Take Me Home for Christmas (Whiskey Creek #5)(28)
Author: Brenda Novak

“So…is this about what Daddy did? Or is it something else?” She knew what life was like at that age, how girls who were best friends one day weren’t even friends the next. They were trying to figure out the ins and outs of relationships and seemed to try just about everything on for size. But the timing of this was certainly suspect.

Alexa slumped in her seat. “Do we have to talk about it?”

“Isn’t it better if we face our problems together?” Sophia lowered her voice. “You helped me when I needed you.”

That elicited a faint smile, and a grudging response. “Amberly’s dad invested in the fund.”

The fund. The infamous SLD Growth Fund. What other seventh-grader would be so familiar with that investment term? “I didn’t see him at the meeting the other night.” He hadn’t called her, either—not that she knew of, anyway.

“I don’t know why,” Alexa said, “but he told Amberly she can’t talk to me anymore. Clara’s parents lost money, too.”

Sophia hated knowing that her daughter was being treated as an outcast. She’d wondered, of course, but as long as Alexa was denying it she’d been able to avoid the reality. “Have all your friends turned on you?” she asked softly.

Her daughter’s cheeks reddened. “Not all of them.”

When Sophia kept staring at her, insisting on the truth, she laughed without humor. “Just the popular crowd.”

“But those were your closest friends.”

Lex took another spoonful of ice cream but her downcast expression didn’t change. “Doesn’t matter. There’s still Emily from my softball team.”

“That’s who you eat lunch with every day?”

She nodded.

Emily hadn’t even been her daughter’s favorite. “Go ahead and wait in the car while I take care of the check, okay?”

Alexa hurried out of the restaurant without even glancing over at her former friends, but that didn’t stop them from gossiping.

“My aunt Linda said she deserves what she’s getting for thinking she’s too good for the rest of us,” she heard one of them say. Sophia guessed they were talking about her now, but she didn’t care. Not about herself. She was dying to tell them to leave her little girl alone, though. Now that she was beginning to rally, the hurt she’d been feeling was turning to anger. She wasn’t sure that was a good thing; it would probably cause an even deeper rift between her and everyone else. But she and Alexa weren’t to blame for the losses Skip’s investors had sustained. They hadn’t asked him to do what he did. And anger was better than despair. It gave her the strength she needed to fight back, to find herself, to provide a foundation for her daughter instead of giving way.

Suddenly, she wanted to flip off the whole world. She couldn’t believe she’d let the citizens of Whiskey Creek, not to mention Skip’s parents, treat her so badly these past few weeks. She almost marched over and told those kids exactly how she felt. She would have, except verbally attacking thirteen-year-olds wasn’t going to rectify the situation. Her interference would only make matters worse for Lex, so she held back.

She was just putting some money on the table so she could leave when Chief Stacy walked into the restaurant. His eyes narrowed the second he spotted her, and he made a point of walking past her, even though the hostess guiding him to a table had circled around a different way.

“Out and about already, Mrs. DeBussi?” He said her last name as if it had become some kind of curse.

According to Eve, he’d carried off quite a bit of her jewelry, had been one of the greediest of those who’d come to the house on Friday, although he’d admitted to investing far less than the others. She’d even heard Reverend Flores say something to him about that.

“Is there any reason I can’t be here?” she asked.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t show my face in public. People might think you’re not remorseful.”

“I had nothing to do with what Skip did.”

“I’m not sure I believe that,” he said. “And even if I did, you certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble having fun on other people’s money.”

He was heaping on the persecution because he thought she wouldn’t do anything about it. But she’d had enough. “I do know how to have fun,” she snapped. “Particularly with your money. Thanks for investing.”

His eyes bugged out and he came to a sudden stop. He was probably surprised that she wasn’t the cowed, tolerant woman he’d seen at the house after that church meeting. “You really think you should provoke me?”

Sophia poured all the contempt she was feeling into the look she gave him. “I’ll do as I please. And as long as it’s not against the law, there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”

“Watch yourself,” he murmured, his voice gruff. “You don’t want to give me a reason to make your life any more difficult than it has to be.”

“By doing what?” she asked. “Carting off more of my jewelry? I don’t have anything left to lose, Chief, except Alexa. And if anyone hurts her, they’re going to be sorry they ever met me, and that includes you.”

He grabbed her arm so she couldn’t walk away from him. “I’m already sorry I met you. The whole town is.”

“Go to hell!” Jerking away, she marched out to her car.

“What happened?” Alexa asked as she climbed in.

“Nothing.” She started the engine of her beautiful Mercedes. She missed who she used to be. Missed the admiration and respect. She was going to miss her belongings, too. But her encounter with the arrogant chief of police reminded her that she wasn’t going to miss Skip. She’d never let another man control her.

“Are you sure?” Alexa said. “Because you’re breathing hard. And—and your face is all…splotchy.”

She put the car in Reverse. “Chief Stacy and I had a little…disagreement.”

“Did he hurt your feelings?”

She patted Alexa’s leg before shifting into Drive. “Don’t worry. I’ll survive. We’ll survive this together.” He hadn’t hurt her feelings. He’d made her so angry that telling him off had felt damn good.

Fighting back beat the hell out of crying and feeling sorry for herself, she decided.

She was done being a victim.

* * *

When Sophia showed up for work on Monday morning, she was still angry—at Skip, her in-laws, Chief Stacy, almost everyone. She wasn’t going to let them push her around anymore. But just before she knocked on the door, some of that anger faded, and the fear and uncertainty returned. The job Ted had offered her was the only thing standing between her and complete disaster, the only thing that made it possible for her to fight back—because now she had a way to provide for herself.