Missing Pieces, J.M. Hurley [top romance novels .TXT] 📗

She reached up and slapped it with her hand then pushed back her covers and gave a tired yawn. “Okay, see you mom!” Miranda’s voice rang out from downstairs and she heard the door open and close as she left for practice. Now’s the time to check,

Lacey said as she scrambled off of her bed and into her sisters room. Now what drawer was it?

She cursed silently as she opened the first drawer the consisted of socks and underwear. Wait, the bottom, that’s where it’s at!

She quickly grasped the knobs of the bottom drawer, gave it a pull, and gasped. Its contents were cluttered with tons of different items some being her very own jewelry to her mother’s finest wine. Lacey’s lungs contracted as she lifted up the different items then gasped when the door handle began to jiggle. She quickly dropped the items back into the drawer, but wasn’t quick enough, the door swung open and Miranda stared angrily at her. “What are you going back!?” Lacey exclaimed as her nervous hand tried to shove the drawer shut.

“I forgot my bag, what were you doing snooping through my stuff?!” Miranda said as she kicked the drawer shut.

“Why do you have that stuff?” Lacey asked and Miranda sighed.

"Quiet the hell down!” she walked over and shut the door, then turned to face her sister.

“Mom’s wine, my jewelry, and what was in those bags?” Lacey asked as she looked at her sister with a questioning gaze.

“Check for yourself, you’ve already snooped through everything else,” Miranda replied and Lacey opened the drawer back up and peeked into the bags.

“Moms prescription, what are you doing Miri?” Lacey asked and Miranda smiled.

“I’m a dealer.”

Lacey gasped, “You’re a drug dealer?” she asked and Miranda laughed.

“I wouldn’t narrow it down to drugs, basically anything they want, I give them.”

Lacey shook her head, horrified, “You can’t do this,
I’ll go tell mom and then we can get you help.”

Miranda laughed even harder, “Oh you aren’t going to tell anyone anything, because if you do, I’ll tell everyone about you and Isaiah.”

Lacey gasped, “How do you know about that?” she asked and Miranda shook her head in mock pity.

“You were right outside my window; honestly, you might as well have sent me a letter.”

Lacey’s eyes welled up with tears as she choked out, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Relax sis,” she said as she picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder, “I haven’t done anything yet.” With that, she marched over and swung open the door, casting one more malicious glance over her shoulder before disappearing down the hall.


Chapter 6

“She really said that?” Jared asked for the hundredth time and Lacey nodded her head tiredly.

“Yes, she did, and I still can’t figure out why…What did I do to deserve this?” she whined as Jared flung his arm over her shoulders.

“Cheer up Lace; you have way more on Miranda, than she does on you. So what if you’re dating Isaiah, she’s a drug dealer!” Jared insisted and Lacey looked down at her feet.

“You don’t get it J, she will ruin me, my mom told me not to talk to them, well guess what, I’ve done more than talk!” she exclaimed and several people in the café turned and stared at them. “Look, I’m sorry J, it’s just…I can’t handle this!” she said as she put her head in her arms to hide her face.

“Hi I’m Janelle, may I take your order?” A perky waitress stood awkwardly in front of their table and Jared cast her an apologetic glance.

“We’ll take 2 cappuccino’s,” he replied and Janelle nodded then walked away. “Look, you’re into freaking Harvard, Lace! Cheer up! So what if she told you not to ‘talk’ to him? She’s done some pretty messed up things, she owes you,” he insisted and Lacey snorted.

“She’s my mother, Jared, she doesn’t owe me anything, she gave birth to me, and nothing she can do is bad enough to cancel that out.” Janelle hustled over and set the two drinks onto the table then hurried off. Lacey sighed and took a sip of hers, letting the warming liquid soothe her worries.

“Thanks for meeting with me to talk,” she said and Jared smiled.

“No problem Lace, so are you still going to meet Isaiah tonight?” he asked and Lacey shrugged.

“I can’t ditch him, but now that Miri knows, it seems too….dangerous,” she replied and he put a reassuring hand on her forearm.

“Look Lacey, you told me that you love this guy, love him. Love isn’t something to fool around with, karma is going to bite your sister in the ass, and you can stand by and watch it happen, or you can go and enjoy yourself anyways,” Jared said and Lacey laughed.

“I’m going to meet him then,” she said confidently and Jared smiled.

“That’s my girl,” he said as they got up and he threw a twenty on to the table.

“Now I need to get home, I have a little surprise for karma,” she replied and Jared smiled.

“Devious, vengeful, and smart-ass, it’s like looking in a mirror,” he said and she snorted.

“Don’t get used to it, it’s a temporary thing,” she said then she gave him a quick hug and peck on the cheek and ran off to get into her car.

