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He jangled a set of keys to open the cell door, and I squeezed past him.
The fluorescent light in the corridor magnified the pounding of my headache, so I covered my eyes with my hand until I reached the phone.
I called the only person I knew would understand.
“Laura, is that you? Where the hell are you calling from?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Sam. I’m calling from the county correctional facility.”
“You’re in jail!”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Oh, my god. I never thought I’d get this phone call from you. Me, sure, but not you.”
“I never wanted to make this kind of call again, but here I am.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story. It has to do with my father and somehow I got mixed up in it again.”
“Oh, shit, Laura. I’m sorry.”
I swallowed, but my throat tightened. How could I be right back to where I was when I was only fifteen years old?
“Look, I’m not asking you to bail me out. I know you don’t have the funds for that. I just needed to hear your voice and let you know that I’m okay. Can you tell Jim I won’t be at work for a while?”
“Man, he’s gonna be pissed. First me, and now you. He may fire us both after this.”
I groaned.
“I’m sorry, Laura. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay. You’re probably right.”
Then I realized I had my final exams in two weeks. There was no way I would be out of here by then, not unless some miracle happened. And I was all out of those.
“I’m sure your father will bail you out, Laura.”
“He won’t. He was pretty mad at me back at the house and he’s going to say this is a lesson for me.”
“What about Ryan? I can call him—”
“No.” I turned toward the wall and shut my eyes. “Don’t call him. I don’t want him to see me in here. I’m already embarrassed to be back. I don’t want him to know. Not like this.”
I rubbed my forehead. My migraine was getting worse. “I’ve got to go, Sam. I’ll plead my own case to the judge. I don’t trust any lawyers the city provides. I haven’t been in trouble in a long time. That has to account for something, right?”
“Right,” Sam said, but her voice wasn’t as convincing as I’d hoped.
“Bye, Sam.”
“Bye, Laura.”
Hanging up the phone, I dropped my forehead to the wall. Tears that I’d held back for years finally fell, soaking my cheeks and splattering my neck.
I should have never gotten involved. I should have let my father deal with his own mess. I should have walked away. Why don’t I ever learn that I can’t fix his life for him? I only fuck up my own in the process.
But when I sat inside the cell and really thought about my actions, I knew the whole reason I went inside that mansion wasn’t just for my father. I’d gone in for Ryan, too. His brother didn’t deserve to have his baseball stolen. He didn’t deserve to be tainted by us. Because inevitably, we Stevens messed everything up.
