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She’d rushed home after work. She was going to cook something, but Braylon said he was picking up dinner on the way.
Instead, she fretted enough that she was picking up pillows and fluffing them for no reason until there was a knock at her door.
She all but ran to get it, opened it and saw Braylon there with a pizza box in his hand. He was still in his suit so he’d come from work even though she’d been home almost ninety minutes.
“Hi,” she said. “That smells good.”
“It was the easiest and fastest thing to grab.”
There was no smile on his face, and he almost seemed tense.
“I’ll start. Something is going on. You said it had to do with the article. Just tell me. You’re not acting yourself.”
“How is that?” he asked.
“Your text was longer than normal. Almost like you had to prepare it for the most impact without worrying me at the same time. But you failed because I’ve been worried all day.”
“Not what I wanted,” he said. “Get a piece and let’s sit.”
“No,” she said. “Set it down and let’s talk. The food can wait.”
He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Very well. Why don’t you and your mother talk anymore?”
She frowned, not sure where this was coming from. “Because she’s not a nice person. I told you I don’t know who my father is. My mother didn’t treat us well. She left us alone at times. I haven’t talked to her in ten years.”
“Ten years,” he said. “You’re twenty-four. I never put this together before. You’ve only lived with Quinn since you were eighteen. Where were you for those other four years?”
Her shoulders dropped. She never realized she gave just enough information. “Sounds to me like you know,” she said. “What did you do? Look into me?”
That thought just occurred to her and made her ill. That he didn’t trust her enough that he had to go behind her back.
“I did not,” he said firmly. “But someone else did.”
“Who?” she asked.
“I’m giving you a chance to give me your side of the story. I want to know why you never said it before.”
Lilian started to sniffle. “Don’t you think it’s obvious? I’m embarrassed. I don’t want to be that person. Or have that life.” She was pacing around her small apartment.
“I don’t know what that life is because you never talk about anything other than from the time you were with Quinn.”
“Braylon,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air. “Fine. I’ll tell you. My mother was a whore and a criminal. She stole, she lied, she sold herself for money to get her next fix. She got knocked up more than four times but didn’t want to keep having abortions so she had kids in hopes of getting the money from the county. We were all in and out of foster care our entire lives. Then we’d go back and be pulled again. Quinn ended up in a juvenile detention center for a period of time.”
“Quinn comes off as the person least likely to be there,” he said.
“That’s right. She didn’t belong there,” she said. “You have no idea what our life was like and how easy it would have been to follow the same path. I’m sure you know Karl was in prison and just released.”
“I do,” he said.
“Then you know why and why my mother was there, but let me tell you so you have the real truth. Because what you read may be the facts, but it’s not the life we saw with our eyes.”
“Tell me,” he said. She didn’t see anger in his eyes anymore, but rather sympathy. She didn’t want that either. She never did.
“Quinn stole. She had to feed us. She was thirteen and I was three. My brothers were in between, but she was caring for us from the moment I was born. I’ve never known any differently. My mother would be gone for days at a time and just leave enough on her food card to barely feed one of us. We were hungry. Quinn went to the store with what she had and it wasn’t enough. She had to steal a little extra. Like five dollars worth to make us some pasta and sauce and bread. Simple. Assistance from the state didn’t cover things like soap or toilet paper or tampons either. We had our pride, but she got caught stealing a small amount of food while we were home starving. She was arrested and it’s not like there was money for an attorney. We were all pulled from my mother and put in a home at that point.”
“Jesus,” he said.
“Yeah. How would you like to be Quinn? She has that on her record. She had to confess that to Max because he was going to do a background check on her and she didn’t know if it’d come up. To have that hanging over your head your whole life holding you back from anything. No kid should have that!” she shouted.
