Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

desire to adopt Grace, they pulled her from the foster-adopt home immediately"
There was no information about which foster home or who
was going to adopt Grace before her mother intervened. Not that
it mattered. Those people were out of the picture. And now that
Grace was in Bartlesville, she'd be easy to find. Probably being
spoiled rotten, poisoned with lies about the mistakes her terrible
mother had made.
The whole situation made Leslie want to puke. Grace was
already spoiled enough. Imagine what living with her mother for
a year would do to her?
No, Leslie couldn't let Grace stay in Bartlesville. That wasn't
the type of life she should have. She wasn't a Bible kid, a Christian
kid. Grace was her kid. Leslie Landers's kid. And that meant that,
yes, sometimes she'd have to hang around while Leslie made a
little money in the sack. And sometimes the kid would have to sit
loose while Leslie partied with the guys in Santa Maria, guys who
would want to see her when she returned.
But that was no reason to take Grace away and put her up for
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adoption. The street life that Leslie could give Grace was a good
thing. It toughened kids, made them wise to the world and ready
for whatever the future held.
Whatever Grace's future held, it didn't involve Leslie's mother or some family of strangers taking over as
Grace's parents. Leslie was doing just fine, thank you. The problem was, they needed
more money Which meant Grace needed to pull her weight. The idea hadn't occurred to her until that last
night, the night
the cops busted her. The guy she'd been with that night roughed her up pretty good, and in the process he
knelt on the seat and spotted Grace on the floor.
She could still hear his words, still feel the way they spawned the idea that just might save them. "You
didn't tell me you had a little beauty hiding in the back."
Leslie had been angry with the man. Angry and high. At first
she didn't understand what he meant. Before they could talk about it, the police showed up. And only in
the days since she'd been in prison had she considered exactly what he was saying. Grace was pretty
Pretty enough that if their money started running low, Leslie could put her to work. Films or short
projects. Whatever. Nothing dangerous, just something to help them survive. Besides, it was time Grace
made herself useful. Leslie had
catered to her long enough, busting her own tail to make sure their cooler was full of milk and cookies and
sometimes bananas. It was only fair. Grace needed to make money, too.
And if they worked together, maybe... just maybe, they'd find a way to survive. Then they could set up an
apartment somewhere and go about the business of living. Of course, Leslie shared none of this with her
attorney But she did tell him one of her intentions. "I want Grace back. The minute I'm out of here."
The attorney, an older man who worked for the state, looked
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concerned by Leslie's request. "It's possible. With good behavior and a series of letters, maybe."
"Letters?" "To your mother, sent to my office. I'll make copies and send them on. That's the only way