YS

other loan when you're still owing the manage

natched the crumpled letter from her desk and threw it a

o pick it up, wi

floor. "Please. My child... he needs surgery. He's very sick. H

a mocking laugh. "Then you bett

re I could stop them. "You can deduct it from my salary again. I'l

dust off her blazer, "I don't know what you did for the last HR to have loaned you so much, but it ends her

ds hit

, wiping my face with trembling h

pped her manicured nails against the desk "...we'll start by taking

a'am, I... I can't survive on tha

e it out! Maybe stop having childr

Crystal. Look at you. Crying again. Every month, it's the same story - your sick son, your

loor, ashamed to

voice almost gone. "Kay's all I have. H

reality. Go find a charity. Or better yet, give the boy

m went

s kept replayi

inside me break

one it before. That I had al

. She was like a mother to me. She said a very wealth

orns. I imagined what life would have been like for both

a. I had to save at least

s a wealthy woman looking to adopt him, I felt it was

still haunted

lanet, he would be celebrating his

eday, I'll be able to get him t

*

DE

e physically available, just for this on

already drifting to the small figure runni

been doing for the past five years, scooping him into my arms, "All my

slightly to meet his eyes. "And I b

n I get a new toy for a birthday present? I gave all my old ones to the po

beside me, plea

cheek. "You did? That's

he new race car?"

again. But it didn't reach

omposed. She was the kind everyone said I was lucky to h

means to an end for me, to

ed it would end up

who truly mattered to me, but she'd been nowhere to be found. There was n

ted her

she have to lea

ause she couldn't handle the shame. But I was desperate to hear from her. I want

three months, and sh

. It

e, after years of searching with nothing to

e. She knew where to f

ed more than

ng anything," Jeremy's

Yes, honey," I said quietly. "We'll get more to

ned. "R

miling because that

en though I didn't love his mother, I also wanted to he around to

our baby. I didn't really care, though. If it were a wo

gate, watching me with that look that said 'we

he guests. I could already hear her lau

uietly when I reached

thing," I said to him wh

efore handing me a brown envelope.

words, I swear to fuck, t

s, suddenly, sh