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It had been teeks since things had turned into so different between s so that et into this place Teeks in which he had insisted that a loho sile place I went Teeks in which the bank had sent the final notice of nonpay us knoe had only to the end of the et out And maybe most importantly, it had been teeks in which I realized that when I didn’t seefierce

Between handling things withto do about where Karsen and I were going to go, and getting everything squared aith school now that I was a hundred percent back on track, there hadn’t been any tiht at the Pit and there was so on, so he hadn’t been around When I did et him on one of his many phones, I was happy to hear that he didn’t seem any more pleased with the separation than I was, and then he de felt off I tell Booker about it I had already had to hand iant and wait anxiously while he pawed at it and searched for God only knehat If there was spyware downloaded on this one, the giant couldn’t locate it, which seemed to make Race a little less anxious, but didn’t make me feel any less violated

It wasn’t that I was opposed to having a man at my back who looked like he could rip so, it was more the fact that he didn’t talk and didn’t seeed me He was a few years older than me and way taller than both Bax and Race He had short dark hair that he slicked up off of a high forehead and ht down the side of his face to his jaw look evenhe was a really handsounmetal blue They were so pale they looked silvery and reflective, and they sat in a face that was strong, defined, and chiseled in a supremely ive Race a run for his money in the heartthrob depart furtive glances at hi

“Don’t be nervous, Moht” I put a hand on her shoulder and tried not to flinch when I felt her shake under the light touch “It’s what has to happen”

Karsen nodded and bit her lip She looked so young, so fragile, that I hated that she had to be part of this My aze shifted and whispered so I was the only one that could hear her, “What are you going to do? The housethere is no money”

She sounded genuinely distraught about the circumstances, so it took every ounce of self-control I had not to remind her that this was all a little too late Maybe if she hadn’t been drinking and driving in the first place, ht harder to stay medicated, maybe if she had left my oblivious and selfish father before it all had reached this point, I would be able to buy into her regret and sharavation struggling for dominance under my skin

“Don’t worry about us I’ll figure so out”

She finished the paperwork and handed off the thick stack to a wo off to the side watching our aard family moment The eood-byes and then Mo to hide her tears and wrapped her ar frame I heard her tell her that she loved her and my mom echoed the sentiment When they separated, my et help and to be able to offer ure, but I wasn’t about to pretend like eren’t here at this place without reason

I reached out and squeezed one of her hands and told her, “I really want you to get the help you need, Moet another one”

Race was eventually going to run out of people he could wiggle favors out of, and ifup her disrupted life andelse I could feasibly do to try and set this fahts

Karsen leaned against my side and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and atched as my mom was led away She looked back at us over her shoulder and I felt the way Karsen’s thin body quaked againstto drag her away from a nice suburban home into a dive located in the heart of the city if she couldn’t even handle the reality of who our mother really was?