“It’s a business number, isn’t it? We have business. He knows it.”
“He doesn’t want your business.” There was a note of coldness in Justine’s voice now.
“What about the lawsuit?” Her tone rose pleadingly,becoming almost girlish. She used to talk to her regulars like this. She still did. “Remember, baby? He said he’d ruin me and you know he will. I need that money to protect myself.”
“Nick is willing to drop the lawsuit as long as you leave him alone.”
So it’s Nick now that he’s got you posing as his little escort.“Well, you didn’t tell me that. You aren’t answering any of my calls.”
“I did tell you,” her daughter said grimly. “But you kept asking about the money.”
“Well, it ismymoney. If your father had lived long enough for us to talk things out, he would have changed his mind. I have expenses. I can’t live out on the street. I mean, for God’s sake, Justine. I’m calling you on an iPhone 4 with a cracked screen.”
“It’s his money, Mom. He can do what he likes with it, which I told you before.” She sighed. “I’m sorry about your phone, but you’re not going to end up on the street because of a cheap phone, are you? I mean, you have an apartment, right? You told me you did. And rent’s paid?”
Danielle said nothing, too angry to speak as her daughter rambled on.
“If it gets really bad, maybe you can sell some of your jewelry to buy yourself some more time. Apart from that, I really don’t know what else to tell you.”
That was rich. The girl was barely into her thirties, with a mansion roof over her head and a cushy office job where she sat on her ass all day filing papers, and she was going to tellherhow she ought to manage her money?
She forced herself to take a calming breath. “Baby, you’re my daughter. Don’t you care about me?”
“Yes,” Jay said, in such a wavering tone that she thought she might have won. “But my hands are tied. Nick isn’t going to budge on this. You made your choices and the will was settled by all the lawyers involved years ago. I can’t change that.”
“But helistensto you,” Danielle protested. “You canmakehim give mesomethingcan’t you? Just ask him nicely.”
“No,” Jay said sharply. “I can’t do that. Not with him.”
“Justine—”
“I have to go. Bye.”
The phone went dead in her hands.
Danielle stared at it incredulously before throwing it against the wall with a scream.
???????
She calmed down a few moments later. Catching a glimpse of her red face surrounded by her mussed and unbrushed hair in the vanity mirror was quite the shock.Who’s that witch?Danielle thought with horror, before realizing with a sobering jolt that it was her.
Justinehad pushed her to this.
But the show had to go on. Despite what her daughter believed, she did have bills to pay and she was a month behind on rent.
Lucky for her, she could work from home like any tech executive.
Danielle unscrewed a jar of Korean cold cream and began doing damage control.
After Damon had passed away, Nicholas had wasted no time in kicking her out. He hadn’t even done it face to face, like a man.He’d waited until she’d gone out on one of her shopping trips to have the locks changed. She’d come home from Anthropologie to find all her shit piled out on the curb, and when she’d slammed on the door, swearing and raising hell, he’d called the cops on her, and she’d spent the night in jail. Now she had a fucking criminal record, thanks to him.
Since then, she’d done what she could to get back on her feet. She’d tried hawking essential oils for a while but then her manager had started harping at her to buy more product before she’d even sold what she had, and she was not going to end up in the hole.
Bolstered by the ylang ylang and a box of white zinfandel, she’d Googled “strip clubs near me” in a fit of desperation, which was when she had learned about something called “camgirling.” From what she had read, it wasn’t that much different from stripping. And it was safer, too. When you were behind a screen, there was no danger of men getting handsy.
Danielle had turned her bedroom into a studio and strung it up with fairy lights from Target. With her dwindling funds, she purchased a lacy white duvet and a good-quality camera. For a couple hours a night, spending a few hours a week doing what she had used to do for dinner and gas got her a steady stream of panting men.
Her mouth tightened briefly, remembering how Justine had used to insist upon waiting up for her during those nights at the strip club, like an aggrieved little saint.
