The Grim Room

CHAPTER 17

            Alison woke up alone in her best friend’s bed. Sitting up, stretching, it all came back to her in a flash of mental lightning. Why the hell was Rebecca intent on blowing it? Ugh. So stupid. She loved Becca, but Jesus; she could be so difficult. Maybe it was because of her father, like Alison’s, leaving when she was a kid. It fucked her up.

            Alison’s father walked right out of her life, too.

            Her dad had been heading to a business trip, another one of his telecommunications tradeshows—he worked as a store manager for AT&T. He would meet “the other woman” at that tradeshow, and things would never be the same.

            After that tradeshow in Boulder, Colorado, things shattered quickly. Already the two parents had been fighting all the time. Alison witnessed more than her fair share of arguments …