Ever After by Annie Jocoby Read Free Book Online Page A

mom. She hadn’t really gotten to what had happened to her with Mr. Lucas yet, at least not in any kind of depth. It turned out that she really had a lot of pent up feelings regarding her mother, so that was what the focus was for her therapy at that moment.
    But, looking at her, smiling so big and laughing with her mother on Skype, there wasn’t even a hint of the hostility that Scotty told me she was feeling for her mom. I was amazed, as I wondered if she was that good of an actress or if Scotty was feeling better about her relationship with Loretta.
    “Well, I think that our time’s almost up,” Scotty said, looking at the clock. “I love you, mom. I’ll talk to you next week.”
    “Next week,” Loretta said. “I’m gonna look even better when you see me next, Scotty. And feeling better, too.”
    Scotty kissed her fingers and put them on the screen, as the visage of Loretta faded from view.
    I pondered Scotty, my head in my hand. She was such an enigma. She continued to stare at the screen, that was now blank, a huge smile on her face. She turned to me with tears in her eyes.
    “She looks amazing, Nick. And she seems so, I don’t know…coherent. I really don’t want to get my hopes up, because she has dashed them so many times before, but I feel so hopeful, really. Hopeful that she might actually be able to get over her addiction, once and for all. Do you think it’s possible? I mean, she’s been a heavy drinker since she was 12 years old. Is it possible?” Scotty’s eyes looked bright, and her face was lit up. I smiled at her, thinking that the odds were against Loretta, but not wanting to tell Scotty that. I wanted her to have a positive mind-set about it. Yet, I felt bad for blowing smoke up her ass.
    “I think so, Scotty. She has a very comprehensive plan out there that focuses on overall wellness, not just her disease. That’s what she needs to kick it. Staying that way is going to be challenging, but I’m enrolling her in some top-notch programs out here, so she really has a good chance of making it.”
    I thought again about Ryan. His addiction was horrible. And, it was a much harder drug than alcohol. Heroin was known to be one of the addictive drugs in the world, and he was a heavy user for many years. He risked his life, time and again, for the junk. He alienated his friends. I barely was able to stick by him through much of it. I almost gave up on him time and again. Yet, he managed to come through it, finally.
    So, maybe there was some hope for Loretta after all.
    ∞
    What wasn’t going well, however, was the issue with the arrest of Paul Lucas. It had been two weeks since Scotty saw the police, and gave her story. The arrest was supposed to happen within a matter of days. Yet, there didn’t seem to be any progress at all.
    I called them every day, as did Scotty. Every time I called, Angie either wasn’t there, or she answered the phone to tell me that it was still in the works, but they were waiting for more evidence.
    Whatever that meant.
    “More evidence?” I said, incredulous. “How much more evidence do you need? You saw the pictures, and you collected the rape kit samples. You heard Scotty’s story. I don’t understand at all what the delay is. You do know that every day that he’s out there is another day that a predator is loose on the streets.” I could feel my blood pressure rising as I talked to Angie. She had seemed so much like she was on our side when we talked to her at the station. Like she was going to be getting out there yesterday to serve him with an arrest warrant and take him into custody. Yet, here she was on the phone giving me the song and dance about how the arrest would happen any moment.
    I wanted his ass in jail. Yesterday.
    “Well, Nick, it’s complicated,” she said.
    Complicated. Complicated. That seemed to be a code word for something that she wasn’t wanting to tell me.
    So, I hung up the phone, steaming, and called Ryan.
    He answered on the