Chapter 10%
Queenie and her mom had been living off Salvatore for so many years, they probably forgot what it was like to stand on their own. Once he was out of the picture, everything fell apart. Without his support, the comfy life they were used to just vanished.
And with the way the internet was dragging them, the pressure got too much. Queenie ended up dropping out of school and moving back to her hometown with her mom.
Word got around that things went downhill fast. They couldn’t even cover basic expenses and eventually started selling themselves. It just so happened there was a crackdown going on and they got caught. Their arrest ended up all over the headlines.
People wouldn’t shut up about it. Every time I met up with classmates, someone brought it up, rehashing the story like it was some juicy drama.
But by then, I was close to graduation and honestly didn’t care to join in.
What happened with Salvatore taught my mom and me a hard truth; we couldn’t rely on anyone but ourselves. The moment you start counting on others, you open the door to disappointment.
Luckily, the business stuff wasn’t too hard and both of us were capable. We kept things running smoothly and our finances started growing faster than we expected.§
Sometimes we would just sit and stare at the bank app, laughing in disbelief. “Honestly,” my mom would say with a grin, “we should thank Queenie. If she hadn’t stirred things up, who knows how long we would’ve stayed stuck.”
(The End)
