Her Sister's Shoes (15 page)

“But what?” Sam ran her finger down her sister’s bruised cheek. “It’s okay. You can tell me. I won’t get mad.”

“Curtis got greedy. He started drinking heavily and gambling more than usual and—”

“Now he’s out of control and taking his frustration out on you. You’re coming home with me.” Sam jumped to her feet, but Faith grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

“I can’t, Sam. That would only put you and Jamie in danger.”

“What about your safety, Faith? Have you looked in the mirror? You can’t protect your daughter anymore than you can protect yourself.”

Faith drew her daughter’s small body closer to her. “I know, but—”

“No buts.” Sam grabbed Bitsy’s bare foot and shook it playfully. “How would you like to come and stay with me for a while?”

Bitsy removed her thumb from her mouth and smiled.

Sam held her arms out for Bitsy. “Let’s you and I go pack your stuff, then we’ll come back and help your mother.”

“I can manage my things.” Faith struggled to sit up. “But we should probably hurry. Curtis could come home at any minute.”

Twenty

Faith

D
e
spite the pain
in her ribs, Faith managed to drag her beat-up rolling suitcase down from the top shelf of the clos
et. She
stuffed it full of shorts, shirts, underwear, and pajamas. When the bag was bulging, she retrieved a handful of paper grocery bags from the kitchen pantry and filled them with the few valuables she owned—her string of pearls and her antique clock and Bitsy’s baby book. She would never come back here. She’d rather live on the streets than in
the home she’d shared with a monster.

She removed cash from her wallet and sealed it in an envelope she found in her kitchen drawer. She wrote Curtis’s name on the envelope and left it on his pillow, with no other note. Sixty dollars would keep him liquored up for a couple of days, which should give her enough time to come up with a plan. She wouldn’t impose on Sam for long. The last thing she wanted was for her family to get caught in the cross fire.

Faith was loading her things in her truck when Sam and Bitsy appeared, their arms laden with Bitsy’s bags.

“What’re you doing?” Sam said. “You can’t drive in your condition.”

“I need my truck, Sammie. I can’t leave it
here.”

“Then we’ll come back and get it later, when you are not in so much
pain.”

“No way. When Curtis discovers I’ve left him, he’ll destroy my truck just for the fun of it. I can’t take that chance. This bucket of rust is all I got that’s worth anything.”

“You’ve got Bitsy. And me. And Jamie and
Mama.”

“And enough junk to fill a few grocery bags.” Faith slammed the truck door and went around to the other side.

“You’ve got your share in Sweeney’s,” Sam said over the bed of the
truck.

“Which I plan on signing over to you as payment for the money I owe you. Unless you’d rather have cash, then I’ll gladly sell the truck, or work for free for the next ten years. Whatever it is, Sam, it’ll never be enough to show you how sorry I am for what I did.” Faith buried her face in her hands and began to
sob.

Her sister rushed to her side and took her in her arms. “I’m not worried about the money, Faith. And I don’t want you to worry
either. You need to concentrate on getting well and staying
safe.”

“I embezzled funds, Sam. That’s against the law. I could go to
jail.”

“That’s not going to happen. We’ll figure out a way to put the money back.” Holding her at arm’s distance, Sam brushed Faith’s hair out of her face. “Our biggest concern right now is getting out of here before Curtis comes home.”

“I’m not going anywhere without the
truck.”

“Fine.” Sam lifted Bitsy into her car seat. “But only on three conditions. Follow me, drive slowly, and stay
close.”

Faith’s eyes stayed glued on Sam’s bumper as they drove toward the main road. When they turned right, toward town, she breathed her first sigh of relief. And she relaxed a little more with each mile she put between her and the double-wide in the woods. She faced many obstacles ahead of her, but knowing she’d taken the first step gave her confidence. For the first time in years, she felt free.

She stole a glance in the rearview mirror. Faith hated to see Bitsy sucking her thumb, but she was resigned to let the bad habit slide. At least for now. After what she’d been through, her daughter needed comfort wherever she could find it.

“Are you okay, honey?” Faith
asked.

Bitsy met her mother’s eyes in the rearview mirror. She nodded, then stared out the window, searching perhaps for the single headlight of her father’s motorcycle in the oncoming traffic.

If only she’d approached Sam earlier for help, she could’ve spared Bitsy both the physical pain she’d suffered at her father’s hand and the mental anguish she’d experienced from witnessing his cruelty to her mother. Faith hoped her daughter’s memories of this time would eventually fade away.

The drive through the center of Prospect
was quiet, typical of a Monday night there, but as they approached Sam’s street, traffic on either side of Main slowed to a halt. Angry drivers blasted horns and flashed bright lights. Faith rolled her window down and hung her head out, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the commotion. She saw Sam jump out of her Jeep and signal to the oncoming traffic to
stop.

“What’s Aunt Sam doing?” Bitsy asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe there was an accident and she’s going to see if anybody needs
help.”

“Why are all those cars honking their
horns?”

“I don’t know, honey. I can’t see much in the dark.” Faith stuck her head a little farther out the window. “It looks like a homeless man in a wheelchair is blocking traffic.” Blue lights appeared, illuminating the scene enough for her to see that the homeless man with the scraggly hair and beard was her
nephew.

Two policemen got out of the patrol car. The tall bald-headed one directed traffic while the shorter one bent down to speak to Jamie.

Faith’s mind raced. What was he doing in the middle of the road in his wheelchair? Was he confused and disoriented? Jamie had never been one to drink too much or do drugs. But he hadn’t been himself since the accident.

