The Perfect Child(90)

“Have you tried distracting her?” I asked. Janie wasn’t making any of this easier on anybody. Every time I talked to her, I told her she needed to behave better, but she never listened.

“Of course I’ve tried distracting her. We’ve tried everything. Nothing works.” She sighed. “I don’t know how much longer we can keep doing this. She’s still stealing food. That hasn’t stopped. And today? She smeared feces on the bathroom wall.” I could hear the disgust in her voice. “I don’t know how you deal with her.”

“It’s not easy. You might have to lock up the refrigerator. I can send you the link for the locks we used.”

“I refuse to lock up the refrigerator like we’re in some weird prison. I’m sorry, I know you guys do, but I just don’t feel right about it. It’s not fair to my boys either. None of this is.”

Janie usually loved her cousins, but she’d started being mean to them. She snuck into their rooms and broke their favorite toys. She took their homework out of their backpacks and scribbled all over it. The other day, she’d locked Dylan in his closet.

“This has all been very hard on her,” I said. “She’s trying to work things out. Remember how Dr. Chandler said she’s probably going to act out for a while? That it’s really common for kids to do in these types of situations?”

“It’s more than that, though. She scares me, Chris. She really does. I’m afraid she’s going to do something awful to my boys. I’m probably just being paranoid, but sometimes when she looks at me, it’s like she’s plotting something. Just waiting to get her chance. I don’t want to keep pushing this, but how long until the kids can come back to you?”

“Believe me, I want them home as much as you do. I can talk to Piper again and see if she can move things any faster. Hopefully, we’ll know something for sure within the next week or so. I—”

She stopped me. “Another week? Oh my gosh, I can’t take another week of this. Greg goes back to work on Friday, and they have to be gone by then. This was never supposed to be this long. It was only supposed to be a few days. I can’t do this by myself.”

“But there’s no way they’ll let them come back home in two days. I can call later tonight after she’s calmed down and talk to her again about having good behavior.”

Allison snorted. “Christopher, how many times have you talked to her? It never does any good.”

“I’ll bribe her. I can promise to bring that new outfit she wants for her doll if she’s good.”

“That never works either.”

I was running out of options. “Please, Allison, I know this is hard, but it’s only temporary. Just a little bit longer, and you’ll get your life back.”

“I’m sorry, Christopher. I can’t do this.”

“What are you saying?” The seriousness of the situation suddenly became clear.

“She drove Hannah over the edge. I know my sister, and that girl is what drove her crazy, and I’m not going to have the same thing happen to me. I was horrified when I found out what Hannah did. I couldn’t even imagine it. But you know what? Now I can. I’ve only had Janie in my house for a short time, and I’m already starting to not feel like myself. She makes me nervous and on edge all the time. Don’t you feel it? She doesn’t make your skin crawl just being around her?”

Waves of fury passed through me. Janie was family. Nobody seemed to get that besides me. Just because Janie wasn’t the same as her perfect little boys didn’t mean we could throw her away. She couldn’t help what she’d been through.

I did my best to sound calm and avoid pushing her any further away. “There’s no place else for them to go. They’ll put them in foster care if they can’t stay with you.”

“I have to protect my family,” she said.

“But she’s your family.”

“No, Christopher. She’s not. I didn’t adopt her—you did.”



“She’s serious, Piper. She wants them gone by Friday. What am I supposed to do?” I’d called Piper as soon as I had hung up with Allison. She already knew there was no place else for them to go. Dr. Chandler was working as hard as she could to get Janie into a program, but there wasn’t much she could do on such short notice, and I was unwilling to send her anywhere that wasn’t top of the line. “I could probably talk her into taking Cole, but that doesn’t solve anything for Janie. And besides, how traumatic would that be for her?” I lined my voice with sarcasm. “‘I’m sorry, Janie, but you can’t stay at your aunt Allison’s house, but your brother can.’ Do you really think she’d get over that?”

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but there’s no way I can push anything through by Friday. The system doesn’t work that way,” Piper said.

“But you have to do something. What’s going to happen if Allison refuses to keep the kids?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

“We have to place them in foster care until the hearing.”

“They can’t go into foster care. Cole’s just a baby. And Janie? Imagine what that will do to her. We have to do something. Piper, please.”

“Is there any way you can talk her into one more week?”