Abby

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

"Did you see those robberies that have been in the news?" Jason asked Jennie as they sat down for breakfast. Both kids were still sleeping.

"Yeah. I saw something on Facebook so I found an article online. I admit, I'd be dumb enough to fall for a trick like that. Some young innocent looking girl begging for help. I wouldn't think twice about stepping outside my home and leaving it unlocked." Jennie replied.

"Well, hopefully the next time it happens they have a security camera or something. Catch this person's face and share it everywhere until someone turns her in."

...

"Dad!" Aaron called out, panic filling his voice. He'd been at a friend's house and sped home as fast as he could to see his parents. He knew his mom would find out, but he didn't know if she could handle it. He didn't want to be the first to tell her. "Dad!" He called out louder and more urgently as he ran through the house. Aaron heard the lawnmower start up. He ran out back. Jason didn't see him at first, but as Aaron ran up to him, the commotion caught the corner of his eye. He cut the lawnmower, nervous over the panicked look in his son's face.

"What's going on?!" Jason asked. Aaron didn't know how to say it. So, he held up his phone. Jason took it from him. He saw the picture. A sketch of a girl, it could have been Abby, the features remarkably similar. "What is this?" Jason asked. And then he read above and below the picture, putting it in to context. It was put out by the police department's official Facebook page. It asked anyone who thought they might know the girl in the picture to come forward.

"Please say you don't think it's her." Aaron wailed. Jason did no such thing. He handed Aaron back his phone. He stared off in the distance for a few moments.

"Please don't show your mother." He ordered quietly, and then he started the lawnmower again.

...

"Can I borrow your car?" Abby asked hesitantly. She expected a fat ass no.

"Why?" Aaron asked, looking up from his homework.

"So...- and let me finish before you say yes or no- So Jace was in a fight. Or rather he was jumped by a few guys... he's in the hospital, and I think I should go see him. I want to go see him." Aaron sighed and dropped his head in his hands. He rubbed them across his head a few times, hoping this was a nightmare. He looked up at Abby.

"You want to borrow my car to go see your druggie boyfriend who probably got exactly what he deserved?" Aaron was actually mind blown. She had some fucking nerve. She wrung her hands together, tears threatening to spill. "Do not cry for him in front of me." Aaron said. She knew she shouldn't have asked. But she had to. The guilt was eating her alive. She walked out of his room, and outside to the back porch where she let the tears flow. Tears for Jace and for herself. Tears for her family, and the friends who no longer considered themselves such.

...

Jennie's world stopped. She looked at the sketch the police department had released. She saw her daughter staring back at her. She knew it, she was pretty sure the world knew it. She was in the middle of her shift at work, having hopped on social media during her lunch break. She ran to the bathroom knowing this was it. She knelt in front of the toilet and heaved for almost twenty minutes. Her daughter was a criminal. She had been for a while, with the drugs. That was an addiction, an illness. But now she was a criminal to the very core. She robbed people of their hard-earned money, and their sometimes-priceless possessions. Her daughter belonged in jail. And she couldn't save her. She wondered if Jason or Aaron had seen this yet. Jason had put his mother on guard, warning her to keep her doors locked, and not to answer them for anyone she didn't know. But had he seen this sketch? She couldn't bear to read the comments that were flowing in by the second. If someone recognized her daughter, she wouldn't be able to handle seeing her name in print.