Amelia finally got home with a sack of McDonald’s for the kids. Without mentioning Todd Coz’s visit to The Pink Cupcake, she apologized to Adam and Meg for being late.
“That’s okay, Mom. I got all my homework done,” Meg boasted.
“What about you, Adam?”
“I’ll get it done,” he muttered nonchalantly.
“Okay, well, when you do get it all done, can you post something online for me?” Amelia yawned as she pulled out the description she and Lila had finalized.
“We need to hire an extra person. Lila and I are overwhelmed, and as much as I’d love to pull you kids out of school and chain you to the truck to work with me every day, making twenty-five cents an hour, there are these silly laws that prevent that.” Amelia twisted her lips as she looked at her kids.
“Sure, Mom. What job sites do you want them on?”
“How many are there?”
“Dozens,” Adam replied as his mom handed him the piece of paper.
“I’m going to leave that up to you since you seem to know more about it than I do. Is that okay?”
“Sure. Consider it done.”
“Thanks, honey. I appreciate it. So what did you guys do while I was gone besides homework and anything but homework?” Amelia pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and flopped down in it.
“Dad called,” Adam answered.
“Oh yeah? What did he want?” Amelia felt a tingle of satisfaction as she recalled being thrown out of the Four Seasons and really hoped the word would get back to him.
“He said they were having a nice time and that they’d be home in a few more days and that they had souvenirs for us.”
“Well, that sounds nice.” Amelia rubbed the back of her neck.
“He also wanted to know what Meg and I thought about moving in with him.”
Amelia’s heart stopped beating in her chest.
“What?” She was suddenly no longer sleepy.
“He wanted to know if we would consider moving in with him and Jennifer. Something about making it easier on everyone and you wouldn’t have to struggle so much.”
Amelia knew this had to do with alimony. If he had custody of the kids, he could pay less to her. But that wasn’t even the issue. If he took the kids, Amelia would die. They’d become such a good team together. John couldn’t possibly be serious about uprooting them.
“What did you tell him?” Amelia was surprised the words came out as calmly as they did.
“We said we’d think about it,” Meg said, shoveling half a dozen fries in her mouth at once.
“Okay. Well, guys. I’m beat. I’m going to take a hot shower then probably go to bed.” She pushed herself up from the kitchen table. Her legs felt wobbly underneath her.
“Okay, Mom,” they both replied.
Amelia literally had to pull herself up the stairs. She felt dizzy, and the urge to vomit swept over her as she made it to the upstairs landing.
Carefully, with one hand supporting her against the wall and the other waving to help her keep her balance, she made it to her room, closed the door, and dashed into the bathroom.
The burger Dan had bought her came back up and burned her throat. Her eyes watered, and once everything was up and her gut was empty, she felt her heart break.
Quickly, she turned the water on in the shower and sat on the cool tile floor.
The running water was enough to drown out the sobs of rage and frustration that swept over her.
Why would he suddenly want the kids? He couldn’t get away from them fast enough when he handed Amelia divorce papers. He had no problem just forgetting about them when everyone in town knew he was sleeping around.
The thought of not seeing the kids every day was too much. Amelia pulled off her clothes and climbed into the tub and let the hot water fall over her. She held her knees tightly and cried into them as she prayed.
Please, God, don’t let him take my kids. I’ll do anything. Just don’t let him take them away from me.
It was true that Amelia was tired. As soon as she crawled into bed, she fell asleep instantly. But she kept waking up every couple of hours with her mind racing. Songs in her head were running in an endless loop. Every time she started to doze, John’s proposition to the kids yanked her back to consciousness. Plus, if Luann could do what she did to Bud, what was to stop her from doing something to ruin The Pink Cupcake? It was all too much.
When she finally fell asleep, it was two in the morning, and she had to be up at five.
When the alarm went off, Amelia rubbed her eyes, which were puffy from crying, swallowed hard, and grimaced. Her throat was sore, and she felt achy all over.
“Not now,” she whined, her eyes beginning to water. “I’ve got too much to do.”
But when she flung the covers back, an instant chill wrapped around her, causing her arms and legs to pull back beneath the covers like a crab retreating back into its shell.
She waited a couple minutes. Sometimes it just took a few minutes. Slow and steady won the race, so Amelia slowly emerged from the blankets and dropped her feet over the side of the bed.
