Chapter 1 #3
Five months ago, she’d won the biggest lottery winnings that had ever been given away.
And she’d been the only ticket that had won.
Since then, she’d been quietly doing what needed to be done to cash in her winnings and get the money.
Now all she needed to do was contact the attorney that she’d been looking into and see if he could do the final touches on getting her paid.
Lori had never changed her routine one bit but continued working like she had not won.
One of the mistakes that people made about winning was that they immediately quit their jobs and went on a spending spree.
She’d done none of those things. She’d even continued to purchase lottery tickets with the same number every week like clockwork.
No one knew. And no one would know but her and the attorney that she’d picked out—she only hoped that he’d take her on as a client when she contacted him, to represent her with the lottery commission.
“Are you listening to me?” She said that she’d not been, as it was the same old story every time.
“Well, are you going to help me out or not? I know you save a bit for emergencies when you have them. This is an emergency. He said if I was late one more time, he was going to evict me. I can’t be living on the streets again, and there isn’t enough room in this place for you, much less the two of us.
” She told her that she could maybe do half of that, but nothing more.
“I’ll take it. It’s a better offer than I got to sell my car.
He only wanted to give me ten bucks. I know it’s a piece of shit, but ten bucks?
What is this world coming to when a woman can’t get more than that for her rusty car? ”
“I think you just answered your question.” She folded the last of her towels and put them away. While in the bathroom, she pulled out the money that she said she’d give her mom and hid the rest back in the cubby hole in the wall.
She had managed to save over a thousand dollars by rounding down her tips each day and putting the rest in the jar. She really did have her own emergencies, and one of them would be paying the attorney when she got to talk to him. No one had to know that either.
Giving her mom the money got rid of her after a few more minutes, and she finished up the rest of her laundry.
Tomorrow was her only day off, and since it was Monday, she was going to do some things that she’d been putting off.
One of them was to contact Axel Hathaway to see if he was as good as they said he was.
She needed someone that she could trust, and by all intents and purposes, he was the one to have belief in.
She would call him first thing in the morning to get him to pick up her money for her and then disperse it where she wanted it.
Since she didn’t know how long that would take, she was hoping thirty days would do it.
That’s all that was left on her winnings before it expired.
Doing everything at her apartment that she did every week, she was ready for bed at eleven o’clock.
As soon as she checked on the ticket again, making sure that the numbers were all right there where she’d given them, she put it away in the little safe she’d purchased and put it under her bed.
Getting into bed, she was nervous again, but she knew that after tomorrow, things would be different for her.
Waking up earlier than planned, she was having breakfast when her cell phone rang.
It was her mom, and she wanted to know if she had fifty dollars that she could borrow for her rent.
She explained to her that she’d given her twenty-five yesterday, and she said that she’d bought some more lottery tickets.
Telling her no wasn’t difficult for her.
She’d been telling her mom no for the last five years, and she thought that she was getting good at it.
At least her mom didn’t take her to task when she told her that.
“I don’t have my rent.” She told her that she’d helped her all she could yesterday. “I know, but the lottery is over a hundred grand, and I’d like to win that. It’ll just be until I get my next check. I’m short fifty dollars of my rent, and I don’t want to live on the streets again.”
When she’d been about seven, her mom had lost their home, and they’d lived out of the car until it too got claimed from the bank.
Moving around every night never made it easy for her, but she was glad that she’d learned a few lessons.
Never be at a point where you have to decide on food or rent.
And to have a stash hidden around so that the first decision was taken out of your hands.
At sixteen, she’d gotten a job as a waitress in a small diner that didn’t care if she was eighteen or not.
Working all evening after going to school all day had been hard on her, but she’d gotten her education and had managed to save enough money to get her first place to live.
Before then, she’d been on other people’s couches or even out on the streets, but she saved enough for the place that she lived now.
Her mom had managed to save enough money for the same thing, but it took her a bit longer.
Her mom couldn’t save money if her life depended on it. And sometimes she thought that it did.
“Come on. It’s just fifty dollars. Surely you can be late on your whole rent once in a while.
” She said that she couldn’t. When she’d given her the money yesterday, it had been to help cover her rent.
“Well, I spent it, and when I win the lottery, I’m not going to tell you.
I’m just going to spend it all on myself and leave you by the side of the road. ”
“Remember, you said that if I ever win the lottery, too.” She said that she didn’t care for her attitude. “I don’t care for the way that you’re treating me either, so I guess we’ll have to call it even.”
“You’re really not going to give me the money, are you?” She said that she’d already tapped herself dry and didn’t have as much stash as she’d like to have. “Well, the very fact that you have one shows how much you don’t love me. You should want to give me some money. I’m your mother after all.”
“And I’m your daughter. You should be going out of your way to help me.
” She said that she’d help her if she needed it.
“Really? I don’t remember a time when I asked you for help, and you ever came through for me.
You have to know that I’m not going to play your games anymore, Mom.
I don’t have the money. You should have thought about that before you spent money on the lottery.
You know the chances of winning are very slim. ”
“I know, but I deserve this money more than anyone else does. I need to get on with my life, and there is no way I’m going to be able to do that by cleaning hotel rooms for a living.
I need a break as much as the next person.
” She said that they all needed a break.
“Yes, but I need it more than anyone else. Even you. And I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d not share with you. You’ve become selfish in your old age.”
“I’m only twenty-five. I would think you’d remember that sometimes.
” She said that she didn’t want to be reminded that she had a daughter that old.
“Well, I guess it sucks to be you. I’m that old, and you’re nearly fifty years old.
It’s not my fault you had me. You should have thought of the consequences before you got knocked up. ”
“What a thing to say to me. Well, since you’re going to be selfish, I guess I’ll have to move in with you when I get evicted.
That would serve you right to have to put up with me all the time.
” She said that she wasn’t going to be living with her as the place was barely big enough for her.
“Then lend me the money. See how that works? You lend me the money, and I don’t have to live with you when I get kicked out of my home. ”
“No.” She sputtered around for a few minutes, and she rolled her eyes.
Her mom was so melodramatic that sometimes she wondered how she’d made it in the world.
If not for her, she was sure that it would be on the streets all the time instead of living in a nice apartment like she was.
It was even furnished, which was good too, or there was no telling how she’d afford furniture for the place.