Miss Adventure by Geralyn Corcillo Read Free Book Online

together. It’s hard to process that anyone could put up with Mags for that long. But then again, if what I suspect about the money is true, and it’s not just my parents, but Mags too…
    I don’t want Maggot-Face to have any of my Burger Barn money! She doesn’t even like me!!! I decide to count to ten. But I feel stupid by six, so I say, “You’re spending her birthday here, in Norwalk?”
    Note: If I had a guy who looked like Jude Law, I wouldn’t be spending my birthday down the hall from my parents.
    “They leave for Paris on Sunday,” my mother chimes in.
    Of course they do. Regardless, I head back to L.A. tonight, so I have to get my answers today. Mags will complicate things with distracting static, but I’ve been putting up with that my entire life. I’ll cope. The material point is that Mags isn’t here now, so I have to strike.
    “Mom,” I say, “what happened to Burger Barn’s ten million dollar settlement?”
    Rick freezes like a possum, but Mom hones in on me like a rattlesnake. “Lisa, you don’t deserve all that money.”
    “Mom,” I say, “there are lots of things I don’t deserve, present company being no exception. I just want to know what happened to it.”
    “And as soon as you find out, you’ll throw a big tantrum and go ranting all over Connecticut until you get what you want.”
    Just then Dad comes in and sees me. His eyebrows shoot up. “Lisa?”
    “Dad, where’s all the money? The other four million from Burger Barn?”
    Dad darts my mother a look. “That’s none of your business,” he tells me.
    “None of my business?”
    The back door flies open and smacks hard against the fridge. “Aaah!” Mags stands there, theatrically backlit by the morning light. “What are you doing here?” She marches toward me, sneering like a Scooby-Doo villain. “You’re trying to ruin my party. You want everyone to talk about you all night instead of me. Well, think again!” She moves to Rick’s side and hooks her arm into his. “You’re not invited!”
    “Lisa,” Mom scolds, “that is so childish.”
    I roll my eyes. “Thanks, Mom. But I don’t care about her party. I’m here to find out what happened to all the money from Burger Barn.”
    Maggot-Face tosses her hair. “Oh, and I guess you think you should have it?”
    “Maggie,” my mother interjects, “we aren’t talking to her about this without a lawyer.”
    I stiffen. “A lawyer?”
    Mags snorts. “It’s no big deal, Mom. She can’t do anything to us. She signed all the papers.”
    My inner ears pulse and the floor seems to tilt. I grab onto the edge of the granite counter. “I just came out of a thirteen-week coma and all you cared about was the money.” I try to catch my breath. “You made sure I was miserable and humiliated and then you pounced.”
    My father throws up his hands. “You said you trusted us and you signed. What the hell, Lisa! Six million dollars isn’t good enough? You don’t do anything with your life, anyway.”
    I blink at him, trying to get my eyes to stop rattling in their sockets.
    “At least I’m starting a fashion business,” Mags brags. “You’re almost forty and you don’t even have kids like Billy.”
    So Billy got a cut, too.
    Billy, the guy who didn’t even show up to my graduation. High school or college. “Billy didn’t have Megan until he was thirty-five,” I point out. “And I’m only thirty-four.”
    “But he was going out with Amy for years already by the time they got married,” she hoots triumphantly. “You’re not even close to getting married. Your fiancé dumped you the second you woke up. Now you’ll never have time to meet some loser, convince him to marry you, and have kids in the next few months.”
    “I didn’t realize having kids was a race.” I turn to include my parents in my line of sight. “ Or criteria for not getting bamboozled by your family.”
    “Take us to court for the rest of the money if you want.” My father shrugs.