Page 63 of Coerced Queen

She blows out a puff of air.“I took a taxi.What’s with the fucking interrogation?”

“With what money?”

“Jesus.”She throws her arms in the air.“I got a job.”

I raise a brow.

“What?”she says, pulling her shoulders up to her ears.“Do you think I can’t keep a job?I cleaned up nice.Look at me.”She brushes her palms over her dress.“I’m fucking decent.I have the right to take a taxi and visit my daughter just like any fucking one of the hoity toity assholes living on this street.”

It’s difficult not to laugh in her face.“What kind of job?”

“Uh, typing.”

I narrow my eyes.“Is that so?”

“Did typing in my day.”She wiggles her shoulders.“It’s the only valuable thing I learned in that fucked-up school for delinquents.”

“Now you suddenly want to see Anya.”

“And her baby.What’s her name again?”

“I don’t think so, Mary.”

She pulls herself to her full height.“You can’t tell me I don’t have the right to see my own fucking child.”

“Yes, I can.”I climb down the step, forcing her to backtrack.“You escaped from the center with no word to us in weeks.Now you show up here and pretend to care about your daughter when you’ve never given a shit about Anya or what’s best for her.”

“I came here straight from the center, but Anya threw me out like trash.Wouldn’t even give me a fucking place to crash.”

That’s news to me.Then again, things were crazy when Anya came home from the hospital and I was still in the ICU.Those days were hectic for all of us.Mary showing up here must’ve been an inconsequential piece of information that got lost in the worry of the bigger scheme of things.

“She did the right thing,” I say.

Clenching her fists, she spits the words at me.“You’re a fucking dog.”

“What do you really want, Mary?”

“Told ya.”She licks her lips.“I wanna see my kid.”

Now that she’s not trying so hard to pretend to bedecent, her unpolished accent is back.

“Do you expect me to believe that?”I say.“Don’t fucking waste my time.”

She looks away, her façade dropping when she faces me again.“I need a little money to see me over.Just until next month.I’ll pay it back.I swear.”

My answer is curt.“No.”

“I’m family,” she exclaims.“You can’t turn me away.”

“Fucking watch me.”

“Are you going to kick me out on the street?”

I’m pretty sure Anya would’ve offered her mother a fair deal.It’s only right I do the same.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Mary.I don’t like you, and people I don’t like don’t do too well around me.They don’t end up in a good place, so here’s what I suggest.Leave the name and number of your employer, and I’ll look in on him.If you have a job as you say, I want to see your rental contract and where you’re living.If you stay sober and clean, I’ll upgrade you to a nicer apartment.I’ll pay a portion of your bills only if you prove you can hang on to that typing job.We’ll see about visiting with Anya.I’ll let her decide.”

“What’s with the checking up as if I’m a kid and not a fucking grown ass woman?”

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