Once out in the hallway, she went to Meg’s room and opened the door. Her daughter was still asleep. Her brown hair was like a halo around her head, and her mouth hung open so she could breathe in a steady rhythm. It reminded Amelia of all the times she checked on her as a baby, listening for that steady breath those first couple of months, so terrified that she might not hear it. But every night she did. Every night for the past fifteen years, Amelia heard her daughter’s breathing. She couldn’t live without it.
She tiptoed out of the room and shuffled downstairs. While filling her kettle and putting it on the stove, Amelia remembered everything that had happened the night before. But the cotton in her head and the scratch in her throat prevented her from doing anything more than sighing.
She sat down at the kitchen table and listened to the quiet of the house. Normally, this was a pleasant sound. The calm before the stampede that was her kids pounding on the stairs up from the basement and down from the bedroom with requests and complaints and jabs at one another.
It made Amelia’s eyes sting again, but she knew it was this oncoming cold that was making her weepy. She let the tears fall, sniffled pitifully, then wiped her eyes and nose with the sleeve of her pajamas.
“Okay, Amelia. Time to pull it together.” She stood and held her hands over the heat of the burner as the water began to bubble. Just as she poured herself a cup and dropped in a pouch of chamomile, the phone rang.
Who in the world is calling at this hour? She picked up the ancient landline phone.
“Hello?” she barked.
“Amelia.” Dan’s voice sounded like a brick hitting the sidewalk. “I’m sorry to call you so early, honey. I need you to come to Food Truck Alley.”
Her sore throat and achy body suddenly disappeared.
“What is it?”
“I got a call from your friend Gavin. He was getting his truck ready when he saw it.”
“Saw what, Dan?”
“Honey, I’m sorry, but your truck’s been vandalized.”
Amelia hung up the phone and woke up the kids. She relayed the little bit of information she knew to them quickly, with a calm face and a shrug, as if it were no big deal.
“These things sometimes happen.” Amelia smoothed Meg’s hair and patted Adam on the shoulder. “Probably just kids. Punks on a dare or something.”
“But Mom, it’s your truck.” Meg struggled to keep the tears back.
“Hey. I’m sure it’s nothing a little spit and polish can’t fix. Now you guys take care of yourselves and make sure you get to the bus on time. There are banana muffins in the freezer, or you can always have some fruit. Promise you’ll get to school on time?”
“Yes, Mommy,” Meg mumbled.
“I’ll make sure, Mom,” Adam added, gently tugging his sister’s hair to make her smile.
“Okay. If there is any big deal, I’ll call the school. So if you don’t hear from me, you’ll know it’s no big deal.”
Amelia clenched her teeth as she went into her room and quickly dressed. Without any makeup or even a shower, she dashed out of the house and sped in her sedan to Food Truck Alley.
When she got there, she saw the red and blue lights of one squad car and Dan’s unmarked police car. She looked at her truck and wasn’t sure what to think.
First of all, the tires were still intact. Had those been slashed, it would have run her about a thousand dollars to replace them. Someone had dumped a couple cans of garbage around the truck, so it smelled terrible and the flies were pretty gross. But still, picking up the garbage was annoying and unsanitary but not the worst thing in the world.
It was the scratches in the paint that made Amelia mad. The obscene names they scratched in the paint were not just rude, but so childish.
“I think we’ll be able to sand this off and paint over it,” Dan said soothingly. “But before we do, we have to photograph them and maybe dust for some fingerprints. I’m sorry, but it will have to stay like this for today. Maybe tomorrow, too.”
“Losing two days of work will set me back. I won’t make my monthly quota.”
“I’m sorry, Amelia.”
“It isn’t your fault.” She slumped. “You know what? This isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I expected the engine to be ripped out and my tires slashed, and well, this looks like something…a girl would do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I think Luann Jameson would have done this. Todd Coz would have slashed my tires and torn up my engine. But it wasn’t him.”
“Detective?” The uniformed police officer on the scene called to Dan. “We’ve got a witness who says they saw a woman running from the scene early this morning.” Gavin waved to Amelia. He was the witness.
Amelia looked up at Dan, smiled, sniffled, and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“Sorry. I’m getting a cold.”