Surge - Maya Nicole Page 0,48

in.

I got off my bike and followed her inside. She was already seated with her back to me, a middle-aged man across from her.

I slid into the seat behind her and hoped she wouldn’t notice me.

Chapter Sixteen

Riley

I was fuming as I left school on Tuesday. I hadn't even looked in the bag with my clothes in it, but I should have known they'd do something with my underwear. Everyone knew they were mine too thanks to social media.

Social media was fun until you were the subject of the entertainment.

I drove a little faster than I should have to the coffee place where I was meeting Mr. Nguyen, the trustee for whatever fund my mom had set up for me. He had wanted me to meet him at his office, but I wasn't going to a strange man's office.

Yet, I'd sneak into some strange boys' house. I was on the hot mess express and I needed to get off before I crashed.

I spotted the man easily. He was the only one dressed in a suit with a briefcase sitting on the table in front of him. I'd picked this location because it had high-backed booths that allowed for some privacy.

"Mr. Nguyen? I'm Riley." We shook hands and I slid into the seat across from him.

"Ms. Kline. Any word from your mother?" When I shook my head, his eyebrows pinched together and he removed his glasses. "She thought this might eventually happen."

I thought I'd be more upset or frantic that my mom was now overdue on her arrival time, but sometime over the past several days, a numbness had washed over me. It was like my brain couldn’t process the fact that she might be in trouble.

"After I'm done here, I'm going to the police station to file a missing person's report. They said I had to wait twenty-four hours after she was supposed to return." I folded my hands on the table. “Is CPS going to put me in a foster home?”

"You’re almost eighteen. Unless you are a danger to yourself or your living situation is a danger, you’ll age out before they can even get anything in place.” He pulled some papers out of a briefcase. “I'm sorry you’re going through this. As soon as your mom had you, she began preparing in case this happened."

"Why would she need to prepare?" Everything was a big fat question mark, and I hated that I had no clue what was going on.

The man was silent for a few moments. "I am under strict guidelines to only give you certain information for your own protection. Not that I know much anyway. Now, do you have all of the unpaid and overdue notices?"

I handed over the papers I had brought with me. There had been an entire folder of unpaid bills in her files. She had stopped paying in June. "How long until they release some of the money?"

"I have some pull with the judge. A week tops. I don't foresee any difficulties in getting this taken care of. Your mom put it in a trust because she was scared a regular account would be too vulnerable." He slid an envelope across the table to me. I opened it and peeked inside, seeing a small stack of hundred-dollar bills. “In the meantime, here is some money to cover your everyday expenses. Take care of the essentials first. Gas, electric, water, cell phone. Those will be the first things that get disconnected due to nonpayment.”

I had no clue about what went into cost of living every month, but I needed to learn quickly. “You can't tell me where you think my mom might be?" He had to have some clue where she might be if he wasn’t shocked when I called him.

"Did she take the knife?" He folded his hands on top of his briefcase and looked around the coffee shop.

"No."

"Don't let anyone know about it." He lowered his voice. "It's been in your family for a long time and is one of a kind. If she left it for you, it means she's not safe."

"It's just a fancy knife. I don't understand how her leaving it-"

"That is what she told me to tell you." He sighed. "None of it made sense to me either, but she said it was better if I didn't know."

"Am I safe?"

"You told me you were being bullied?"

"Yes. They seem to have the administration and campus security on their side. The school counselor I was talking to mysteriously went on