He looks at me, his face completely impassive. “The legs are too dramatic. I’ll break each finger, one after the other. Most people don’t get through one hand.”
Mom gags on her beer. “Hold on a second.”
“Do it.” I step aside and turn my back on my mother. “Just do it quick before people start getting home from work.”
“Five thousand!” she says in a panic. “Hold on a second!”
Stellan gets to his feet. He rises to his full height. “I’m not negotiating.”
“Two thousand! Come on, you know that’s nothing to you!”
He walks toward her. “It’s something to Kira.”
“One thousand! Please, no, don’t!”
I punch the wall. It hurts my damn fist. “Pay her a thousand, Stellan, and if she doesn’t have something good to say, break all her fingers.”
Mom lets out a sob of relief. She’s slumped back against the refrigerator, looking desperate and pathetic. I’m still crying, and I hate myself for that too. I wish I were stronger.
Stellan counts out a wad of cash and tosses it onto the counter. “Talk.”
“There’s a pawn shop. When we got here, I took everything I grabbed from that box and gave it to them. I don’t know what happened to it all after. He only gave me a few hundred bucks—that cheap fucking asshole—and I know at least a few of those rings were worth some real money.”
“What’s it called?”
“I don’t know. Tyler’s or maybe Terry’s. No, it’s Lenny’s! Lenny’s Pawn Shop!”
I type the name into Google Maps, and it comes right up. “It’s only ten minutes from here.”
“We’ll go now.” Stellan doesn’t move. He continues to loom over my mother.
“That’s all I know,” she says meekly, lighting another cigarette with shaking hands.
“You don’t deserve daughters. Much less daughters like Kira and Gem. Make sure you never come back to my city ever again. Do you understand? There’s nothing for you in Philly. There’s no money. There’s no family. There’s only death. Do you understand?”
“Never liked Philly anyway,” she mutters, looking at the floor.
“Good.” Stellan walks away. Each step makes the trailer creak. He puts a hand on my arm and steers me to the door. “You okay?”
“Fine.” I wipe my face. “Just great.”
“I know that was hard.”
“Hard? What was hard about it? Just watched my mother debase herself and act like I’m nothing but an ATM with legs.”
When we’re outside, he pulls me into a tight hug. He kisses my cheek and neck, and I start to feel better. His touch soothes me, and his voice drags me back from the brink of darkness. It doesn’t fix me, but it’s a start.
“She’s just some lady now, right?” I bury my face in his chest. I wish I could stop crying. “I don’t even know her anymore.”
“That’s exactly right. She’s just some lady. You don’t owe her anything. You never did.”
When I feel better, I pull away. We get into the SUV, and the driver backs out, tires crunching on gravel.
I think I see an outline in the window. An old lady watching me, cigarette pinched between her teeth. But she looks like a stranger. Some woman I’ve never seen before. I wonder why she makes me feel so sad. I wipe my face and force myself to smile.
STELLAN
Iknow some things about fucked-up families.
