just hungry.”
“For God’s sake, Jeff, she’s more than hungry. Her father just died. Then you showed up and took her inheritance. What do you expect?”
Jeff said nothing. Or if he did, Angie didn’t hear it. She was busy munching on the sandwich.
“Water,” she said.
Maria opened the bottle of water and handed it to her. “I know this is all very upsetting, sweetheart. I’m sorry I blurted it out like that.” She stood and pulled on her brown hair. “I just didn’t know what else to do.”
Angie drank the water and said nothing.
“Jeff, please.”
“I’m not discussing this anymore, Maria. The child is fine. She’s just hungry and probably a little depressed with all that’s gone on.”
“You could help her, you know.”
“No one helped me my entire life.”
Maria sighed and moved toward him. “You’re never going to change, are you? Always a victim. Nothing is ever your fault. You could have led a better life, you know. You didn’t have to be such a rebel.”
“You liked me that way. You found it exciting.”
“I was eighteen years old, for goodness’ sake. Of course I found you exciting. But I grew up, Jeff. The minute I found out I was pregnant I grew up. That baby became the most important thing in my life. Her life was more important than my own, and I made sure I gave her the best I could.”
“That’s the difference between us, I guess,” Jeff said. “You didn’t give me the chance to give her a good life.”
Uncle Jeff walked out the door again.
Angie finished her water.
“Are you better now? Can you stand up? I want to get you home. I want to get you away from that man.”
Angie nodded. She wouldn’t forgive her mother, but right now she needed to leave this room as much as Maria did.
She said the words in her mind that now had two distinct meanings.
Goodbye, Daddy.
Chapter Twenty
He had to see her.
