Page 103 of Leah

I nodded at her. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just… I was expecting a different outcome.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I have to take care of Cheryl, then go see Rome’s parents.”

Her eyes stared hard at me as she pushed, “And then?”

With a sigh, I said, “And then I have to see him.”

Thirty-One

Leah

It took every ounce of power to get off that couch. Getting up was the last thing I wanted to do. I still felt weak all over. I couldn’t stop shaking, and I knew it was because my body hadn’t caught up to the news. I was still paralysed with fear.

When I did get up, Melanie was already dressed and ready too.

“I’m going to see Marlena and Harold too. Did you want me to ride with you?” she asked.

“No,” I answered with a shake of my head. “You go straight there. I don’t know how long I’m going to be at Cheryl’s.”

“Okay, but are you sure you can drive? You look really messed up, Leah.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I downed a cup of coffee before I even made it to the car. By then, my nerves had calmed down somewhat. Taking a deep breath, I popped a headphone into one of my ears and played a song on my iPod on the way to Cheryl’s.

A song by Carter.

I let his voice calm me down, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t sobbed most of the way there.

Fuck, Leah, what if he had died? Where would you be then?

I’d be filled with regrets, held back by my own fear.

I’d have blamed myself.

I’d have wondered thewhat-ifs.

By the time I made it to the trailer park, I was somewhat in better shape. I parked the car and got out, and by then, Cheryl had stepped out and onto the porch, wearing sweatpants and a sweater with holes the size of her head.

Holding a cigarette in one hand, she waved at me with the other, and I swallowed hard, trying to look elsewhere than at her, when I waved back.

She was doing better since Russell was put away for aggravated assault on a police officer two years ago. This was all after he’d been drunk driving and crashed his car into the back of another car with a family inside. It happened early in the day, too, something stupid like two in the afternoon.

Honestly, he was a fucking idiot, so I wasn’t at all surprised.

Karma, right?

Cheryl stopped whoring herself, and according to her, she was done with the drugs. But I wasn’t so sure about it, especially now as I was walking toward her. She was frail, her hair dry-looking, and her skin pasty white.

Since I’d heard about what happened to Russell, for some dumb reason, I held a soft spot for her. Maybe it was because I knew what it was like being under Russell’s control, and at times there were parts of her I’d seen when she wasn’t so drunk, little peeks of what she must have been like before she was drug-dependant.

So, out of my pay check, I put aside fifty dollars a week and gave her two hundred once a month to clear a bit of rent andfood. She found herself a job at a diner, but it was a distance away, which was why I was here now.

I’d found her another trailer closer to work, so she wouldn’t have to catch the bus. The actual trailer park was a million steps above this one, and it was clean and tidy, in a very nice area. It even had a maintenance crew come around to take care of the gardens. A lot of elderly people resided there, and it appeared a picture of health in comparison to this neglected shithole.

I wanted her to be comfortable.

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