~*^*~

Once Lacey pulled into her driveway, she hopped out of her car and raced upstairs, taking them three at a time. Once she was up, she ran towards Miranda’s door and flung it open. A quick check of her watch told her she had ten minutes before Miranda would be home. I’d better hurry; she thought to herself as she bent down and pulled open the bottom drawer of her sister’s dresser. She tried not to gape as she stared at the contents once more, “I still don’t believe this is happening,” she muttered under her breath as she opened her purse wider. “Well, here goes nothing,” she said quietly then picked up a bottle of her mother’s gourmet wine and shoved it into her purse.

She continued to stuff the contents of the drawer into her purse, only stopping once it was completely emptied. Once all of the items were securely placed into her bag, she allowed herself to breathe again, only to find herself gasping once more. The window from across the room gave a shudder and began to climb up higher and higher, a pair of rough hands peaked out from below the curtains. Resisting the urge to scream, Lacey bolted out of the room; her purse clutched tightly in her right hand as she sprinted down the hall and took the stairs two at a time.

Once she reached the landing she quickly made a break for the kitchen door and ran straight into her mother. “What’s wrong? Why are you running?” Lacey’s mother had a startled look on her face as she bent down to pick up the papers she’d dropped in the collision.

“Oops! Sorry!” Lacey slurred an apology at her mother as she too bent to help her mother collect the contents that she’d dropped. “What are these?” she asked slowly, examining the papers with a skillful eye. The papers had lots of statistics and digits on them and were filled top to bottom with writing.

“Nothing…well, they’re test reports. I was waiting to tell both you and Miranda together…”
“Tell us what?” Lacey asked with an air of concern, her eyes bright with worry as she laid a soft hand on her mother’s shoulder.

“I…I have cancer,” she replied in a broken voice, tears standing in her eyes. “These were the confirmation results. I had some tests done and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, if…if there

“You…you have cancer?” The words tasted bitter in her mouth and she felt nauseous. Lenora was looking down at her lap, fixing an imaginary thread on her BCBG wrap dress.

She was avoiding meeting Lacey’s eyes, “It was found in my liver…”

Of course it was

, Lacey suddenly began to put the pieces together in her mind, she has cancer from all of the drinking.

She pushed the negative, haunting thoughts aside, away from her mind, as she reached a comforting hand towards her mother.

“What stage is it…mom

?” The word was forced from her lips. She never called her that, it was
always Lenora this, Lenora that

, never Mother and definitely not Mom.

Lenora smiled wryly at the term then spoke hesitantly, “It is at a stage 2. That means we’re half winning, half loosing.” Her smiled drooped a bit at the end but lit up once again in less than seconds. Stepping forward, Lenora reached a manicured hand toward Lacey, running her finger tips over the fabric of Lacey’s shirt collar. “That Vera Wang blouse goes just perfectly with your Armani high waist shorts, it’s a very pretty look on you.”

Lacey felt as if her mother had thrown a bucket of cold water over her head. She couldn’t have been more surprised if her mother had started to juggle and told her they were joining the circus. Had she just…complimented

her? Had she even really meant it or was it just an attempt to bond over the new found news? Forcing a smile onto her dry lips she pulled her mother into a tight, stiff, awkward excuse for a hug while mumbling, “Thanks…”

It was then that a curt knock on the door saved Lacey and her mother from the awkward silence following their embrace and Lacey sprang to answer it. Pulling it open she was greeted with a blindingly crest white smile framed with Gucci lip gloss, a tiny, slightly turned up nose directly above it and two golden honeycomb eyes laden with heavy coats of mascara and eyeliner.

“Hey, Lace!” Cameron, or rather Cammie, Brinfert, stood casually in front of her. Her thin limbs were barely covered with the sheer fabric of a Juicy Couture slip dress and her light blonde hair seemed to be longer than the dress itself. Cammie was the classic rich girl, she enjoyed long rides in her Ferrari, that is, when a boy from the country club was accompanying her, day long shopping trips and weekly spa visits. She non-stop complained to her daddy

about her $5,000

weekly allowance not being enough, and if rocks could go to school, they’d most likely beat her IQ scores.

“Hey,” Lacey replied dully. She’d never really liked Cammie, she was too spoiled to even be fun sometimes, but Miranda had immediately taken a liking to her and was constantly going on shopping sprees and mani/pedi days with her. “Miranda’s not here,” Lacey added, hoping Cammie would leave but her 9 inch heels stayed rooted firmly in place.

“I’m not here for Miri, she’s been rather weird lately, I’m here for you,” she said with a wink as she pulled a pink cased i-phone from her coach tote and began texting on it. “You wanna hit up the mall with me?” she asked in a mumbled tone, not bothering to look up from her moving thumbs.

To be completely honest, Lacey loathed the idea of spending a day shopping with Cammie, she couldn’t even standing the girl right now standing at the door