Page 55 of Surviving in Everton

“Emma says she leaves her alone all the time! And she’s really sad because she hasn’t seen her dad in a really long time. She thinks something bad happened to him!” Violet adds, tears shimmering in her eyes.

I really… really wanna kill this bitch. As if what she did to Rowen wasn’t bad enough. She has to neglect her child? I can overlook a lot of shit, but I can’t abide child abuse. Which is clearly the case with Britney.

“Are you gonna tell? Are they gonna take her away?” Violet asks as the tears start to fall.

“Oh, sweetie! I understand you’re worried about losing your friend, and you thought you were doing the right thing, but if her mom’s not taking care of her, someone needs to know. And even if she did get taken away from her mom, you don’t know that she’d get sent away. She could get sent to live with a nice family here in town,” Rowe reasons with her.

“Like here? Could she move in with us?!” Violet asks, bouncing up and down clapping her hands.

“Oooh. Umm, I don’t know, Bug. That would be up to the courts.”

“But if you offered, if you told them you’d take her in, they’d let you, right?” Violet presses.

“Well, maybe. We’ll see okay.Ifit comes to that.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

“We’ll do what we can, Princess. I promise,” I vow.

She nods sadly. “Are you gonna tell someone, Declan?”

“Yeah, sweetie. I have to. I’m sorry. But, I’ll wait a couple of days, okay?” he offers a compromise.

She rushes over to where he’s standing and throws her little arms around him. “Thank you,” she breathes into his stomach.

He holds her to him and rubs the back of her head. “You’re welcome,A leanbh. Anythin’ for you,” he whispers.

“So we’re not in trouble?” Logan asks.

“Not this time. But next time, just tell us what’s goin’ on. We’re very understandin’, ya know.”

“I know, Dad. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want Violet to get in trouble.”

“Has Violet ever gotten in trouble in her life?” I ask Rowe.

She shrugs a shoulder. “What? She’s a good kid! Come on, they’re under a spell to tell the truth and the only thing they’re worried we’ll find out is that they were keeping a secret for a friend. Ifthat’snot a good kid, I don’t know what is.”

“Alright, you two go back to playing. Someone will come get you when it’s time for dinner,” I order.

They both jump at the chance to get away before we change our minds and decide to ask them more questions.

“Well, it works,” Ayden points out the obvious. “Now we just need Nate to put the potion in her drink, and Hudson to make sure she drinks it and then asks her all of the important questions.”

“Yeah, we should make a list to make sure we don’t forget anything,” Rowen suggests. “I want to get the conversation recorded so we can give it to the police, so you can’t just come out and ask her what spell she used on me. Gotta beat around the bush a little at first until she admits she did something to me, then you can ask her for specifics.”

“Good idea, Rowe. Let’s take this bitch down. I can’t believe all of this shit she’s been getting away with! That poor girl. Where the hell is her father? Why isn’t he taking care of her and protecting her from her evil mother?” Quinn fumes.

“Don’t know, never met him.” Rowe shrugs. “Any of you know him?”

“I’ve seen him a few times. Don’t honestly remember the last time though.” Kayden tilts his head and scrunches up his face.

I look around to see everyone is concentrating hard, trying to remember when they last saw him.

“Who is he? I mean, what’s his name? I can get my laptop out of the car and look into him,” West offers.

“His name’s Jim Anderson… That’s literally all I know about him.” Hudson shrugs.

“That’s all I need. Hold on, I’ll be right back.” West declares, quickly leaving the room.

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