Page 22 of Little Sunshine

I didn’t give her the chance.

“Now,” I emphasized, though I honestly didn’t expect to get a single cent from her. I just couldn’t back down. I couldn’t let her continue taking advantage of me.

It needed to end.

Veronica fidgeted with a too tight hoodie that matched the sweatpants that were also too tight and too low on her hips. That was her signature style.

Too.

Too tight.

Too low-cut.

Too short.

Too revealing.

Too much bleached hair, lashes, and perfume.

She clung to the past like she clung to her youth.

Her hands trembled, and fear pinched her features. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears. Whether it was genuine or not, I wasn’t sure. She was a brilliant actress. “They would’ve hurt me.”

I must’ve been stupider than I thought because sympathy bloomed in my chest like a daffodil in a cracked sidewalk. If I let it, it would grow and take over, desperate for hints of sunshine. For love.

I didn’t let it.

I hardened my heart against it and her. “That’s not my problem.”

There was that edge of hatred in her eyes as she glared at me even while she aimed for pity. “An old… friend found me. He thinks I owe him and threatened to hurt me, Mila. Said he’d tell my new man who I really am and ruin my life. And I finally got a good man.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you have him help you?” I snapped before I thought better of it.

Because I already knew the answer.

Veronica would always come first.

Whatever man she was bleeding dry was next.

And down at the bottom was me.

Her daughter.

Her only child.

The one who’d ruined her life by simply existing.

She opened her mouth, and I could almost hear the excuses. Almost taste the lies.

I lifted my hand, cutting them off before she could start. “You know what, I don’t care. About him. You. Any of this. I don’t even care about my missing TV and the damn peanut butter. I just want my money.”

Her brows lowered. “What TV?”

“The one you stole and pawned for a whole, what, five bucks?”

“I didn’t steal your TV,” she insisted, indignation filling her tone like she had any high ground to stand on.

Stealing a paycheck is totally fine. Someone’s life savings is fair game. A TV, though? Noooo, that’s far beneath Veronica.

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