Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy) - By Juliana Haygert Page 0,12

ID was my mom’s, not from Langone, but an important call anyway. I picked it up.

“Mom, just a second,” I said, then covered the speaker with my hand and spoke to the girls. “It’s my mother. You guys go. I’ll catch up in a few.”

“And how are you getting to the club?” Olivia asked.

“I’ll call another cab.”

“No way,” Raisa said. “This is another excuse. I won’t let you escape this easily.”

“I’m not escaping,” I assured her. “I haven’t talked with my mother for over a week. It’ll take only a few minutes.”

“Then we’ll wait.” She stomped her foot on the carpeted floor.

“No, no.” I shook my head. “You guys should go and get us a nice table.”

“Nad, please.”

“Come on, Raisa.” Olivia pulled my roommate by her wrist. “You know we won’t be able to change her mind.”

Raisa sighed. “I know.” She glanced at me. “Find us when you get there.”

“I will.” I winked and blew a kiss, then gave my attention to my mother.

I was the oldest of four children—two girls and two boys—but we were supposed to be five. And that was why my mother called tonight.

“Ten years today,” she said.

“I know,” I whispered. How could I forget the main reason why I was letting go of my singing dream?

I had been the oops baby. My parents had just started going out when my mother got pregnant, but they’d decided to give marriage and parenting a try. To live with my father, my mother left her teaching job and moved to the farm where my father was an employee. Life on the farm wasn’t easy, especially since the agricultural crisis was getting worse. Our shack was small, simple, and cold, and huddled together with the other employees’’ houses—like old tenement houses we used to see pictures of in history books.

Being an only child, my mother dreamed of a huge family—though, in my opinion, poor families shouldn’t have more than one child. How are parents supposed to care and provide everything for their children?

I was eight when my mother got pregnant again. Once, I went to the doctor with her. A rare visit, as we had so little money. The doctor told my mom she wasn’t eating well, and the baby would be born underweight. What did he want us to do? The farm wasn’t doing well, and my father struggled to keep our plates full.

Troy was born weighing only three pounds. Soon after his birth, he began losing too much weight. Since she was malnourished, my mother’s milk wasn’t nutritious enough, the doctor said. We couldn’t afford baby formula. He died before he was six months old.

“I went to his grave this morning,” my mother said, yanking my thoughts from the past.

I wiped the tears away, thanking Raisa for her waterproof makeup.

“Yeah, Mom, that’s good.” I cleared my throat. The pain ate at me the way it did when he’d first died. She quickly changed the subject and filled me in on what my three siblings were up to. I listened, halfhearted, still remembering Ceris’s message from my vision, wondering if my vision world could be linked to the real world. At a pause in the conversation, I finally said, “Do you need anything? Want me to send more money?”

“Oh no, we’re getting by just fine. I still have a little from what you sent last time.” I heard a sharp breath intake. “I’m sorry you have to worry about us so much.”

“It’s okay.” I shifted on my seat. I didn’t like talking to her about this. Not so openly. “Listen. Raisa is waiting for me. Call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.” She sounded disappointed. God, I hated making her sad.

We said goodbye and hung up. Twenty minutes after the start of our conversation, I was calling the cab company.

“One hour to get a taxi?” I asked the dispatcher, outraged.

“Or more, lady,” she said.

Huffing, I disconnected the call and twisted my hair with my finger, wondering what to do. I could stand at the sidewalk and try to holler down a taxi, hoping it was a proper one—there were several reports of people being kidnapped and abused by false taxi drivers. I could wait that hour—or more—for the company to send a cab. Or, I could run the six blocks to the club with my pepper spray in hand. A crazy idea that could get me in trouble.

But I had to know. I had to find out what Ceris wanted with me. She had been in my visions, and suddenly she