Chapter 9 #2
“Huh.” Mallory thought about this for a second.
“That’s not a bad idea. We’d just have to make sure that our mom believed us, instead of thinking we’re just making all of this up because we want her out.
” She turned to her sister. “If you were the one to talk to her about this, mom would listen. She knows you’re the most levelheaded out of us three, and you’re the only one who hasn’t already told her that you’ve got a problem with Sasha living here. ”
Ariel wracked her hands nervously. “Yeah, I guess… I’ll think about it.”
“What’s there to think about?” Mallory balked, throwing her hands up. “If you can show mom and dad that Sasha isn’t the perfect angel like they think she is, that could go a long way. We should wait until mom gets home from the store and then talk to them while Sasha’s still at work.”
“I—” Ariel’s voice cracked but whatever she was going to say was swallowed when Taylor rushed back over in an excited frenzy. He had his phone clutched in his hand and his face was lit up with a complicated mixture of emotions. Mallory couldn’t tell if he was happy, angry, or drunk.
“You guys,” he said. “We’ve got it!”
“We’ve got… what?” Mallory frowned at him. “Are you okay?”
“The smoking gun! We’ve got it!” He grinned. “I just got another friend on the phone, and he was able to run a search right away. He cross-referenced with every women’s shelter in the state and found nothing.”
“I don’t understand...” Mallory looked around to see if Erica or Ariel seemed to understand him, but they appeared just as lost. “How is this good news? What’s the smoking gun?”
“You’re not hearing me,” Taylor said, exasperated. “He checked the records of every women’s shelter in the state, looking for any sign that Sasha had been staying in one. And he found nothing.”
“Wait—” Ariel ran a hand through her hair. “So, what does that mean?”
“It means,” Mallory answered for her brother. “That Sasha either gave us a fake name, or she didn’t actually come from a women’s shelter. Either way, we now know, for certain, that she’s been lying. To all of us.”
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BOOK 5 in the Ferndale Series
Chapter 1
Tired from a long, somewhat chaotic trip to the store, Ariel’s kids sat quietly in the back seat of the car. Becca was fast asleep, Micah was reading a book, and Hannah was content to stare out the window and watch the trees pass by.
Having also been worn out by the shopping experience, Callie took this moment of solitude to consider the words she wanted to say to Sasha.
Ever since she’d caught the young woman rifling through the boxes under her bed, Sasha had been avoiding Callie.
It was obvious that she didn’t want to be confronted, but Callie wasn’t sure how much longer she could let her questions go unanswered.
When she first caught Sasha, there wasn’t enough time to get the full story from her. Mallory had shown up in the doorway less than a minute later, and her other daughter arrived shortly after.
However, it wasn’t like Callie hadn’t questioned Sasha at all.
In their brief discussion, she’d made it clear that she wasn’t happy to find Sasha digging through her personal things.
Why would she be? Not only was it a huge invasion of privacy, but it also validated some of Mallory and Taylor’s concerns.
Reflecting on the encounter now, Callie wondered if she hadn’t been harsh enough.
On that day, when she’d discovered Sasha snooping around in the master bedroom, Callie’s expression paled. “What—what are you doing?” she asked.
Sasha froze and the paperwork in her trembling hands fell to the ground. “Uh—nothing,” she said in a low, shaky voice. “I was just, uh—looking for—”
“Mom?” Mallory’s voice came from downstairs.
Callie furrowed her brow, her breath quickening. “Sasha, what are you doing? Why are you going through my things?”
Shaking her head, Sasha’s eyes darted quickly, as if she didn’t know what to say. She stared down at the box in front of her, starting and stopping a couple of sentences, but never finishing.
“Mom?”
Mallory was coming. Callie couldn’t linger in the hall any longer.
Rushing inside the room, Callie kicked the box back under the bed. “Get up,” she hissed to Sasha, holding out a hand to help her up. “Here.” She handed Dot over as her daughter’s footsteps drew closer. “Don’t say anything to Mallory. I’ll handle this.”
A couple moments later, Mallory appeared, and Callie blurted out the excuse that Sasha “ran out of soap.” She could tell Mallory didn’t fully believe her, but she doubled down and changed the subject as quickly as possible.
She couldn’t tell her daughter that she’d found Sasha going through her belongings, not until she’d given Sasha a chance to tell her side of the story.
