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Along with Georgia’s nicer things.
She didn’t have much in the way of expensive jewelry, but she had some. At least, before now she had. Everything had been cleaned out of her jewelry armoire, even the cheap costume pieces. In her closet, several pairs of expensive shoes were missing with the empty boxes left lying on the ground. Her new iPad she’d left charging on the dresser was gone, too.
There was only one thing left that was worth anything. She always kept an envelope of cash and an emergency credit card between her mattress and box springs. It was an old habit, one that would allow her to disappear at a moment’s notice. With that money and the items in her purse, she could walk away and never come back. It was a remnant of her nomadic life as a foster child.
Georgia crouched down and thrust her hand beneath the mattress. She felt around, but her fingertips didn’t make contact with the envelope. Finally she lifted the whole mattress up, but that just confirmed her suspicions. The money was gone. Along with her mother.
She sunk down onto the bed, her chest tight with emotions she
wasn’t ready to face. It had happened. Everything Carson had warned her about had happened. She’d hoped that Misty was ready to be a mother, that she’d cleaned up her act, but Georgia had been wrong. Instead Misty had gained Georgia’s trust and abused it. How could she have been so naive?
Pushing herself up from the bed as the tears began to flow, she rushed into the bathroom. She turned on the cold water and splashed her flushed, heated face. The water stung as it mixed with her angry tears and dripped back into the sink.
Georgia braced her hands on the counter and hovered there. She wasn’t sure what to do now. Should she call the cops on her mother? She knew she should, but a part of her couldn’t do it. Even though she was heartbroken. Even though she felt like an abandoned child sitting in an unfamiliar foster home again.
She’d come to like her mother over the past few days, and even this hadn’t erased those memories. Somehow she couldn’t turn her mother in to the police. The things she’d taken might’ve been a lot to Misty, but they weren’t important to Georgia. They were all replaceable. Unlike their relationship. If they even had one.
As she stood up, her gaze fell on the nearby wastebasket. A small clear baggie with residue and a used hypodermic needle were in there among the tissue. Her mother was using again. That explained the sudden change. Had she taken the pizza money and decided to get high instead of going to AA? When she’d come home last night, was her mother passed out instead of sleeping? Probably so. Misty had let her addiction get the best of her and ruined what they’d started to build together.
Georgia was so disappointed. In her mother. In herself. She needed to talk to someone. Going back downstairs, she picked up her phone from where she’d left it on the dining room table. She quickly dialed Carson.
“Hey, Georgia,” he answered. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.”
“Can I come over?” The minute she opened her mouth to speak, the tears threatened again. She fought to keep them from her voice. If she was going to break down again, it would be in his arms, and not before.
“Uh, sure. I’ll warn you that I’m not very good company, but you’re welcome to come by. I thought you were with your mom tonight.”
Georgia swallowed the lump that had lodged in her throat. “Change of plans.”
“I’ll be here. See you soon.”
She hung up the phone and set it back on the table. She conscientiously put all the perishable groceries away, leaving the pantry goods in the bag. Then she armed her home security system in case her mother returned for more, and headed to Carson’s place. Tonight she couldn’t face the “L,” so she hailed a cab instead.
“Come on in, Georgia,” he called as she knocked on the door. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her. “I’m in the exercise room!” he said just as she wondered where he was.
Georgia hadn’t known he had an exercise room, but she followed the sound of his voice down the hallway. There she found him in nothing but a pair of shorts and some boxing gloves. He was covered in sweat and wailing angrily on a punching bag hung from the ceiling.
She watched him for a few minutes. She kept expecting him to stop since she was here. To ask what was wrong. To console her. But he kept punching until exhaustion took over and his forehead dropped against the bag.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“We were supposed to meet with Sutton and his daughters today,” he explained as he ripped the Velcro open to pull off his gloves. “He stood us up.”
She knew that wasn’t entirely true, but she couldn’t tell him that. She had to pretend that she didn’t know. “Sutton wasn’t there?”
“No,” he said, throwing the gloves into the corner. “They said he was sick, which just confirms what you told me. But how sick could he be? He met with you the other day hoping for a piece of tail, but when he’s supposed to meet with his own sons, he can’t do it?”
Sutton had deteriorated pretty quickly. He was sicker than anyone could’ve guessed. “I’m not surprised. I told you he looked terrible.”
“Don’t defend him,” Carson snapped.
Georgia flinched at his sharp criticism. Carson was completely spun up. She’d never seen him like this before. He was always fairly calm and collected, but the news about Sutton really seemed to have rattled him. “Did you meet with Eve?”
He nodded. “Eve and Grace. They weren’t very receptive to our plan, but I didn’t expect them to be. They weren’t very receptive to me being their brother, either, as though I’d wrecked their parents’ marriage by existing. Like I had anything to do with it! I just… I think this whole thing is going to blow up in our faces. Mom was right. We were better off without having our father in our lives. He was a bastard then and he’s a bastard now. Nothing has changed on that front.”
Georgia didn’t have much to add on that note. She could tell that beneath all the blustering, he was really disappointed. The little boy deep inside had hoped his father and sisters would welcome him, just as she’d hoped her mother would be there for her. For all the good it did them. “You should give Sutton a chance to be your father. Maybe you’ll be surprised by how it turns out.”
Carson snatched a towel off the folded stack nearby and rubbed his face with it. “I sincerely doubt that. The man can’t be trusted. I don’t want you meeting with him anymore,” he said.
