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Timofey wanted me to help him forget. And I have.
Now, it’s time for me to try to forget, too.
17
PIPER
“I just don’t understand what we’re going back to,” Ashley says for the third time.
We haven’t even made it through security at the airport, and she is already driving me insane. It’s not that I don’t love her—I do—but I can’t handle all of the questions. Not now. Not when I’m barely holding myself together.
“We’re going back to our lives, Ash. We can’t stay here in hiding forever.”
What life is that, though?My new life as a homeless, single mother drowning below the poverty line?
Now that Timofey has removed himself from the picture, the reality of my situation is sinking in. I’m no longer his nanny, which means that huge paycheck is no longer going to be hitting my account every two weeks. I barely survived off the CPS income, and aside from now having a baby to care for, I’m not even sure I still have my job with them. I have enough to skate through the next few months, but nowhere near enough to support a newborn when the time comes.
Things are not exactly on the up and up.
“‘Hiding’?” she snorts. “Is that what I was supposed to be doing here? Because I wasnotin hiding. I actually had a date tonight until your boyfriend rudely pulled the ripcord on my vacay. It’s probably because I threatened to stab him in the eyes.”
I turn to her, mouth hanging open. “You didwhat?”
She winks at me. “I want to make sure he takes care of you, girl. But I botched it, I guess. ‘Cause now I’m going back to my rinky dink apartment without a tall, dark, handsome Mexican man on my arm. What a waste.”
“You’re not the only one,” I mutter.
Ash frowns. “What?”
Before I have to answer, Gram comes huffing and puffing into our group, her rolling suitcase in front of her. “How much further?”
“Let me help you with that, Gram.”
She swats my hands away. “I can take care of my own luggage, dear. I already told you that. Just point me in the direction. I’ll get a headstart.”
“We need to print off our tickets still. Why don’t you sit down on that bench and I’ll handle it?”
She wants to argue, but she also needs the break. So she relents and wheels her suitcase towards the wall. “Holler when we need to get rolling again.”
I give her a thumbs up and try to find the email confirmation for the tickets. Timofey forwarded everything to me and explained what needed to happen right before he dropped us off at the airport, but I was too busy trying to come up with something—anything—to say to make him change his mind about sending me away, so I wasn’t really listening to his instructions.
Out of habit more than anything, I tap on my photo gallery. The first picture fills the screen. It’s a snap of Timofey sleeping on the couch at the penthouse with Benjamin snoozing on his chest. I’ve looked at it too many times to count in the last few days. I suspect I’ll be looking at it a lot more in the days to come.
“Well, I don’t think you’re gonna find the tickets in your photo album,” Ash says, peeking over my shoulder.
I swipe the photo away, but not fast enough.
“What’s going on with you two?” she asks.
“Nothing.”
“Yeah, right. I may not be as smart as Noelle, but I know something weird is going on.” She snaps her fingers. “I know something weird is going on between you and Noelle, too. She basically hung up on me the last time I mentioned your name. And you go pale and clammy whenever I talk about her.”
I stare straight down at my phone, pretending to be absorbed in finding our tickets, even though I already found them.
Ashley lays her hand over my phone screen. “Pipes. Seriously. What is going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
Tears burn at the backs of my eyes. I’m not even sure why; I have nothing to cry over. Then again, I have everything to cry over.
