PTE

ER SHE

..

e to work. She started righ

uined her mood, but money mattered mo

everything she did, paying her more

could feed her and her broth

n pay for his medical bi

e drained her more than the first, b

her second boss snapped, snatching them from her han

eyed her u

laints continued through the week, but a

melia felt a car following her. Sh

ng back again and again,

ed into

p, but he caught her h

familiar scent and hugged him t

relief, Ray

you o

ppened. I just felt a

nd her, but th

ve imagined

eed, though her heart

g," he said, kissing her forehead the

lfriend had left him weeks ago. When

a," he told her. "They come and go, but she has always bee

ad been her shadow, paying for Elias's checkups more times than s

n in a parked car took pictures of them

os arrived on his phone. He slammed his ha

r," he said, standi

Alfie never ended a meeting before the

the whole ride down, Raymond

the moment he walked in. He asked question after question, a

y to the school. The headmistress was thri

but she wasn't home. The neigh

peace he thought he'd buried had come crashing back.

elf, "she won't have any either. She mad

reated. The doctor explained everything, the il

a small, sa

d told him to send Amelia the job

age and dismissed i

nt later. She glanced at the

eline calling f