Page 8 of The Gambler

First chance I get I'm taking her shopping.

He looked down at the dress she'd discarded, not bad, but nowhere near what he wanted for her.

"Angel, momma."

Aah, he'd been wondering how long before that came up. He had no problem calling the Petridis residence, in fact, he'd had all intentions on calling to speak to her mother, to find out some of her likes and dislikes.

"I'll get her for you baby." She clapped her hands and went back to fiddling with the edge of her shirt.

He called the operator for assistance, but as soon as he said her family name, Jenna held out the bracelet she wore on her wrist.

"Momma."

He looked closely while the voice on the other end asked how they could help him. Sure enough, her name address and phone number were there on the inside of the bracelet. He kissed her hair and hung up without answering.

Calling the number, he held his breath, hoping the lady in question would answer and not her asshole son, or the father he had yet to draw a bead on. He didn't know much about Paulie Petridis, but he knew if the other man allowed his fuck of a son to mistreat someone as precious as his little Jenna, he was fucked too.

Sonia Petridis answered on the second ring.

"Andros here, I need some info on Jenna's likes and dislikes, but first I'm going to give her the phone because she wants to talk to her momma. You put anyone else on, I'm hanging up and the consequences will not be pretty, and hey, do no upset her."

He'd whispered all of that so that the room's other occupant couldn't hear. Passing the phone off, he got a better idea and hit speaker. At first she still held the phone to her ear, but soon quickly realized something was different and pulled it away.

"Momma, Jerry."

Jerry, who in the fuck was this Jerry asshole? Calm down Andros; her eyes had flown to him just like that, as soon as the anger rose at her mention of another man's name on her lips.

"Mr. Andros are you there, she wants Tom and Jerry, she watches them in the mornings. Jenna baby you're good?" The woman sounded disbelieving as though she'd thought her daughter was being tortured.

Tom and Jerry, he couldn't believe he'd almost lost his shit over a cartoon character damn.

The two women chatted forever before Andros decided it was time his little Jenna had breakfast. Taking the phone, he took it off of speaker and grilled her about her daughter's likes and dislikes.

"But when are you bringing her home? This is crazy, nobody would tell me anything, I don't understand, why did you take my daughter?"

“Because you weren't doing a very good job of taking care of her."

"What, that's not true I love my daughter, why would you believe such a thing?"

"I have no doubt that you do, she's obviously had care and that's the only reason you're not on my shit list, let's keep it that way shall we? Did you know your bastard son hits her?"

"Alec, no he hasn't in..." She cut herself off when she realized what her words revealed.

"But he said you took her to square a debt."

"What kind of debt?"

"A gambling debt, a game that you cheated on along with everything else."

"I wouldn't sit down with that piece of shit at a dog fight. Your son lied to you, he fucking hit her in a room full of people, because she wanted to go to the fucking slot machines. He told you I took her to square a bet. I'm a fucking animal now? Lady you love your son?"

"Of course I do, I love both my children."

"Next time you see your boy you take a picture, remember what he used to look like." He hung up the phone and prayed for patience. Little Jenna had already moved on. Now she was rearranging the shit on his dresser. He took the time to watch her. He'd found that if he gave his charges enough attention, there was always meaning in everything they did. Sure enough she was making an asymmetrical design out of the odds and ends he usually threw there.

It was when she came to a picture of Alice that he held his breath and waited. She picked it up slowly and stared for the longest moment, before running her fingers over the glass encased face and kissing it, before placing it front and center. When she picked up her head with that same look of sorrow he'd worn himself for so long, he couldn't help going to her and folding her in his arms carefully, so as not to spook her. She just melted into him like she'd been doing it for a lifetime.

It didn't take gramps long to get to upstate New York from his place in Connecticut, and then it seemed like everybody showed up at the same time.

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