Later than night, Gloria went back downstairs to tie up some loose ends in the store. She had been in such a hurry to get everyone ready to go visit that she had put off preparing the bank deposit that she would need to drop off sometime tomorrow. She turned the dial to unlock her safe and fished out the baggie she put all of the cash into at the end of each day. She kept a running total of how much gross profit she'd earned, and she was the only one who knew the safe's combination. Considering Ceci's recent deception, this had probably been a wise decision, although it pained Gloria to admit that she could not trust her own daughter.

As she dumped the change into a pile on top of the counter top, Gloria grinded her teeth back and forth together. She'd almost left this to the morning, she was tired enough, but she'd known if she'd remained upstairs in the apartment with just Ceci awake, she would have confronted her right then and there and demanded some answers. Gloria didn't want to do that though; she didn't want to start an argument. So, she'd decided to finish up her work and leave Ceci in peace to complete the homework she'd been doing at the kitchen table. They'd talk in the morning, when they were both fresh, whether Ceci was receptive to her or not.

She'd certainly been quiet since she'd left the Reznikovs. This was not unusual in itself, but knowing that Ceci had lied to her at least once made everything she did feel clouded over with suspicion in Gloria's eyes. The obvious distance she'd sensed between her daughter and Nicky might not mean anything more than common drama between friends, or it might explain why Ceci had left the skating rink and been deceptive about how she had gotten home.

"Okay," Gloria murmured to herself, yawning loudly as she pulled out a stack of bills from the bag. Fives, tens, twenties...she sorted them all into separate piles to make it easier to count. She used a calculator to rack up her total, before matching the number to the sales revenue she'd printed off the computer.

"What the-" Gloria's brow creased when she realized that they didn't line up, and it wasn't a slight difference either. According to the End of Day paperwork, Gloria's deposit was short by one hundred and fifty dollars. A serious error, if ever there was one. She kept a running float of about one hundred dollars in change in her register. The end of each shift required counting out that original one hundred, before transferring the rest of the contents to the safe.

The only explanation Gloria could accept at the moment was that she had somehow miscounted in her hurry to get out the door before. She opened the cash register and immediately noticed that it looked no fuller than usual. Ignoring this, Gloria began to count anyway. Adding up every quarter, nickel, and dime until it totalled the expected one hundred. There was no extra money forgotten there. Still, Gloria refused to accept another possibility. She counted and recounted the money she had for deposit, checked in the safe, and under the counter for anywhere the money might have been misplaced. It did not turn up though.

Shoving the register and her deposit baggie impatiently back into the safe; Gloria turned the dial to secure it and then stormed up the stairs to her apartment in a trail of fury. It took all of her willpower to refrain from yelling. Julio and Benny had both fallen asleep on the cab ride home and had remained sleeping soundly when Elena and she had carried them up to bed. Gloria had waited until Elena had turned in herself, before she'd gone to finish up work, and she had no intention of disturbing any of her three. Though she did have several things to get out between her and Ceci.

"Where is it, Ceci?" Gloria had not intended to sound so accusatory, but as soon as she'd laid eyes on her daughter, all sense of reason went out the window. How could it be that the first time she'd left her unsupervised for a few minutes in the store, was the first time a significant amount of cash disappeared?

Ceci, stretched out on the living room sofa having completed all her homework, frowned as her mother flicked off the television. "What are you talking about?"

"The missing money," Gloria said sharply. "You know, if you needed some cash, all you had to do was ask."

"I don't know anything about that," Ceci replied indifferently. "But nice to know you don't trust me...great."

"Trust is earned," Gloria snapped. "You lost my trust when I discovered you lying about the most inconsequential things...Galina did not escort you home from skating last night, did she? So, how did you get home?"

"I took a cab myself," Ceci answered. "It's not rocket science…"

"It's not allowed!" Gloria exploded. "Terrible things can happen to little girls like you in New York City at night."

"I am not a little girl," Ceci seethed. "And terrible things can happen in Puerto Rico too, but you had no problem leaving me there all alone."