The policeman wheeled Jamie between the waiting cars as he headed toward Sam’s Jeep. Sam appeared in Faith’s headlights, her face contorted in devastation.

“Look, Mama, there’s Jamie!” Bitsy shouted. “Is that policeman taking him to jail?”

“No, honey. He’s helping him get in the
car.”

“But
why?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. Maybe Jamie tried to go too far in his wheelchair and got
tired.”

Once the wheelchair was stowed away on the back of the Jeep, the policemen spoke briefly to Sam before returning to his patrol car. A single siren sounded and the cruiser spun out in front of Sam, offering her a lead. Faith followed the small caravan the short distance to her sister’s house. The cruiser parked on the curb out front, and Sam pulled in the driveway with Faith behind her.

After helping Jamie back in his wheelchair, the shorter policeman wheeled him down the sidewalk and around the back of the house, with Sam walking alongside and holding her son’s hand.

Bitsy struggled to get out of her car seat. “Let’s sit here for a minute, honey, and give them a chance to get Jamie settled inside.” Faith turned to face her daughter, stroking her bare leg to comfort
her.

She ran a mental checklist of her options. She could go to her mom’s house. Or to Jackie’s. Or she could drive the hell out of town and never look back, although she wouldn’t get far considering she’d left all her cash for Curtis. But she knew she couldn’t stay here when Sam was already dealing with problems of her own. Jamie needed, and deserved, his mother’s undivided attention. Unwanted company in the house would only complicate the situation. She had no idea when, or if, Curtis would ever come home, but when he discovered she wasn’t there, he would drive straight to Sam’s house looking for her. If he saw the patrol car out front, he would assume Faith had called the police on him. Which, in his current frame of mind, might cause him to go postal.

Faith opened her door. She would go inside to tell her sister she was leaving. She’d have to take Bitsy to her mom’s house for the night, but in the morning she’d figure something else out.

Faith helped Bitsy out of the car and the two entered the house through the kitchen door. They crept through the small dining room and stood in the doorway to the sitting room. The scene in front of her broke Faith’s heart. Sam knelt beside Jamie with her arms wrapped around him while he sobbed hysterically. “Why can’t you just let me die? Don’t you get it? I don’t want to live anymore like
this.”

Sam kissed the top of his head. “We’re going to get you help, son,” she said in a soft voice. “But I will never, ever give up on you. Do you hear
me?”

Faith was backing out of the sitting room, pushing Bitsy toward the kitchen, when Jamie caught sight of them. He stopped sobbing. “Why’d you have to go and drag them into my problems?” he asked his
mother.

Faith locked eyes with her sister. “I’m gonna take Bitsy over to Mama’s. You’ve got your hands full without having to worry about
us.”

“Oh no, you’re not. You would scare Mom into an early grave if you showed up at her house like
that.”

Jamie’s eyes narrowed as they zeroed in on her. “What happened to your face?”

All eyes in the room fell on Faith at once.

“Did
Curtis—”

Faith held her finger to her lips, and pointed at her
daughter.

Seeing Bitsy for the first time, Jamie turned his attention to his cousin. “Are you okay?”

She stuck her thumb in her mouth and cowered behind her
mother.

“Aw, Bits. Did I scare you?” He spread his arms for her. “Come here.”

She peeked at him from behind her mother’s
legs.

“Please.” He opened his arms even
wider.

She crawled onto his lap and snuggled up to his chest. Stroking her hair, Jamie whispered something only Bitsy could hear and got a smile in
response.

The short officer approached Faith. “Evening, ma’am. I’m Officer Marshall and my partner over there is Officer Swanson. But please call me Eli, and he’s
Brad.”

Swanson waved at her from across the
room.

“Evening,” Faith
said
.

Eli studied her face. “Do you want to tell me how this
happened?”

Faith shielded her face with her hand. “It was a silly accident. I wasn’t watching where I was going and I ran smack into the doorjamb.”

The officer lifted her chin and turned her head one way then another. “Must have been reinforced with steel. Did you report this doorjamb to the police?”

Faith shook her head.

“Have you seen a
doctor?”

“No. But I’m fine, really.”

“You don’t look fine to me. I’m certainly no doctor, but I’d be willing to bet your nose is broken. Even if you don’t want to press charges, you need to document the assault so we have it on file. It puts us one step ahead of the process if something like this happens again.”

Sam was suddenly at Faith’s side. “He’s right you know. You should let Eli take your
report.”

“Unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated in your sister’s case,” Eli said to Sam, then turned back to Faith. “We are happy to take your statement, but it won’t do much good unless we have a doctor’s account of your injuries to substantiate your
claim.”

Faith turned to her sister. “Really, Sam. I don’t want to be any trouble. Why don’t I go to Jackie’s?”

“I doubt you’ll find much sympathy there. Anyway, I agree with Eli. I think your nose is broken. You’re going to have to deal with it sooner or later.”

Faith saw the deep worry lines in her sister’s forehead and decided not to argue with her. “All right, fine. But can’t it wait until tomorrow? It’s been a long
day.”

“Honestly, no. I think it’s important you get seen tonight.” Eli locked eyes with his partner. “Why don’t you run her over to the ER while I finish up here with Jamie?”

“What about my daughter?” Faith
asked.

Officer Marshall glanced over at Bitsy, who was still curled up in Jamie’s lap. “Doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere, anytime soon.”