Page 48 of Unexpected Complication

“How did that work for you?”

Her eyes became soft. “It was good. I had to repeat a grade because my mom had moved around so much the last year, I kept getting behind. I was older than most of the kids, so I pretty much stuck to myself. But Dad was great. He was quiet but a good parent. He tried, anyway. He lived in a really small town and his house was on the outskirts, so we were pretty isolated, but I liked it. It was just me most of the time, but I was okay with that. He worked a lot.” She drew in a deep breath, slowly exhaling. “Once I caught up and I graduated, I went to work to save up money for college.”

I was surprised. The way she described her father, I was certain he would have been saving money for a college fund for her. “Your dad couldn’t…help you with that?”

Her lips tightened, and she curled her hand into a small fist on the table. “He’d been sending Mom money all the years I was with her. He’d set up an account when I was born, and she’d add whatever he sent. She told me once she hoped she could add to it eventually as well. I remember seeing the bank book one day, knowing that the money in it would let me go to college. But…”

“But?”

“She spent it.”

“Fuck.” I breathed. “All of it?”

“She gave it to Jack to record a demo and pay for some other stuff she said they had to have. She told me she planned on replacing it as soon as Jack got his first record deal,” she sneered. “She thought it was a good investment in my future. She even planned on adding interest.”

“Oh fuck,” I repeated.

“Yeah. Dad…he wasn’t happy when he found out. It caused a huge blowup with them.” She sighed. “He even threatened to sue her. It got really ugly.” She stopped speaking for a minute, swallowing a couple of times. “Not long after, Mom and Jack were in a car accident on the way to one of his gigs.”

I reached for her hand. “Skylar, I’m sorry.”

Skylar nodded. “So, it was just Dad and me. I worked a couple jobs and took care of the house. He worked and tried to help me with money for school.”

I was curious. “What did he do?”

She smirked at me. “He was the local prosecutor. He put the bad guys behind bars.”

I had to chuckle. “Oh. Guess he wouldn’t have liked me much.”

“Nope,” she sang. “He’d kick your ass.”

I waved my hand at her. “Keep talking.”

“So, I finally got enough money for the tuition and earned a scholarship to go to college. I got a job by campus at a small corner store and lived in the dorm. I didn’t have the money to go home and see Dad except at Christmas, but we kept in touch. The first summer, I found full-time work as a nanny that included room and board, so I stayed. Dad surprised me with money for tuition the next year, so things were a little easier.” She stopped again, and I felt her hand tremble. I held it tighter.

“When I went home for Christmas, Dad didn’t look well. Finally, he told me he had cancer.”

I shut my eyes at the pain in her voice.

“Terminal?”

She nodded. “He didn’t tell me that at the time. I went back to school because he insisted, then returned home for the summer, and he was so much worse…” Her voice drifted off.

“You never went back to college?”

“No. He was dying. He’d tried everything, and there was nothing else they could do. I nursed him all summer and fall, and he died not long before that Christmas.”

“What happened? How did you end up on the street?”

“Dad’s insurance coverage wasn’t very good. The medical bills were huge. Then when I went to the bank, I found out he’d taken a second mortgage to help me with school. Between that and the bills, what I got for the house barely covered it. I didn’t really have any friends and there was no one I was close to in Oakville, so I came here, thinking I could find a job, save some money, and go back to school in a year. I sold everything I had left, which wasn’t much.

“I found a small apartment and got a job. Then the company I was working for closed. I couldn’t find another job. I couldn’t afford my apartment, and I had to move to an even smaller place. A few weeks after I moved in, I was robbed and they…they got everything. Including the money I had hidden away.”

She was quiet as I inwardly cursed the bastards who’d taken what little she had.

“The landlord didn’t care. I couldn’t pay my rent, and he kicked me out. I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to… Every week that went by, things got worse. I couldn’t find a job, so I couldn’t find a place to live, and I ended up on the streets. I kept telling myself it would get better, but it didn’t. I could barely stay clean and presentable. Fall passed and winter came, and things got even worse. And eventually…I gave up.”

Skylar stared at our entwined hands. “The rest, as they say, is history. You found me in the warehouse. And here I am.”