"You were never alone, Ceci," Gloria shook her head. "Do you want to go? We can go right now. Say what you need to say to get that ever-growing chip off of your shoulder."

"Actually, I don't want to say anything to you," Ceci replied, swinging her legs off the side of the sofa and getting to her feet. "I'm going to bed…"

"Not until you tell me what happened to that one hundred and fifty dollars," Gloria said. When her daughter tried to get around her anyway, she gripped tightly onto her shoulder.

"Let go of me," Ceci tried to shrug her off.

"Absolutely not," Gloria said calmly. "You're making yourself pretty hard to believe right now. If it was an honest mistake, just tell me. Otherwise, I don't know what I'm supposed to think…"

"Always assuming the worst of me, aren't you?" Ceci succeeded in breaking free of her mother's grasp. "I wasn't the only one you left unattended in that store, and I'm not the one with the history of stealing either…"

"You mean Nicky?" Gloria asked, but Ceci merely rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to go to the bedroom that she shared with her sister.

Gloria didn't stop her this time. She watched Ceci slam the door behind her with a thump. She'd like to have questioned her further, but now she had a possible explanation that did not incriminate her daughter, and it seemed more likely as well. Nicky did have a history of stealing that preceded her, and old habits were challenging to break. Gloria didn't see why Ceci would even hint at her friend being responsible if it wasn't true. Maybe this is why the girls had seemed so tense.

"Cecelia?"

"Go away," came the response in the dark. Gloria ignored this. She had given her daughter several minutes to cool down before she'd followed after her. The room was dark aside from the street lights shining through the window. Elena was fast asleep-Gloria could hear her heavy breathing, inhaling and exhaling at a steady pace. She sat down at the foot of Elena's bed and stared at Ceci.

"Do you think Nicky stole from me?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," Ceci said, after a moment's pause.

"You didn't see anything suspicious?" Gloria asked. "I wasn't gone that long…"

Ceci hesitated. "I didn't see anything…" she replied, "but she was behind the counter after you left and I wasn't watching her the whole time."

"Okay…" Gloria nodded.

"All I know is that it wasn't me," Ceci replied.

"I know," Gloria said. "I believe you."

"Yeah, right," Ceci scoffed.

"I do," Gloria said. "I should have considered the possibility that it was Nicky before I accused you because I know you wouldn't willingly get your friend in trouble for something she didn't do. She's just been staying out of trouble so well since she moved in with Galina."

"That's what you think," Ceci said dryly.

Gloria sighed and pushed up with her hands on her thighs. "You know I can't keep this to myself, right?"

"Just don't tell Nicky or Red that you heard it from me," Ceci said, burying her face against her pillow.

"Does any of this have something to do with why you left the skating rink last night?" Gloria asked.

"No comment," came the muffled reply. She was angry at Nicky, but she wasn't that angry. Just because she refused to take the blame for something her friend did, did not mean she wanted to be responsible for getting Nicky taken out of the best home she'd had and thrown back into a merciless system. She just hated being in the middle.

XXX

Once Gloria and her children had gone home for the night, Dmitri reclaimed his control over the television. He switched it back to his preferred channel and snacked on more of the dessert cake that his wife served to him. The apartment felt cozy and calm, with its three occupants going about their own business in close proximity to one another. Galina chatted on the phone happily to her youngest daughter-in-law, pausing when Nicky wandered in and out of the kitchen to get her signature on a permission slip for school and to ask her a question about homework.

"She seems very at home," Lida observed, once Galina came back on the line.

"I hope so," Galina said tentatively, watching Nicky walk back to her bedroom and shut the door. "I think she's comfortable..."

"I have no doubt," Lida affirmed. "The very first time Vasily brought me home you made me feel like I'd been a part of the family my whole life. It's a gift of yours."

"I love my family," Galina smiled. "The more of you, the better, as far as I'm concerned. That's why I need to get everyone back this weekend for a dinner or something. I'm not waiting until Christmas to have you all under the same roof with me again."

