Conviction of the Heart by Alana Lorens

Author:Alana Lorens
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2012-08-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

The week before Thanksgiving began with Sandoval’s dinner and two days Nick spent at Suzanne’s house making her feel like a queen. From there, everything went downhill.

Holidays always seemed to set off families in crisis, and the Morgans were no exception. The first call she received Monday morning was from Maddie Morgan. The woman’s voice was near hysterical.

“Suzanne, please, you’ve got to do something! He’s gone!”

“Who’s gone?”

“Joshua. He didn’t come home from school on Friday.”

“Friday? That was three days ago.” Suzanne tapped her pencil on her desk. What the hell was Maddie thinking? She’d waited three days to let anyone know. “Did you call the police?”

“Of course I called the police.” Maddie blew her nose. “He’s with his father. They didn’t want to get involved.”

Suzanne’s muscles tightened, rejecting that news. “We’ll get him back. There’s no custody order other than the Protection from Abuse order. That says you have custody. Greg’s in violation. He’ll go to jail.” She began scribbling notes to herself.

Maddie whispered, “No,” so softly Suzanne could barely hear her.

“No what?”

“Greg can’t go to jail. He’d blame me.” Sobs came through the phone line.

Suzanne stabbed the pencil into her desk blotter, breaking the tip. When would Maddie get it through her head that she wasn’t responsible for Greg’s happiness? “So if you don’t want me to enforce the order, what would you like me to do?”

Silence greeted her question, delivered with a little more harshness than she’d intended. Suzanne immediately regretted her shortness.

“Maddie, I’m sorry. Let’s think about our options, shall we?” She took a deep breath, counted to five. A calm approach was needed. “You want Joshua home, right?”

“I…yes. No. I don’t know. He was…awful. He cursed at me, broke things. I want him home, but he doesn’t want to be here anymore. I can’t make him stay.”

“The court order can.”

“He says he didn’t agree to the terms of the order, so he doesn’t have to follow it.”

Suzanne raised an eyebrow. Technically, the little snot was correct. He wasn’t a party. But an order was an order. “I can get him home, even via sheriff, if I have to. But if he’s determined not to stay, you’re just going to make yourself crazy trying to get him to live there.”

More sniffling, then a determined honk. “I know. He misses his room, and the boys in the neighborhood. His dad promised him a sports car.”

What insanity was this? “He’s not old enough to drive.”

“I know that. But a shiny red sports car waiting for him in the garage....Greg will hold that over his head till he is old enough to drive. I’ll be lucky to even see him again.” Maddie sounded absolutely defeated.

“What about Katie? What’s she say about all this?”

“Oh, I’m not worried about her. She’s determined to stay here. She doesn’t even want to talk to her brother.”

“Well, that’s something.” Suzanne sighed, swiveling her chair so she could see out the window. Snowflakes twirled past, floating gently down over the city. They weren’t big yet, maybe the size of dimes, but they were forecast for squalls that night.

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