What About Us by Sidney Halston

Author:Sidney Halston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Women, Suspense
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-11-20T08:00:00+00:00

Helen

I take a deep breath. I still feel Alex inside of me. I haven’t had a chance to clean up, which makes this all the more awkward. It’s a physical reminder of what we just did. As we’re standing in the middle of his room screaming at each other.

But, fuck it, we’re doing this. He wants all the answers right now, so I’ll give them to him. “Yes. I stole,” I admit, holding up one finger. “I was eighteen. Five months after everything happened. I was still in denial, mad, confused. But mostly, I was hungry. I was too proud and too stupid to go to a homeless shelter. I had been eating dollar microwave soups for months and I just wanted potato chips and a soda. I know. Ridiculous. But, I went into a gas station and stuffed a bunch of bags of chips into my purse. As I was walking out, I got caught. The manager was going to let me go had I not been a bitch to him. Yeah, I’ll admit it. Instead of apologizing, pleading, crying, and asking for mercy, I denied it, talked back, acted superior. That’s the first time my new life hit me squarely in the face. It’s one thing to go down a notch; it’s another to sit in a jail cell for chips and soda. You get real humble real fast.”

“You were hungry?” His tone softens significantly.

“Yes.” I hold up a second finger. “Three years later, it was my twenty-first birthday. I was working at a fast-food place making minimum wage and things had gotten a little better. But I was feeling sorry for myself. Hell, it was my birthday and my father was in prison, my friends had abandoned me, and I was lonely. I invited a few of my new friends for drinks and then I skipped on the tab. So yes, I was arrested. I felt terrible about it and paid every penny back. But I did not steal money from you or from anyone else, Alex. I wouldn’t even have known how to.”

“But you own a house.”

I don’t think I trust him enough to explain that to him. I know what I did wasn’t exactly legal, but I was desperate. But then again, after all that’s happened in this room since he got home from work, there aren’t many things I can say that’ll make me feel lower about myself than fucking Alex against a wall. Alex, who thinks I’m the lowest form of scum and who’s made me feel like trash. I take a deep breath and go for it. “On the night of my eighteenth birthday, my dad gave me a suitcase and a ticket to Miami. He wanted me to be ready to leave, but I didn’t understand it at that moment. Well, two years later, I came across some cash inside the lining of the case. It was a hundred thousand dollars. He never told me, and I wish he had, because you can’t imagine the hard times I went through.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.