Wayward Dreams Read Online Free PDF

here. This,” she tapped the file lightly, “tells me exactly how you got here. And it didn’t happen overnight.”
    â€œNo, it didn’t happen overnight, but I don’t think I want to hear your story.” Lips tight, Bianca refused to cry.
    â€œBut it did happen, and now you’re here in my office. Quiet as it’s kept, you share in the blame for it. Every woman needs her own credit history—even women whose men tell them they don’t need to worry.” Bianca started up again, but Erica raised a hand to stall her. “I know it’s hard, Ms. Coltrane, but I hope you’ll accept this in the spirit in which it’s offered. I’m not trying to judge you. I already told you that I’ve been where you are, but the only one who can fix this mess is you.”
    â€œHow? I can’t even qualify for a loan, now can I?”
    â€œNot based on this.” Brow furrowed, Erica Lane suddenly looked less authoritative and more like an ordinary woman. Spreading her fingers, she brought them down on the desk with a solid thump. “Do you really want to let this be the best you can do for yourself?” When she spoke again, her voice was low, almost conspiratorial. “Did you love him?”
    Bianca’s eyes widened and her lips parted, but no words followed.
    â€œDid he ever love you?” Bianca’s lips moved silently; heartsick, she couldn’t find her voice, but the banker wasn’t finished. “You can’t claim it, can you?”
    â€œNo, he never loved me.”
    â€œBut you let him do for you, and that’s how you came to be here in my office.” Erica was relentless but gentle. “Do you really want to allow this Mr. Payne to control your life like this? He didn’t love you, and you know it. Oh, maybe you were in love with the idea of him at one time, but that’s just so much…” She brought her fingers together and blew on them, then opened them to release…nothing. “A man who would leave you like this, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. I wouldn’t let him anywhere near my life. But that’s just me.”
    Bianca huffed and tried to work up a feeling that didn’t begin or end with defeat. It didn’t work. “You’re right.”
    â€œYou bet your sweet ass, I am. You show up here asking why. Did you ask him ?”
    â€œHe wouldn’t take my calls.” Bianca looked down at the toes of her clammy boots. Fractured pride was the only thing that kept her breathing.
    Erica folded her hands on top of the file and asked, “Do you have any money? Of your own?”
    â€œEighty-four dollars and some change.”
    â€œI saw you get out of the Jaguar. Eighty-four dollars won’t fill your gas tank.”
    Bianca dropped a hand over her eyes.
    â€œDid you even see this coming?” When Bianca peeked at the manager through slit fingers, Erica sighed deeply and shook her head. “He planned this, you know.”
    I don’t need this! Bianca slammed a second hand over her eyes. “You think he robbed my store and put me out on the street on the same day to teach me some kind of lesson?” Suddenly on her feet, her hands fell away from her eyes, and fury eclipsed her pain when she slammed her purse to the floor. “Bitch, you’re crazy. We’re not talking about Superman or James Bond.”
    â€œNo, bitch, we’re talking about your ass hitting the ground,” the manager snapped back. “We’re talking about something a simple man put into place that has you so turned around you don’t know which way is up. And now you’re sitting here with a stranger trying to make a life out of eighty-four dollars and change.”
    â€œHe didn’t rob my store.”
    â€œNeither did I. He took your home and your pride, got you out here doing everything short of panhandling and selling little pieces of yourself