Page 83 of Daddy’s Fortitude

After she finished eating, she laid down again for a bit of a rest, but her mind wouldn’t quiet.

She didn’t want to go to the doctor later. She hadn’t been to the doctor in so long that she was almost scared of what they might say or find. It was silly. She knew it was. But if she was actually sick, she didn’t want to know. She didn’t think she could handle it. Or any cost associated with being ill.

Aimee hated how everything always came back to money.

It was always the thing that stressed her out the most, and the thing that she didn’t have enough of.

She was sure that a lot of people probably thought her main stressor was Charlie and the way he’d treated her, but she’d long since given up being hurt by that, or at least she told herself she had. She couldn’t deny there had been some tendril of hurt as those women had stood up and claimed to have slept with him.

But the main issue had been Kelly-Anne.

Pregnant Kelly-Anne.

The one thing she’d wanted for so long was a baby. Until she’d figured out that Charlie was the last person that she should have a baby with.

But it didn’t stop the longing. She wasn’t even sure why she wanted one so badly. Maybe it was just her biological clock. Maybe she wanted to care for somebody. Maybe she wanted to show them all the love and affection she’d been missing since her parents died.

But there was no way she could look after a child. She couldn’t even take care of herself.

Rolling onto her side, she grabbed Owly McOwlFace and slid her thumb into her mouth. She knew this wasn’t helping either. But she needed some comfort right now.

How was she going to get some money to help pay the bills to help fix Ammo’s truck? To begin to get her out of this mess?

Before she could sell the house, she needed to fix it up a bit. There wasn’t even anything left that she could sell.

Well, there was one thing of value she owned that she’d managed to keep out of Charlie’s hands.

Aimee groaned. She wasn’t really contemplating selling it, was she? It was her prize possession.

But was it worth keeping? At what cost?

Getting up, she moved into the closet and drew it out of a box in the back. It had been so long since she played it that it had a thick film of dust on the case.

Opening it up, she stared down at it. It needed a polish, but it was still beautiful. She really didn’t want to get rid of it, but needs must, and maybe one day in the future, she’d be able to get something nearly as beautiful again.

It wasn’t like it was doing anything for her, stuck away in a cupboard. If it came down to a choice of having food to eat, lights on, and a roof over her head, she knew what the best option was. She just hoped she could get a decent amount for it.

Aimee thought briefly about asking Ammo to take her to the pawn shop the next town over, but she knew he’d probably refuse to take her.

Plus, he’d want to know the reason why.

He was so damn nosy.

So, really, there was only one thing she could do.

24

Aimee walked out of the pawn shop with a heavy stomach and a dark cloud over her head.

She’d pawned her Haynes flute for only a fraction of the price of what she knew it was really worth.

Maybe if she’d been able to take it to a music shop, she would have gotten a lot more, but she didn’t have the time to do that.

Or the means.

So she’d had to take what she could get.

To her surprise, sneaking out of the house hadn’t actually been that hard. Ammo had been using the pressure washer on the back of the house, which covered any noise she made. She’d just headed out the front door with Kevin in her hair and caught the bus to the larger town of Lager about forty minutes away.