Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(11)

But now there was no cash.

No job.

No nothing.

She didn’t even have her phone thanks to that bastard from last night.

She only slowed down when she turned the corner and ran down the steps to the subway.

She had twenty bucks on her from the night before and that was all. She spent five on a subway ticket and got on the first train that showed up.

Sitting on the grimy subway car, she looked around and the full weight of her situation finally hit her.

She had nowhere to sleep tonight.

Her eyes fell on a dirty, obviously homeless man sleeping in the corner of the train.

Well that was one option.

Her head dropped backwards against the window behind her and she closed her eyes. Gods, was she seriously contemplating sleeping on the subway car like the homeless bum? Was that how far she’d fallen?

Why are you being so sanctimonious? You are homeless.

She scrubbed her hand down her face.

She thought she was so brave, escaping the farm. She’d done it on the spur of the moment. She’d seen a chance and taken it. Cora was a terrible liar and no one could read her better than her controlling mother.

Controlling. Ha. Her mother was pathological.

Demi Vestian watched every single thing her daughter did. She monitored how much food Cora ate, how much she slept, if she’d done all her chores, if she did her schooling and did it perfectly. Most of the time Cora felt more like a science experiment or a prize show dog than a daughter.

Not that her mother ever showed her off.

No, that was the other singular rule of their lives. They never saw anyone. Ever.

If they had to have a vet out to look at the horses, Cora was locked in the cellar for the duration.

Her mom took the truck into town twice a month for food and supplies but Cora was always left behind. Cora only got to read about other kids in books. She never met any.

Until she was a teenager and got fed up with it.

One time when she was fifteen, she stole the truck and drove down the long road that led away from the farm.

It was stupid and reckless and she only knew the rudiments of how to drive. But the road was flat and straight and it was a bright, sunny afternoon. Within an hour, she’d made it to town.

She pulled the truck to a stop on the side of the road and parked it as soon as she came to a grouping of buildings. She got out and started walking.

She walked from one store to the next, delighted and amazed by everything she saw, but most of all by the people. They seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see them. Who was she? they wanted to know. She didn’t know how to answer their questions. She felt like it would be betraying her mom to say she lived down the road. No one was supposed to know she existed. She never knew why, but she knew that much.

But someone recognized her. The owner of the general store, a man so old his skin was papery with wrinkles and folds.

“You related to Demi? You’re the spittin’ image. The spittin’ image, as I live and breathe. You a cousin come to visit? Or her niece?”

Cora nodded, not daring to speak. She backed out of the general store. Right into a group of teenagers.

One of the boys said she was pretty and he invited her to a party they were all going to. A party! Like she’d read about in her Sweet Valley High books.

She got in the back of a truck with the two boys and three girls and they drove out to an empty field. Cora couldn’t stop smiling and laughing even though she started feeling self-conscious after one of the other girls whispered loudly about her, making fun of her worn overalls with the patches on the knees.

But not even that was enough to dampen Cora’s mood. She helped the guys build up the bonfire and she felt a warm glow that had nothing to do with the fire when the boy who’d first called her pretty touched her hair and said it was the color of moonlight.

Cora had never heard anything so pretty or poetic and when the boy invited her to sit on the hay bale beside him, she giggled but accepted.

They’d started breaking out the beer, which Cora politely declined, when suddenly the field was lit up by headlights and the blaring noise of sirens.

“Shit, cops!” the boy sitting beside Cora shouted.

Cora had jumped up and covered her ears, confused.

The boy who’d called her pretty ran away, along with all his friends, disappearing into the nearby cornfield. They all left her standing there alone as two police cars surrounded her.

Almost the second they came to a stop, Demi was jumping out of the first police car and running towards Cora.

Cora was both relieved and horrified to see her mother. She felt like crying, especially when her mother yanked her by her arm back toward the police car without a word.

She didn’t say a single word to her as the police drove them back to her mom’s truck where she’d abandoned it outside town.

And her mom didn’t say a word after she’d hauled Cora into the passenger seat of the truck and slammed the side door shut after she was in. Or for the entire forty-five-minute drive back to the farm.

As soon as the farm came back into sight, Cora finally ventured, “Mom, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see how—”

“Do you know what could have happened to you?” her mom yelled, slamming her foot on the breaks and jamming the truck into park. “How could you be so selfish?”

Cora hunched down in her seat.