Runaway Girl (Runaway Rockstar Series Book 1) by Anne Eliot

Author:Anne Eliot [Eliot, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Butterfly Books, LLC
Published: 2017-08-07T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 24

After dinner, when Anna and Julia are settled and Sage is in bed with a borrowed laptop running a video game, we meet back in the kitchen. Angel and I sit at the table, but like she’s having a difficult time being still, Mrs. Perino is pacing the room. Finally, she opens a cupboard and says, “I will make us tea.”

We watch in silence, as she plugs in the kettle to boil. After a long sigh, she turns and leans on the counter to face us, and starts, “When my husband passed away suddenly, Angel was thirteen. Cara, seventeen. His death came from a stroke and it buried us under things like medical bills.”

Her hand circles to motion around the room. “Although this property had been owned by my family for so long that it was almost paid off, we couldn’t pay the bank the last few mortgage payments. Things got out of control, and we were evicted. This, for me, was a double hit, considering I couldn’t have my kitchen to bake in to earn the little money I was still making at the time with catering. I found a good lawyer who donated his time to people who couldn’t afford legal aid. Homeless people. He convinced a judge to at least halt the proceedings to sell our house. Though we could not go home, no one else could move in and he even secured our things that the eviction company had dumped out of here right onto our front driveway. During all of this, a woman had helped me get a place to stay with the kids at the Orlando Women’s Shelter. We were about to get everything turned around to where I could have our home and lives back on track, but then I had more bad luck. A blood clot was found in my leg while we were in the shelter. It was a massive one that almost killed me, and required a long hospital stay.”

“That was the same week Cara was supposed to turn eighteen,” Angel adds, and though I already knew this detail, a shiver prickles down my spine.

“My illness, and my grief over the death of my dear husband left Cara in a terrible situation. When the ambulance took me away, I was told social services had been called immediately to come pick up the two minors I’d left behind. Cara overheard that, and was afraid we would somehow be separated forever, so she convinced Angel to run away with her that day.”

For a second I’m so overwhelmed by the ongoing similarities about me and Cara, I close my eyes, because as much as I want to hear this story, I also now do not want to hear it, because Angel’s face looks so tormented.

Finally, I open my eyes and for a moment the kitchen is silent and we both watch as Mrs. Perino sets the kettle on the table along with some mugs, then returns to make up a plate of round, powdery-sugared cookies that will go with the tea.

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