“So just to wrap this up, you talked to someone at the police station, and you were then released to your father, correct?” Mr. Alves leaned back in his chair, appearing satisfied with my answers.
“Yep.” When we pulled in, Mr. Zanotti was already there, wearing his ever-present dark suit, perfectly coordinated pressed shirt, and shiny tie, with cell phone in hand, shouting almost as loud as the security guard had. As soon as I stepped out of the cruiser, my dad’s sedan parked next to us.
Once we’d answered their questions, the police finally let Ashlyn and me leave. When I slid into the front seat of Dad’s car, I spied Ashlyn in her father’s black SUV, the car he carted his clients around in, clearly getting an earful from Daddy. Her eyes were pointed at the floor, as they had been for most of the evening, and I thought I saw a tear falling down her pale cheek. For half a second, I felt bad for her . . . and then I remembered how we’d gotten here.
The ride home was just as uncomfortable for me as I’m sure it was for Ash. I gave up trying to defend myself when my dad started using words like “disappointed,” “unsafe,” and “poor judgment.” Hearing how I wasn’t living up to my potential stung. When he said it made him sad that I hadn’t come to him when I first realized my friend was dating someone I didn’t trust, my heart broke a little. I couldn’t find the voice to say I thought I could handle the situation by myself.
In the past when I screwed up, my dad had given me the proverbial eyebrow raise and let Belén deal with my consequences. She had very specific thoughts on right and wrong. And if I felt she’d been too harsh, he’d always found a way to smooth it over quietly—when she wasn’t looking, of course. Which meant his speech hurt that much more, because I knew he felt I’d let him down. It felt like we’d crossed some kind of barrier I didn’t even know existed.
At the house, Belén stood in the kitchen, hands on her hips, mouth turned down in an angry frown. Tilly was at the kitchen table, AP Calculus book open, punching the buttons on her graphing calculator. She didn’t even bother to lift her head when we came through the door.
“Well?” Belén’s tone was sharper than her favorite steak knives. Tilly finally looked up at me with feigned interest. Actually, she was probably very interested, but she’d never let on.
“Well nothing,” I replied, immediately going into evasive mode, my best defense against the stepmonster. I poked my head into the refrigerator and pulled out a ginger ale.
Dad cleared his throat. “We have a meeting with Tom Alves scheduled. It seems the girls may be charged with grand larceny.”
Tilly’s eyes got so big, I thought they might fall out of her head.
Belén’s finger tapped her hips like she was itching to wave it at me, and her face was a blotchy patchwork of pink and red. I’d never seen her this mad. “May be?”
“Well, Tom’s going to dig around and see if he can find anything to use as leverage. We’ll discuss it with him after he speaks with the commonwealth attorney.”
I opened the soda can with a loud popping noise, and tiny droplets of ginger ale splattered my nose. I wiped them away and backed myself up against the counter, cold marble pressing into my back.
Belén let out an annoyed sigh. “How can you be so casual about this, Tatum? Do you know what you’ve done? The danger you put yourself in?” She could be a little dramatic sometimes. It was probably all her time spent in litigation. And on the parenting blog.
I took a slow sip of my soda, swallowed, and eyeballed her. “Yes, I know exactly what I’ve done. And that would be a big fat nothing wrong. The only thing I’m guilty of is trying to protect my friend from her sketchy boyfriend, and failing. No, I didn’t know he was going to steal that stuff. No, I didn’t help him. My plan was to go to Mason’s, buy some pencils, maybe help Ashlyn pick out some nail polish, and come home. Contrary to popular belief, a field trip to visit our city’s finest was not on my agenda today. So can everyone please calm down?”
Belén’s jaw clenched shut and her eye started twitching. I wondered if steam might start coming out her ears next. Tilly had turned her face back to the math book, but I knew she was listening and probably filing this conversation away for later. My dad remained quiet, a sign of danger. My father is a pretty thoughtful man. He ponders his words before he speaks, and the majority of time he’s able to come up with a solution, if needed, and to say it calmly. But when he stayed in his head too long, I knew it was because he didn’t know what to say, or was afraid to say what he was thinking. That conveniently made it easier for him to defer to Belén, who was always happy, thrilled even, to speak up.
He finally shook his head and, barely above a whisper, said to me, “Tatum, please go to your room for the rest of the night.” I opened my mouth, like a bass about to bite, and then shut it. There was no use arguing against that point. I’d wait until everyone had calmed down and then plead my case again. I climbed the stairs and didn’t look back.
“And here you are with me. Thank you for being candid, Tatum.” Mr. Alves continued reading me the terms of our agreement with the CA. “You’re being asked to pay a fine of five hundred dollars by September first.”
“Which you will be paying out of your pocket,” Dad said. I groaned. Goodbye tablet.
“The CA is also requiring one hundred hours of community service. You can choose the location as long as there’s a supervisor who can sign off on the paperwork. Same completion date as the fine.”
Somehow, I knew that was coming. “And Chase and Ashlyn? Am I allowed to know about them?”
“Mr. Massey’s fate will be decided at his trial. I feel confident saying he’s likely going to jail.”
I sucked in a breath. “Ash?” I whispered.
He looked at his papers. “It appears all charges against Miss Zanotti are being dropped. Perhaps she provided some additional information about Mr. Massey.”
I was glad Ash wasn’t facing jail time like Chase. I was decidedly not glad that she was getting off scot-free. I kept that precious thought to myself.
My lawyer stood, marking the end of our meeting. “Ken, Belén, always a pleasure. I’m sorry this meeting wasn’t under better circumstances, but I think for the most part, this issue ends here.”
I was so glad he thought so.
Chapter 2