Page 15 of Coffee Shop Girl
* * *
“They’re goingto be physically fine. I can already tell that, if they truly traveled as far as you say they did. The scars that’ll last are probably more emotional, and they’ll run deep. Eventually, I’d like to see them in counseling, but for now, I’d focus on the most important thing: keeping them safe. That means one thing.” Jada met me eye to eye. “You’re going to have to make a decision.”
“About keeping them?”
“You can’t harbor them without telling their father. He may try to bring kidnapping charges against you.”
“Him?” I cried. “He beat them.”
“I know. And the photographs of the injuries will help the case against him, but just because you’re their half-sister doesn’t mean you can provide a better situation. Nor does it mean a judge would grant you custody. Jim can go to classes and prove himself under control and get them back. You need to decide what you’re going to do.”
“Jada, I’m not going to send them back.”
“So, you’re going to keep them? The coffee shop is failing even after you burned through your father’s insurance money. You can’t sell real estate, run the coffee shop, and support these girls. They need school. Stability. A table to eat on every night. You have none of that.”
“I have tables,” I muttered, but the rest of my retort stalled in my throat. She was right. Half right, anyway. I had tables; they were just in the shop. The shop that was a failing mess and would potentially drag me into a pit of debt I had no way to swim out of.
Case in point—I’d forgotten to eat lunch. How would I keepthemfed?
A rush of overwhelm slipped through me. Keeping myself afloat had been hit-or-miss since Dad died. I tightened my arms around my chest.
“If Ellie even had a whiff of suspicion that I would send them back, she’d run away,” I said. “She may be young, but I think she’d rather die trying to scrape a life out in the mountains than go back to Jim. She’s always been stubborn. And Lizbeth? She used to be soft as cotton. Now she’s protecting him.”
“They often protect their abusers.”
“She’s not made for this.”
“She’s doing a damn fine job,” Jada said quietly. “Despite her loyalty to her father, she brought them here, didn’t she? She may have saved her sister. Ellie may have been in for more than a kick in the ribs and a backhand to the face.”
I winced, picturing it.
“What if I don’t take them?”
“Then foster care is the next-best choice.”
The words turned my stomach. “Foster care?” I hissed.
Jada put a hand on my arm. “I know it’s not an option you like, but it’s one you need to consider.”
“The foster care system broke my mother.”
“Or saved her. It depends on how you look at it. If she was in foster care, her home life must have been pretty ugly. Your father told me that Kat had mental-health issues that had never been addressed. You can’t throw that on the foster system. Bethany, if you want them out of Jim’s hands, and you can’t do it yourself—something that no one would ask or expect of you—then there are really good families that can keep them safe.”
“The nightmares—”
“There are always nightmares. But there are successes too. You just don’t hear about them.” Jada gave me a comforting squeeze on the arm. “Just think about it, all right?”
After a long, traitorous pause, I nodded. “I will.”
“And think about talking to Kinoshi. He and I have done some family-law cases not unlike this together. He’d be good to talk to.”
The thought of Kinoshi, a local lawyer, sent a shiver through me. A ripple of disbelief followed. How had things devolved to this so quickly?
“Are the three of you safe for now?” Jada asked.
“Yes.”
“What if he comes?”
