log you in, so there will be no record that you went to the vault. You’ll do this when Margaret and Corinne are in the back. You leave. The bonds are safe. We won’t move them till after graduation and we’re ready to leave town. What do you think so far?”
“Robbing the bank, any bank, is a federal offense,” Jill squeaked.
“Why aren’t the bonds put in the vault?” Gwen asked.
Allison threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know. Mr. Augustus must not think anyone would have the nerve to rob him. Either that, or he’s stupid. Like I said, I personally think he and those other men in the Gentlemen’s Club are doing something illegal. I haven’t quite figured out what, and maybe I never will. It’s just the way it is. Look, it’s a small, privately owned bank. Mr. Augustus does things his way. This is, after all, Mississippi.
“No fingerprints will be on the envelope other than the courier’s. All we have to do is cut up newspapers the same size as typing paper. We’ll wear gloves. I’ll carry everything in my book bag. I have it covered, girls.”
“How are you going to hold up against the FBI, Allison?” Jill whispered.
Allison looked around. The bell over the door had tinkled. Two little old ladies with blue-white hair carrying string shopping bags walked in and settled themselves at a table at the front of the teahouse. A few minutes later, a woman dragging a toddler demanding an ice-cream cone entered.
“Time to go, girls. Don’t worry about me. I can hold my own. I’ve been planning this for a whole year. At the risk of repeating myself, are you in or out?”
Two heads bobbed up and down.
“If we do this, and if we pull it off, does it mean we finally qualify as being the downtown girls who become the ‘uptown girls’?” Jill asked.
“It definitely does,” Allison said, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses as she counted out change and left a small tip on the table. “Now, let’s go get some pizza.”
Chapter 1
Five years later
Winchester, Virginia
Sandy-haired Dennis Lowell bounced his way into the small hospital, a huge smile on his face. He was the father of a baby girl. He hadn’t seen her yet, but he knew she was going to be the most beautiful baby in the whole world. What, he wondered, had he done to deserve this happiness? His dark brown eyes sparkled at the thought.
Names for his new offspring flitted through his mind. He had been unable to get Allison to settle on one before she gave birth. He rather thought it was because she didn’t want to be committed to a girl’s name, then deliver a baby boy. Well, she wasn’t going to be able to procrastinate much longer. A baby’s name was going to go on the birth certificate. He hoped she’d go with Olivia—after his mother. But in the end, it didn’t matter what the choice was. He was just grateful that the newborn was healthy and had all her toes and fingers.
Dennis straightened his tie, smoothed back his thinning hair, and took a deep breath as he made his way to the maternity ward. Childishly, he crossed his fingers, hoping that Allison would welcome him with a smile. But he knew in his gut there would be no smile. Possibly, a tirade awaited him. When the call had come into the office, he’d been going over a very muddled tax return with a client. A high-profile, high-paying client. There was no way he could bolt out of the office leaving a client so furious at the Internal Revenue Service. That had been three hours ago. His brand-new daughter was already three hours old, and he hadn’t so much as seen her.
No, there would be no smile on Allison’s face.
He stood outside the door of his wife’s room. He could hear voices inside. He frowned. Was it possible his wife had visitors so soon? Maybe it was a nurse, and they were cooing over the new baby. He brightened a little at the thought.
Dennis knocked softly. At the same time, he pasted a smile on his face and pressed down on the latch of the door handle. He tried for a joke, but it felt sickly even to him when he said, “Ready or not, here comes the new father!”
Dennis took it in all at once; two strange men standing at the foot of the bed, his wife sitting propped up in the bed like a princess and, of course, the nurse, a red-haired, red-faced woman who looked to be flushed with anger. There was no sign of a bassinet or his new daughter. He looked around, instinctively knowing something was wrong. He managed to gasp out one word. “Baby?”
“Dennis, it was nice of you to come. It’s been, what, four hours since I had the baby.”
Dennis looked at his watch. “Three and a half hours,” he managed to croak. The fear he was feeling escalated as he looked at the nurse and her cartful of medical equipment as well as medicines. The men had briefcases. What did that mean? Suddenly he felt light-headed in the small private room they couldn’t afford but Allison had insisted on. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he recognized one of the men standing by the foot of the bed. He’d seen him at the Rotary Club. A lawyer. What the hell was a lawyer doing in his wife’s hospital room? The other one must be a lawyer, too. What the hell were two lawyers doing there? Whatever it was, he knew instinctively it wasn’t going to be good for him.
Allison’s voice was cool and detached when she made the introductions. “Dennis, this is Jason Carmichael and his partner, Oliver Barrows. They are my attorneys. I’m divorcing you and giving you sole custody of the baby. These two gentlemen will handle all the details. I don’t want anything from you. You can keep the house, the cars, and what little we have in the bank. When I’m discharged, I’m walking away from here, and you’ll never see me again.”
Dennis looked around for a chair. There wasn’t one. He struggled with the words he’d just heard. “I don’t understand” was the best response he could manage. He felt the red-faced nurse’s hand on his arm. It felt warm and comforting, but it did nothing to take away the dizzy feeling. He wondered if he was going to make a fool of himself and pass out.
Allison’s voice turned ice cold. “It’s simple, really, Dennis. Things haven’t been right between us for a long time. The pregnancy never should have happened. You knew I didn’t want to have children. So I’m giving you the child I never wanted. I no longer want to be married to you. I can’t make it any more simple. Now, if you’ll just sign the papers, these gentlemen will handle everything. Grow up, Dennis. This isn’t a fairy tale. I don’t want to be your princess, and I no longer want to live in a cracker box. With or without you. I do not want to be a mother. I want to be myself and live a life of my own choosing.”
Dennis’s head was still spinning as he tried to absorb all that he was hearing. He wondered who was paying for these attorneys. What a stupid thought. He looked at the two men, who were eyeballing him. One offered him a pen, and he scrawled his name, as directed, in about ten different places. He heard his wife’s sigh of relief. He looked over at the nurse, whose eyes were full of pity. She led him from the room.
In the antiseptic hallway, the nurse took his arm and steered him toward the nursery. She pointed to a small pink bassinet and smiled. “Everything happens for a reason, Mr. Lowell. That’s how you have to look at things right now.”
Dennis pressed his face against the glass and stared at the tightly wrapped pink bundle. His daughter. Tears rolled down his cheeks. “I’ll do my best…Olivia.”
When the nurse tugged at his arm, he looked up. “You should go home now, Mr. Lowell, and…and…make
