“How long have you been together?”
“Almost four months. We met in the hospital. We both have epilepsy.”
She let out a long gust of air. “Do you drive?”
“Yes. My car is back by her house.”
“Do you have a friend or someone who could go get it for you?”
“Yeah. I could call one of them.” Hope rose in my chest that she was going to let me go. It was a damn sad story. I couldn’t help it. It was the only story I had.
“Well, here’s the deal,” she said. “What happened tonight is not that unusual. Some mom or dad doesn’t like their daughter’s boyfriend and tries to press statutory rape charges against him.”
“We didn’t?—”
“Irrelevant.” She picked up a pencil and tapped it on the desk. “The girl is seventeen. That’s the age of consent in Texas, so you’re fine on that count. But the mother could still get you on small charges, like trespassing or criminal mischief.”
“Who decides that?”
“The prosecutor, but he won’t even see the case if I don’t put it in the system.” She sat back in her chair. “You seem like a nice boy. I’m not really of the mind to muck up the record of a kid about to graduate when all he’s done is choose a girl with a mother like that.”
“She’s terrible,” I said.
She held up a hand to stop me. “You make your friend get your car. Do not go near that house, do you understand me? If that woman spots you and she calls the police again, I won’t be able to help you. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“You have to recognize when you’re stuck. And until that girl turns eighteen and walks out of her mother’shouse, you’re stuck. The two of you have to bide your time. Until then, you have to know this is a losing proposition.”
I disagreed completely. Helping Ava was never the wrong thing. I had to stick by her all the way until she got her freedom. A seizure could cause her to lose everything. The most important thing to me was ensuring that she continued to be the person she wanted to be—fierce, independent, and eager to learn.
“Is it possible for me to ask you to do something for me?” I asked.
“And what would that be, Mr. Giddings?” She sounded incredulous that I would ask after she had gotten me off the hook.
“Ava is in danger with her mother. She filed an abuse report at the hospital a few months ago. If you could ask someone at the hospital to follow up on that, I promise I’ll leave her alone until she’s eighteen. I need her to be safe.”
The woman’s gaze on me was fierce. “I believe your heart thinks all this is true, but I’ve seen a lot of drama in my years, and I’m telling you—let this go. If the abuse charges had been ruled as credible in the hospital, CPS would have taken Ava already. I’ll escort you downstairs.”
I was angry, so angry. She wasn’t listening. She didn’t know.
Hot tears threatened to spill from my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I would save her. I had promised myself that. Promised Ava.
The woman led me downstairs. I used my phone to call for a ride. Then I called Bill and asked him to have Sarah drive him over there to pick up my car and bring it to my house.
I texted Ava over and over again, from the minute I got outside, all night. She never answered.
I didn’t sleep. Didn’t tell Gram. I paced my room until noon. And then I decided that I had to go over there. It was worth the risk. I’d take jail over abandoning her when she needed me.
I drove over to her neighborhood and slowly rolled up to the duplex. But as soon as I saw it, I knew something was different. The windows didn’t have curtains anymore. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I parked and walked up the stairs to peek into the front window. They’d left in a hurry. The big furniture was there, a sofa and a bookshelf, but the closets and cabinets stood open, cleaned out.
I walked next door. When I knocked, Grandma Flowers came out on the porch.
“I reckoned I’d hear from you,” she said. “They’re gone.”
“You know where they went?”
“I wish I did, child,” she said.
