Page 69 of In a Perfect World

The only catch was that there was a very good chance that Triana might not enter the lottery, and that wouldn’t help me at all.My end game was to end up with Triana, and there was just so much up in the air right now, and I could admit to needing a second to think it all through.

Luckily, I got through dinner without any dramatic fanfare, and I could tell that my father was extremely grateful for it, my mother feeling better, and my brothers still blissfully ignorant of all the drama surrounding me.I also knew that I was going to have to stop taking my anger out on the world, and none of this was my father’s fault any more than anyone else’s.

This was my fault, and my fault only.

Chapter 35

Triana~

Three months later, and I couldn’t believe that we were actually doing this.Tomasco, Sonia, and I had been applying for jobs in Hillrom, and Tomasco and Sonia had actually gotten hired rather quickly.

With all of Sonia’s customer service experience, she’d been able to find something right away, and since she had owned her home outright, it turned out that Hillrom had a significantly lower cost of living than what we’d been suffering here, so not only had she found a jobandhad sold her house with no hassle, she had also managed to find a nice three-bedroom house to buy in Hillrom, which had left her with a good amount tucked away from the sale of her house here.

As for Tomasco, his MBA had made him a prime candidate for hire, and once he had updated his employment profiles, the offers had come pouring in, and as they should have.My brother was smart, driven, and had the work experience that employers would kill for.Fortunately, he’d had enough offers that it’d taken him over a month to choose the right fit for him, and once he had accepted an offer from Arbor Incorporated, the next day, his house had been put on the market and had just sold last week.

Now, while my brother refused to speak about our parents, I didn’t need any details to know that my parents had to be crushed over Tomasco’s decision to leave.Not only did they no longer have any administrative help at all, but my father losing his son was significantly more traumatic than him losing his daughter.Tomasco had been his life’s legacy, the man in the family who was supposed to have kept our family’s traditions alive.However, now that my brother had broken away from that path, I knew that my parents were hurt, angry, and blaming me for it all.

Luckily, Sonia’s family hadn’t given her much shit, but she’d been raised to have her own mind and live her life freely.Plus, her parents knew her well enough to know that holding her down wouldn’t do anyone any favors.Sonia didn’t live for anyone else but herself, and I had always admired that about her.She didn’t let people guilt her into becoming their victim, and that was something that I vowed to work on in the future.

The only hiccup had come from Veronica, a hiccup that none of us had ever seen coming.When Tomasco had announced that he was looking to move to Hillrom with me and Sonia, the woman had flipped her lid, and all that casual-taking-it-slow-we’re-all-good vibe had been a lie.Veronica had been hoping to wrangle a marriage proposal out of Tomasco, divulging a five-year plan that my brother hadn’t had any idea about.So, yeah...their breakup hadn’t been a cordial one, and Tomasco had sworn off dating for the next few months.

As for me, I still hadn’t found a job, but not for lack of trying.I’d lost count of how many jobs that I had applied for, and the auto-rejections were weighing on me.Even with my degree and experience, there just weren’t that many clerical jobs available, and though I was trying my hardest not to get discouraged, at this point, I was about to begin applying for any job that was hiring.Luckily, my brother and Sonia were more than willing to carry me until I found something, so the second that Tomasco had sold his house, I had put mine on the market as well.

So, right now, I wasn’t exactly packing as I was throwing away all the junk that I didn’t need and boxing up all the stuff that I wanted to donate.Even if we hadn’t been moving clear across the region, everyone could benefit from a little spring cleaning.

Just then, my phone chimed with an incoming text, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Sonia.

Sonia:Turn on RHBS

Now, while there were a million cable channels and streaming services available for our television entertainment, every region had its own news channel, and all it aired was news or community pieces that pertained specifically to its respective region.RHBS stood for Rancher Hills Broadcasting Station, and it was a free channel for all its citizens.

Worried that Sonia’s order had something to do with me, I quickly raced over to the couch, grabbed the remote control, then turned on the television to the RHBS channel.Once the channel came on, there was a very pretty news anchor on the screen, and behind her, there was an image of the Rancher Hills regional flag with the word ‘Lottery’ stamped across it.With my heart beating a bit too rapidly in my chest, I turned up the volume to hear what the anchor had to say.

The joint announcement was made this morning, and it’s been reported that the applications will be made available by the end of the month.This is certainly big news, and while there are many stipulations upon which you can apply for the citizenship lottery, I suspect that there will still be a lot of applicants with this amazing and unprecedented news.

Again, here is the joint announcement from our leaders about the new citizenship lottery, and we will do our best to keep you updated as we receive more details from Benicio Cortez’s office.