Free Antonia's Choice by Nancy Rue Page A

the kitchen. “I mean, as close as Bobbi ever lets anybody get to her kids. Has Stephanie talked to her?”
    â€œYes.”
    Silence again.
    â€œAnd?” I said.
    â€œWyndham refuses to change her story, and you know your sister. Stephanie won’t push her like I’ve done.”
    But I am
so
not responsible for her!
I thought.
I
have more than I can handle right here with my own kid!
    I stopped pacing and, with the phone tucked in my neck, wrapped both hands around my coffee mug until they went white. Since when did I start using the phrase “more than I can handle”? That had never been in my vocabulary before.
    â€œI suppose I’ll just have to call CPS,” Mama said.
    â€œNo. Make a plane reservation and let me know. I’ll pick her up at the airport.”
    There was still another silence, this time a stunned one. Finally, my mother broke into it with a voice softened by tears.
    â€œThank you, honey,” she said. “I didn’t really want to send her off to a foster home. You know I didn’t mean that.”
    I didn’t counter that she
had
meant to manipulate me.

    â€œI really didn’t have a whole lot of choice,” I told Reggie later when she called.
    â€œYes, you did. You could’ve let the state take her.”
    â€œThere’s no way I was going to do that! When you think about it, hasn’t the poor kid been through enough? She’s the one who blew the whistle on Sid, so she must have seen that stuff herself. She probably even saw her own little sister’s picture. That would be enough to wig anybody out, much less a fifteen-year-old girl.”
    Reggie paused. “So it was just the younger girl who had her picture made by this idiot?”
    â€œYeah.”
    She let her thought rest in the air, where I could see it.
    â€œReg—you don’t think he took pictures of Wyndham, too?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBut they didn’t find any of her—at least, nobody’s said anything.”
    â€œJust a thought. Honey, I don’t mean to upset you more—”
    â€œAt the very least, Wyndham had to know about him photographing Techla. I mean, the child was never out of her sight. She was practically the surrogate mother.”
    â€œSo maybe Wyndham’s just mad at her mama because she
should
have known. Maybe that’s why she’s saying Bobbi was part of it, to get back at her for letting that animal get to his daughters.”
    â€œDo kids do that?” I said.
    â€œWell…” Reggie’s pause was uneasy.
    â€œGo ahead,” I said. “Look, I need all the information I can get right now. I’m probably going to have this child in my home tomorrow, and I haven’t got a clue what to say to her.”
    â€œWell now, honey,” she said slowly, “you know I’m not a mother myself, but I helped raise my mama’s five, and I know how they can be.”
    â€œYou’re holding back on me. What are you trying to say?”
    â€œI just wonder if Ben isn’t acting up the way he is to get back at you for taking him away from his…home.”
    â€œYou were going to say ‘his daddy,’ weren’t you?”
    â€œIt’s all the same, honey. Everything he knew got turned upside down and inside out, and I think he’s fit to be tied at the both of you.
    â€œHe did act pretty much the same way with Chris when he was here as he does with me.”
    â€œCan you see what I’m sayin’?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd you can see it without wantin’ to slap me silly?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI want to be able to be honest with you, sugar, without messin up our friendship.”
    â€œI want honesty,” I said. “I don’t care what it is. If you see something that I don’t, I want to know about it.”
    I had a visual of Reggie resting back in her desk chair, deflating like a tire. “I thought