As soon as she had the opportunity, Callie intended to clear the air with Sasha, but the young woman had made it impossible to do so.
Callie assumed she was terrified after having been caught, and perhaps she had reason to be worried.
If Sasha didn’t have a good explanation for what she’d been doing, then Callie would have to ask her to leave.
Callie would have to admit to her children that they were right all along.
She wasn’t sure which conversation would be more difficult to get through.
When they were only a block away from the house, Micah announced that he was hungry. Like most children his age, he said it like it was an emergency.
“We’re almost home, sweetie,” Callie said. “When we’re back, I’ll make you one of those noodle cup things.” She stifled a comment about how much sodium those “meals” had in them. They were the only thing Micah would eat these days.
“I don’t want Cup-O-Noodles,” Becca whined. “They’re gross!”
“Well, the good news is you don’t have to have any,” Callie assured her. “I was just offering them to your brother. But we got a lot of stuff at the store, so I can make whatever you want.”
“But I’m not even hungry!” Becca insisted.
“I am!” Micah chimed in.
After a long morning with the kids, Callie smiled with the patience only a grandmother could muster. “If you’re hungry, then I’ll make you something, and if you’re not hungry, then you don’t have to eat. How does that sound?”
Becca made a pathetic sound from the back. “I want ice cream.”
“Okay, you can have ice cream for dessert. But we’re not going to have any before a proper lunch.”
“I want it!” Becca cried out and kicked Hannah’s seat in front of her.
“Hey!” Hannah whipped her head around. “Don’t do that, you little—”
“Becca!” Callie said in a warning tone of voice, cutting Hannah off before she called her sister one of the words Ariel had recently “forbidden,” that included brat, monster, and butthead. “We’re only two minutes from home, guys. Please don’t start any trouble.”
“She always starts trouble,” Hannah muttered. “She always has to cry about something.”
“I do not!” Becca yelled. Callie winced, thinking the little girl was about to kick the seat again, but the impact never came. When they reached a stop sign, a woman crossed the street with three fluffy dogs on leashes that tugged her along.
“Look!” Micah called out, pointing out the window. “They look like clouds!”
“Yeah, that’s Mrs. Steinfeld,” Callie said. “And she told me the breed name once… I think it’s Great Pyrenees? Or are those the fluffy black ones?”
“Newfoundland?” Hannah suggested.
“Could be.” Callie shrugged and then stepped on the pedal again. “Becca, if you had a big fluffy dog like that, what would you name it?”
If there was one thing Callie was good at, it was distracting rowdy kids and steering them away from a potential squabble.
Thankfully, swapping potential names was enough to keep the kids occupied for the rest of the ride and all meltdowns or fights were avoided.
Callie sighed with relief when she parked, and Ariel met her in the driveway.
“How’d it go?” she asked as Callie stepped out of the car.
“Not bad, but I think everyone’s a little cranky.”
Ariel nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure they’re hungry. I’m on it.”
Callie went around to the trunk and started unloading the groceries.
After Ariel grabbed her youngest from the car seat, she sent all her children inside and then helped her mom with the rest of the bags.
“I’m just going to leave these at the door,” Callie said, setting down the last load of bags onto the concrete steps. “I have to run back into town.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna pick up some lunch and bring it to Sasha,” she said. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
Ariel shifted her weight back and forth on her feet. “Okay…”
“Are you alright?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” She waved a hand in the air. “I’m fine. There’s just—well—never mind. I’ll talk to you about it later.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Have a nice time!”
Callie promised she would, but she had no idea what she was walking into.
She was about to bombard Sasha at work and demand that she explain what had happened.
Who knows what kind of reaction Sasha was going to have?
It was a risky move, but Callie couldn’t wait any longer.
Now that all three of her kids were back in Ferndale, she had to field questions about Sasha from multiple suspicious parties.
It was only a matter of time before they discovered that Callie was hiding the truth about what had happened the other morning.
Not to mention, if Sasha was up to no good, Callie needed to know about it.
*
“Callie?” Kate smiled when her friend walked through the entrance of the bookstore. “What a surprise! I didn’t know you were dropping in today.”
Callie held up a plastic bag full of food from the Mexican restaurant down the street. “I come bearing gifts. I’ve got enough food to feed a family of five, so I hope you and Sasha are both pretty hungry.”