Chapter Three

No birds were chirping when Jewell awoke. A light sprinkle of rain was drizzling down over her and washing some of the grime from her homeless body. She didn’t know if she was capable of even standing at this point, but it didn’t matter.

No. She was better than that. For one moment she’d given up; for only a second in time she’d decided it was all too much to endure. Now that moment was over. She had two months. As much as she wanted to break down and cry, as much as she wanted to curse the powers above for taking her mother, for interrupting her own life, and for ruining her, she knew she couldn’t.

If she gave up, Justin would have no one fighting for him. And her mother’s final words had been another plea for Jewell to take care of her little brother. Her mother had closed her eyes for the last time after Jewell had promised never to allow their family to break apart.

Her mother had found peace in a world that had turned against her, a world that seemed no longer to care about any of them. As much as Jewell wanted to take back the promise she’d given her mother, she knew she couldn’t. Today would be the day she’d find a new job, save every single dime she made, and then get a place with furniture, in a neighborhood with a good school.

Today she would start the life she’d promised her mother she would live. True, it was all overwhelming — all the more so because everything had started out well for her. Although she was only twenty-four, had graduated from college only last year, she’d landed a wonderful job at an advertising firm where the execs had told her she was a rising star. She’d thought life would be easy from that point on. It wasn’t turning out to be so easy after all.

After she’d chosen to walk away from her career to care for her sick mother and her little brother, her employers had quickly forgotten about her. When she came back begging for her job, they’d told her that she’d had her chance and she’d blown it. There were many like her out there, many who’d stood in line to take her place, and none of them would have let something as insignificant as family come between them and their careers.

That’s where Jewell was different from the sharks in the world of advertising. Family would always come first for her, and right now the only family she had left was Justin. She wouldn’t fail him.

When she saw a McDonald’s, she slipped inside and headed immediately to the restroom. What she saw in the mirror horrified her. Her hair looked as if a crew of hyperactive mice had made a nest and settled in overnight, tangling it and leaving it filled with filth. Streaks of dirt ran down her sunken cheeks, and her clothes would surely have to be tossed.

Still, none of that was going to stand in her way — not today. After finger-brushing her hair as best she could, and rinsing out her mouth, she stepped back out into the lobby of the fast-food joint. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours, and then she’d had only a quick bit of bread from the shelter.

That didn’t matter, either. She’d have plenty of food for both her and her brother when she found them a secure place. It wouldn’t be fast food, though. Their mother had been an excellent cook, and Jewell had truly loved standing next to her in front of their gas stove, taking in all she was doing.

It didn’t matter how good a cook she was, though, since she didn’t have time or a stove, or even a place of her own to prepare a meal in. Even if she had to give up sleep, she’d soon have everything she and her brother needed to live a decent life. She would soldier on today without stopping until she had at least one job. She would work seven days a week, twenty hours a day if that’s what it took.

Arriving back at the shelter she’d left the day before, Jewell walked through the doors and signed in on the visitors’ sheet. It wasn’t long before she’d had a hot shower, managed to find a small bite to eat, and then found a halfway decent outfit from the communal clothing closet to wear in her search for work.

The next thing she did was sit down and begin flipping through the classified section of the newspaper that the shelter provided to help people who were down on their luck. Sure, some of those living there planned on being in the shelter for only a day or two, but others were almost lifers. Jewell had been there too long already. She vowed to herself that she’d be out as soon as possible, and the way out was a good job.

But by the end of the week, she was once again broken. She’d trudged all around the city, job listings in her bag and hope in her heart, but door after door had been slammed in her face.

Overqualified.

Position already filled.

Come back once you have more experience.

Over and over, at each place she went, she was refused employment. What good was her degree? What was it doing for her now? She couldn’t get a job as a secretary, because she was overqualified, couldn’t get another job in an advertising agency, because she had left the one she’d had after only a few months and, anyway, she didn’t have enough experience. No one cared that she’d left because her mother had been terminally ill.

They deemed that an unfortunate weakness on her part, a sad sign of unreliability. If she’d walked out on a job once, she could easily do it again. The truth was that she would if she had to. She didn’t regret sitting with her mother, didn’t regret those last precious moments they’d been able to share, and didn’t regret that they’d been a family for just a little while longer.

But now she couldn’t find a job to help save her little brother, and it felt like the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders. She’d promised Justin she would do whatever it took to get him back, to bring him home with her — wherever home was. She probably wouldn’t be able to keep that promise.

She didn’t want to give up, but it all seemed so hopeless. She just couldn’t bear the idea of returning to the shelter, sitting through yet another sermon about hanging in there, about there being a better life out there for everyone. Instead, she found herself in an abandoned building she’d slept in before. There were other people around, all of them minding their own business, and Jewell curled up in a corner with a suit jacket the only thing keeping the chill from seeping into her bones.

Despite everything, despite her miserable week, she forced herself to be positive. Her last thought before falling asleep was that everything would improve in the morning. It had to. She would not leave the next place where she applied for employment until they gave her the forms to sign that would provide her with a paycheck.

Yeah, that worked really well for her. A week later, she still didn’t have a job. She didn’t have to give up on herself — the world seemed to have given up on her.

A shoe nudging her in the side woke Jewell up. She didn’t want to speak to whoever was rude enough to interrupt the only time she was allowed a modicum of peace. She wasn’t ready to face the cold, hard world quite yet. The birds hadn’t even heralded the morning. But she slowly opened her eyes and squinted into the bright beam of light shining right on her.

“Are you alive?”

“Why should you even care?” Jewell snapped.

“Because I can see that beneath the grime on your face that you are a pretty girl. I think I can help you.”

“What? What are you talking about,” Jewell asked as she struggled to sit up. She couldn’t see the woman who was staring down at her.

“I run a business, and I would like to have you come in for an interview.”

It took several moments for Jewell’s muddled brain to process the woman’s words, and then she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Why in the world would you come to a place like this and offer me a job interview? Who are you?” Whatever it was the woman was offering, it couldn’t be good.

“I find lots of women for my business in many different places, and I’ve heard good things about you from a contact of mine over at your former shelter. If you don’t want work, fine. I won’t waste my time. If you get tired of living on the streets, come see me.”

The woman tossed a card at Jewell and then walked away, leaving only the sound of her heels clicking across the cement floor. It was too dark without the woman’s flashlight to see the card, so Jewell just clutched it in her hand and waited for dawn’s light to stream in through the broken windows of the old building.

When morning finally came around, she looked at the small piece of card stock and her brows furrowed. “What is Relinquish Control?” she said aloud.

Did it really matter? She’d promised Justin she’d do whatever it took to bring him home, and that was exactly what she was willing to do. Whatever it took.