Leave It to Chance Read Online Free PDF

flour canister.”
    Sierra knew exactly what she’d found. She’d stuck it in the cupboard behind the flour when Braden had come into the kitchen a few days ago and she’d forgotten to retrieve it.
    Her mother waved the small piece of paper.
    Sierra squinted. Yep, it was the check. The one that had been stamped repeatedly in black and red. Sierra nodded and walked to the cupboard. “Michael’s check.”
    The ridges in her mother’s forehead deepened. “You don’t sound the least bit concerned, Sierra. This is getting ridiculous. How will you pay rent? Feed the children something besides …” She eyed the box in Sierra’s hand with a grimace of distaste “… Hamburger Lickins?”
    Sierra set the package of cheesy enchilada next to the stove. She’d been chewing her fingernails for days over the same questions herself, but discussing them when her mom had her cannons loaded would only feed the feral headache she felt coming on. “Wednesday is Emory’s night to pick dinner.” She hefted the box. “Hence the Lickins.”
    Her mother peered into the same cupboard Sierra had pulled the box from. “Letting a nine-year-old choose the menu isn’t the wisest decision, sweetheart. You can’t expect a child to understand that the nitrates and sodium in those boxed meals will eventually kill you. Oprah just had a segment on the damage that occurs at the cellular level when you fill your body with nitrates.” She pinched her bottom lip in thought. “Or was it The View?” She waved her hand. “Not that it matters. Boxed meals are toxic.”
    Sierra smushed the raw burger into edible bites and gave in to the impulse to roll her eyes. Her mom and her penchant for touting the latest talk-show headline.
    “I think you and the children should move back home.”
    “What?” The spatula clattered against the side of the pan, swiping a large chunk of burger onto the floor. “Back home? With you?” Sierra stared at her mom. Then she thought about the phone call from her landlord, and her stomach turned over. She retrieved the spatula with numb hands.
    “Really, sweetie, you need to be more careful.” Her mother calmly moved to the sink for a paper towel, ripped off a couple of squares then bent to the floor, her movements efficient and controlled as she mopped up the meat. “Of course with me . Surely you can see that this is too much for one person to handle. You don’t have time to clean. You barely have enough decent food for the kids. I think the Lord is trying to tell you that you need help.” She dropped the wad into the trash under the sink and poked the few bottles standing like sentinels next to the garbage can. “Where do you keep the bleach? With Trevor still sucking his thumb, you need to think about these things. That’s all you need is to be worrying about a kidney transplant.”
    A kidney transplant? “What are you talking about?”
    Her mother turned in exasperation. “E. coli, honey.” She sprayed some Lysol on the floor and wiped it up. “If he ran one of his Matchbox cars over that spot then sucked his thumb? The least of your problems would be Michael’s check bouncing.”
    Sierra dearly loved her mother, but there was a reason children grew up and moved out of the family home. If she moved home, one of them would be dead within the week, and it wouldn’t be from E. coli. Her gaze roamed over the scattering of Cheerios that lurked under the edge of the stove. Better not to tell her that Trevor had stuck his hand on a raw chicken thigh last week then popped a finger in his mouth to taste.
    Sierra hoped her smile showed how much she valued her mom’s desire to help them. “I appreciate the offer, but I think we’d do better living in our own houses.”
    Hurt crossed her mom’s face. “If you say so. It’s your life.” She washed her hands with fervor again, shaking them over the sink before grabbing a towel. “I’m just concerned that you’re not looking at this rationally.”
    And