Break the Rules (The Flanagan Sisters Book 1) Read Online Free

“Tanya dragged me out dancing last night and hooked up with Jack’s
brother. Neither Jack nor I wanted to be out, so we convinced them to go to a
quieter bar where they could keep dancing. We chatted for a couple of hours, then he took me home. I gave him my number.” She shrugged.
“We’ll see if he calls.” She really hoped he would.
    “Sounds
like a gentlemen if he took you home and nothing else.”
    Bridget
wasn’t going to discuss it with her little sister. “He was nice.” She entered
the large greenhouse to pick some mamey and jocote , her mother’s favorite fruits. “So what’s the story
with the new girl?”
    The
farm was a foster home for refugee children, mostly from Central America. Their
mother had insisted on helping when she heard how the situation had worsened
over the past few years and unaccompanied children were fleeing to the United
States. It worked well because she and Zita spoke Spanish and there were no men
around, so it was generally the abused girls who were sent to them.
    “I
don’t know the full story yet,” Zita said. “She’s been raped.”
    It
was tragic that didn’t surprise Bridget. It was all too common for the girls to
have been sexually assaulted either before they’d left their home or by the
people smugglers who took them across the border. “Where is she from?”
    “El
Salvador. We only know what she told immigration, and that’s not a lot. I’m
sure she’ll open up when she gets to know us.” Zita placed another fruit in the
basket. “She’s part of the new trial.”
    “That’s
great.” It was a big deal. Zita and Carmen had been fighting for many years to
stop children being imprisoned in detention centers. It could take months, if
not years to process them, and the incarceration was hard on them. The trial
was to test whether the children could indeed be fostered out in the community
while their applications were being processed.
    Children
who were granted asylum and had no family in the United States inevitably
stayed at Casa Flanagan and became part of their family. The house had eight
bedrooms, plus there were multiple small self-contained units on the property,
where the girls moved as they got older and more independent. Celebrations were
always huge in the Flanagan household.
    “What
about Mario and Jacinta?” The brother and sister had been living with Carmen
for two months now while the search for their mother continued.
    “We’ve
got a lead. Their mother might be in Wisconsin. We should know in the next week
or so.”
    “That’s
great.”
    The
situation in Central America was uncertain for many people. Mario’s mother had
fled the country for the United States in the hope of finding work, leaving her
children with her own mother. As she’d earned enough money, she’d sent it back
to help get her children out of the country, but because she wasn’t a legal
citizen, she never included her address.
    “It
is great,” Zita said with a sigh. “But I’ll miss them. Mario is so cheeky.”
    Bridget
gave her sister a hug. Zita had the softest heart of all of them. She always
got too attached. “You’ll stay in touch. You always do.” She picked up the
basket full of their harvest. “Come on, let’s get this inside.”

 
     
    Chapter 3
    On Monday morning Bridget arrived at work early
to catch the six o’clock shift. She always made an effort to meet with all the
operation technicians before they started to discuss any safety issues they
might not be aware of.
    She
walked into the supervisor’s office, placing her hard hat on the table.
“Morning, Joe.”
    Joe,
the outgoing shift supervisor, looked up from his computer. “Howdy, Bridge.
Why’d you have your phone off last night?”
    “Out
of range,” she lied. “Any problems?” She’d turned her
phone on this morning and had listened to the messages. The only good one was
from Jack, asking how her lunch had been. She hadn’t wanted to call him back so
early, so she’d saved