Page 10 of Unstable

“Irina, thank God!”

She closed her eyes. “Hey, Mama. What’s up?”

She heard some shuffling in the background as Mama moved around. “I need your help, baby girl. These idiots arrested me, and they won’t let me out.”

She bit her tongue. That was precisely what happened when someone was charged with possession multiple times. Of course, it never occurred to her mother to follow the rules and not break the law. “Just do what they say, Mama.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” Mama cried on the other end. “I swear!”

Irina didn’t believe that for a second. Tears burned the back of her eyes. It was the same old song and dance, the same thing her mother had said the last four times. For years, she had held onto the hope that her mother would get her life together, but it never happened.

As soon as Irina turned eighteen and took full control of her finances, she set her mother up with a monthly allowance. She thought her mother would have been happy enough to have a steady income, but she always complained that it was never enough. Irina finally cut her off two years ago when her mother was busted again for possession. Mama would never change, and Irina was tired of having her heart broken holding out hope that she would.

Her mind floated back to that awful day she had come home from school at ten years old. The house was eerily quiet, and she hadn’t noticed Mama at first, lying prone on the couch. As soon as she saw her mother’s eyes, glassy and lifeless from a drug overdose, she called the cops, who showed up within minutes.

It wasn’t the first time they had been at their house, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. It was, however, Mama’s first real stint in jail. When the judge sentenced her to eighteen months, Irina was sent to live with her grandmother.

Rosewood was a tiny town that housed little more than a handful of churches and a family-owned market, but Irina wasn’t going to complain about the lack of things to do; she was just glad to be free of her mother.

Gram took her to church for the first time in her life, and she quickly found her place there in the choir. She eagerly anticipated those Sunday services, and that year-and-a-half was the best of her childhood. When Mama got out of jail, she came to live with them, and for a while, things were better. She kept her nose clean, or at least kept it from Gram, who wouldn’t put up with that behavior for a second.

During the summer Irina turned fifteen, everything changed. Gram had been diagnosed the previous winter with cancer, and by spring it had spread into the rest of her organs. She passed peacefully in the middle of the night the first week of June, and Irina mourned the one person who had truly cared about her.

Two days after Gram’s funeral, Mama packed up their tiny, beat-up Chevy and drove them back to Hartford, Kentucky. There, they moved in with Burt Henning. He was two years older than her mother, but they had gone to school together and apparently had reconnected over Facebook.

While Irina was glad to be back in her hometown with the friends she had left behind, she hated the situation at home. Burt had a list of priors as long as his arm, and he always looked at her funny, his beady eyes hungry and calculating. One day, about two months after they moved back, Mama sprang a surprise trip on her. “Pack your things,” she had said. “We’re going to Nashville to visit a friend.”

That friend, it turned out, was Earl Wieden, a talent agent. Mama had apparently sent clips of Irina singing in the choir to various recording studios and agents, but Earl was the only one who had responded. He listened to her sing and immediately presented her mother with a contract. With the scribble of her signature and a quick goodbye, Mama had disappeared, leaving Irina with Earl while she went back to Burt and their life in Kentucky. That thought drew Irina back to the present.

“Why doesn’t Burt help?”

“I’m not seeing him anymore.”

That was news to Irina. Her mother and Burt had been together for the past eight years. “What happened?”

“Oh, you’ll never believe it, Irina honey.” Irina barely held back a snort as her mother continued. “I was at Kroger a couple months back, and you’ll never guess who I bumped into.”

Irina sat on the yoga mat and tried to summon some interest as she stretched her sore muscles. “Who?”

“Your daddy.”

Irina blinked. “What?”

She wasn’t honestly even sure her mother knew who her real father was. All she had ever told Irina about him was that they had had a whirlwind affair before he had left her pregnant and alone.

“One thing led to another, and…” Her mother paused, and Irina could practically see her gesturing excitedly. “Well, we’ve been seeing each other ever since.”

“So, call him.”

“He—” There was a scuffle in the background, and Irina heard the agitation in her mother’s voice. “Just hold your horses! Why don’t you go do something besides harass innocent people? God. Anyway, Irina baby, I need you to send some money real quick-like so I can get outta here.”

Irina sighed. “I’m sorry, Mama. I can’t.”

On the other end of the phone, her mother sucked in an outraged breath. “You have to. This isn’t my fault! They set me up!”

Sure. Just like the other times. “I won’t do this anymore,” Irina replied quietly.

“You ungrateful little bitch! After everything I’ve done for you⁠—”