Amazing Grace Read Online Free PDF Page A

the kid has so much stuff, she just piles it out of the way. One girl does not need forty pairs of jeans. I grab a garbage bag and toss in half of them. I’ll ask Linn to take them to Goodwill. I’m her favourite person at the moment.
    It doesn’t take me long to find the dope or the pills or the alcohol. She’s not very inventive when it comes to hiding places. The top of a closet and a Kotex box are where you look first. At least I have evidence to back me up.
    Then I spy her laptop. Melissa is so sure that her father wouldn’t dare look at it, she’s still logged on. What I see when the screen comes up is Melissa biting her lip in an attempt to look sexy, holding her t-shirt up around her neck and exposing her breasts. I scroll through her pictures, hoping this is a one-off, but she has several inappropriate images, and worse, she’s posted them online.
    A deep anger comes to the surface, along with the need to get rid of it. I get dressed in my down jacket because the six televisions in this apartment are blaring that it’s cold outside. Beulah is now happily tucked into my jacket, her little head poking out enjoying the sights. She’s the only thing that keeps me from weeping.
    I walk for a long time. How I wish I was on my hill with the dogs. I want to run away from this place. It’s too noisy, too busy, too vast. There’s no air to breath, no silence to enjoy, no stopping on the sidewalk to look up at a patch of blue sky. Big cities frighten me. I’m alone here. Even when Fletch isn’t home, I’m never alone in that trailer.
    By the time I get back I have a plan, but then Melissa texts her father to tell him she’s going to a sleepover at her best friend’s house.
    I’m wolfing down Linn’s amazing pad Thai for dinner. “And you believe her?”
    Jon hasn’t even changed out of his suit. He looks done in. “I’d like to believe her. I’m almost too exhausted to care.”
    â€œJonathan, did it ever occur to you that you could quit your job and do something else?”
    He gives me a smirk. “Tell Grandfather that I’m going to paint pictures in Paris, or sail around the world? How do you think that would go over?”
    â€œWho cares what he thinks?”
    â€œI do, Mother. He’s got me completely involved in every aspect of the business.” He takes his fork and pokes at his forehead. “I’ve got it all up here. He doesn’t trust anyone else, which is paranoia, but that’s what I’m dealing with. If I go, he’ll cut me out of his will. He told me so. And the company I’ve been slaving away for will belong to someone else.”
    I refill my empty wineglass. “And would that be so bad?”
    Now he drops his utensils on the plate, and takes that starched linen napkin and wipes his mouth. “Bad? I have a daughter I’m trying to raise here. How am I going to do that with no job? You know darn well Grandfather will make sure no one hires me in this city.”
    â€œSo move.”
    He leans back in his chair. “I’ve worked all my life for this company, and I think Dad would be proud of me. This was his legacy. I’m not going to throw that away just because Grandfather can be difficult. It’s a terrible thing to say, but he’s not going to last forever. I’d like to pass it on to my daughter.”
    I finish this glass of wine and set it on the table. “Speaking of daughters, you need to see something. Come with me.”
    He reluctantly gets up from his chair and follows me down the hall. I open Melissa’s bedroom door.
    â€œYou can’t go in her room. That’s private.”
    â€œParents your age believe a lot of bullshit.”
    It’s all on her bed. The bright assortment of pills, the bags of weed, the bong, the bottles of vodka, all on display in front of him.
    â€œDear God.” He moves slowly forward and puts