Uncertainty begins to pulse through me, and those old familiar warning lights and sirens go off in the back of my mind. I know this conversation is headed nowhere good. Her eyes are glittering in an evil way, and I’m sick to think what’s going on in her mind behind them.
I decide to attack first.
“So, I decided to go to school. It’s not like I did anything wrong.”
Ms. Martin laughs at me coldly. “If you weren’t doing anything wrong, then what are you doing in here?”
I look away from her and cross my arms over my chest. “So, then. What are you going to do?” I ask quietly, knowing that I should tread carefully on her this unstable ground. There’s no telling what she’ll do.
“Me?” she asks innocently. “Well, I’m going to help you. After all, you really do need my help, don’t you.” It’s not a question, and she’s not wrong about it.
I turn and match her coldness. “What do you mean you’re going to help me?”
She brightens a little. “Well, you seem to have landed yourself in tall cotton, and I’m going to make sure that you stay there. I’m going to sign you out of here as your guardian, and then send you back to your school. And you, well … you’re going to owe me then, aren’t you? You’re going to owe me so much.”
I sit up in the bed with some effort and look hard at her. “What do you want from me?”
“You’re all set up in that fine and fancy school. It’s all paid for, isn’t it?” She leans closer to me and her voice drops low. “I know how these places work. You think you’re the only girl around here who knows how to run a good scam?”
She eyes me with a stare that makes my blood boil.
“You’re going to go back to that school of yours, and you’re going to start taking money out of your account every week. And don’t think you can try to tell me you don’t have an account. Brats at these schools always have an account. Think of it as a stipend … or insurance. Insurance that I won’t turn your sorry ass in.”
I gape at her in horror. “No …” My heart has stopped in my chest. I’ve already taken so much from the Whites, I can’t do any more.
“Oh yes.” She smiles wickedly. “How does five hundred bucks a week sound to you? I’ve seen the way the Whites live. That’s chump change to them.”
I shake my head. “I can’t do that, it’s not my money to give.”
“Well now, I guess that’s your problem, isn’t it?” Ms. Martin cocks her head to one side thoughtfully. “Well, missy? What’s it going to be? Will you be a student or a felon? It’s your choice, though … ” she checks her broken watch, “you’d better decide fast, I parked in a metered spot.”
I close my eyes and struggle to hold in the tears. If only I hadn’t gone to that party, none of this would be happening. If I just told Dana the truth about my grades, she never would have let me go. I never would have taken those pills.
There’s no way out it. I’ve already come too far for it to end now. I have to try to do everything I can to make a future for myself, and that means that I have be at the school.
It also means that I’m going to have to play along with Ms. Martin until I can figure out a way to stop her. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll be hit by a cross-town bus.
“I’m going back to school,” I reply with a tight voice, wrestling my emotions back. I refuse to appear weak in front of her.
She gives me a hard look. “And?”
“And I’ll send you five hundred dollars a week.”
“Good girl. Now I’ll go sign you out. You can find your own way back to the school. Can’t leave the kids alone for too long, you know.”
Left alone too long? They shouldn’t be left alone at all.
She stands up and heads for the door and I think back on the little ones I’ve left behind. Just one more heap of guilt to add to the rest. I’ve been so self-obsessed these past months, I never even thought of them once.
“How are they?” I ask, fearing the worst.
Ms. Martin turns and looks over her shoulder at me. “They’re alive.”
With that, she turns and leaves, closing the door behind her and sealing my fate right along with it.
Chapter 19
I’m stranded at the hospital with no way home, and I can only think of one person to call. I hate doing it, but at least he picks up on the first ring.