Book 7: Baby for Sale - Cheap!

Retta

My heart is racing, and there’s a rock in the pit of my stomach big enough to make me want to throw up. Desperately, I pull up another floorboard, thinking maybe my money fell to the side or something and it’s still there.

But there’s no sign of my money bag.

I feel like I can’t even take a breath. I’ve never felt this out of control in my life. I look around the room, trying to remember if maybe I didn’t really put the gold coins into the floor like I’d meant to. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.

I pull out all the drawers in the dresser, look under the bed, search in the closets… I look everywhere, and that beautiful sack of gold coins is nowhere to be found.

To make matters worse, all my rustling around the motel room has made Astrid wake up, and she’s starting to cry. I pick her up to try to get her to quiet down before the manager or the neighbors start complaining.

Oh, no, the manager… I remember that I’m supposed