Chapter 4

Scarlett looked around our bare little classroom, disgust plain on her face.

From her designer bag she pulled a thick envelope and a printed document, and tossed both onto my desk.

"There's ten thousand dollars here. Sign this agreement, and you stop hanging on to Lloyd."

She lifted her chin, her tone the kind you'd use to toss coins to a beggar.

"It's all spelled out. You and Lloyd were only neighbors. You looked after his mother, we paid you for the work, and you were never engaged to him."

"Lloyd is a key candidate for the core project now. He can't have any stain on his conduct."

I looked at that thick stack of hundred-dollar bills, and my stomach turned over.

Ten thousand dollars.

Such a large sum.

I thought of the year I sold the only dowry my mother left me, walking ten miles through the snow to the county market in the dead of winter, just to buy medicine for Mamie.

I'd shaken with cold the whole way, too frugal even to buy myself a new padded coat.

For one promise from Lloyd Delgado, I had stayed in that run-down little town and boiled the best six years of my youth down to nothing but dregs.

And now, in their eyes, those six years were worth ten thousand dollars.

I looked at Lloyd.

He avoided my eyes and said in a low voice, "Janice, just sign it first."

"Scarlett's father runs the laboratory. Once I land this project, I'll finally have solid footing in River City."

"When that happens, I'll make it up to you many times over. I promise."

Every word out of his mouth made me sick.

This man I had loved for six years. Down to his bones, it turned out, he was all selfishness and calculation.

I snatched the agreement out of her hand and, right in front of them, ripped it to shreds.

Then I hurled the torn pieces and the envelope straight into Lloyd's face.

The scraps drifted down like snow, and Lloyd shut his eyes, a little pathetic.

"Lloyd, I looked after your mother because I thought you were a man with a conscience, not so I could sit around waiting for your handout!"

I pointed at the door and shouted, "Take your filthy money and get out!"

Scarlett's face went ugly on the spot.

"Janice Swanson, don't push your luck!" she shrieked. "You think I can't do it? I'll make sure you don't have a single square of ground to stand on in Harbor City!"

They left.

But Scarlett's revenge came fast.

The next day the landlord showed up out of nowhere, saying he was taking the place back, that he'd rather pay the penalty than keep renting to us.

I knew Scarlett had pulled strings behind it.

A downpour opened up overhead, rain the size of beans hammering the flimsy roof with a deafening roar.

A few of the teachers, along with some of the women workers who had stayed on their own to help, carried books out into the storm with me.

The rain soaked our clothes; mud splashed all over us.

Lloyd stood at the mouth of the alley under a black umbrella.

He watched me struggle with a heavy box of textbooks, and started toward me to help.

"Janice, let me carry that."

"Get away from me!"

I shoved him hard, my feet slipped, and the box crashed down out of my arms.

It split open, the books and letters inside scattering across the ground, soaked through in an instant.

One of the letters was the one Mamie had written to me before she died.

The envelope came apart in the muddy water, and on the back a line of brush-written characters showed through.

The strokes were huge, pressed down with force.

"Lloyd, if you ever wrong Janice, don't you ever call me your mother again."

Lloyd read that line, and it hit him like a bolt of lightning; he froze there in the pouring rain.

The umbrella slipped from his hand, and the rain drenched him through in seconds.

"This... this is what Mom wrote?" His voice shook badly.

Scarlett came over then, under her own umbrella, and when she saw it she lunged in a panic to snatch the letter.

"What's so special about a letter from a dead woman? Come on, stop tangling with this crazy woman!"

I shoved Scarlett away.

She lost her footing and went straight down into the mud, her carefully put-together outfit filthy in a heartbeat.

"Ah! You country hick, how dare you push me!" Scarlett screamed, pointing at me. "Hit her! Tear her school apart!"

The few young men who'd come with her rushed forward and started shoving me around.

I grabbed a wooden stick lying nearby and planted myself in front of the box of books.

"Anyone who touches my books, I'll fight you to the death!" I shouted.

Lloyd stared at the chaos in front of him, at my face streaming with rain and mud, at the way I guarded those books like an enraged animal, and something in him finally broke.

He rushed forward and threw his arms around me, holding on hard.

"Janice, I'm sorry, I was wrong, come away with me!"

Scarlett clawed frantically at him from the side.

"Lloyd, have you lost your mind! You'd ruin our family for this woman? Don't forget, your whole future is still in my father's hands!"

I looked at the two of them grappling in front of me, and it struck me as nothing but absurd.

I brought my hand around backward and slapped Lloyd hard across the face.

"Crack!"

The clean sound of it rang out sharp above the storm.