"We'll be there," Lida promised.

"I had Gloria and her kids over tonight," Galina said. "I wish you could have seen Benny. He has the chubbiest cheeks. You would not have been able to resist him."

"Stop hinting, Ma," Lida giggled. "You'll get grandchildren out of me when I'm good and ready. Upon which time, I fully expect you to be a very eager babysitter when Vasily and I want a night out. It will be exhausting. So, enjoy these quiet days with just Nicky while you still can."

"That I definitely am," Galina promised.

"She's a very lucky girl," Lida said. "Have you given more thought to making the situation permanent?"

"Yes," Galina said vaguely.

"Vasily told me," Lida said. "I think that's wonderful."

"I knew just as soon as we brought her home," Galina said softly, looking back towards Nicky's closed door. "She's been bounced around so much, the poor girl."

They spoke for a few minutes together, while Galina ran a damp cloth over all of the kitchen surfaces. Nicky had helped her wash the dishes, once their guests had left, and Galina hadn't been able to detect any cause for concern the way Gloria had. Nicky claimed that any tension felt was between the two sisters, since Ceci hadn't wanted her little sister hanging around. She talked her foster mother's ear off about everything under the sun and joked around in a way that reassured Galina that all was well in her little home.

"I'm heading to bed," Galina announced, hanging the cloth over the sink faucet to dry. She turned to look at her husband and had to roll her eyes at the sight of him snoring in his chair. Dmitri had cake crumbs down his front and dirty dishes stacked beside him. Deciding against waking him, Galina turned the TV off and dimmed the lighting. She picked up the blanket she had spread on the floor for Benny and tucked it around her husband. Then she picked up his dishes to go place in the sink.

On her way to the bathroom to shower and change into pajamas, Galina paused outside of Nicky's closed door. All was quiet, which was as it should be. There was no television allowed in the bedroom and even the radio wasn't supposed to be played when Nicky was doing her school work. She was expected to work on it every single evening after supper, but on the weekends, Galina was more flexible about when Nicky decided to do it. She still checked over it every single school night without fail.

At sixteen, perhaps it shouldn't have been necessary, but considering Nicky's history, Galina considered it to be simply good mothering to be vigilant about school work. Nicky had never given her any grief about it anyway. She knew what to expect and complied with all of Galina's rules with a level of agreeableness that perhaps should have been suspicious, if Galina hadn't been simply so pleased about it. And so, it was with a smile that Nicky greeted her twenty minutes later when she walked into her bedroom.

"Almost done," Nicky said, "I just have two more math problems to figure out." She was sitting cross legged on her bed with a binder open in front of her and books scattered around. Her backpack had tipped off of the mattress, spilling more books onto the floor.

"Very good," Galina praised, stepping over Nicky's backpack as she made her way over to sit on the small spot of available space left on the bed. She leaned her back against the wall and adjusted a button of her navy blue silk pajamas while she listened to the sound of Nicky's pencil scratching against the paper and waited for her to finish.

The bed they were sitting on, was a single that Yuri had slept in. Against the other wall was the set of bunk beds that Maxsim and Vasily had shared. She had kept them in case she was ever asked to foster multiple children, but since Nicky was her first and only, the only time they were utilized was when Ceci slept over and used the bottom bunk. The neatly made up top bunk had a cold, unfriendly look.

"Finished!" Nicky exclaimed, throwing her pencil down a few minutes later. She linked her fingers together and cracked her knuckles, which was a sound that made Galina involuntarily wince. "Do you want to check it?"

Galina held out her hand for Nicky's workbook and set it in her lap. She perched her reading glasses on the tip of her nose and stared down at the page. Trigonometry; Galina didn't remember how to do it, and strongly suspected they had probably changed how it was done since she'd been in school anyway. However, beside each problem was a long process of shown work, with multiple erase marks and rewrites to show that Nicky had taken the assignment seriously. Right or wrong, Galina was satisfied.

"You know, honey, I was wondering if you'd like to do some redecorating with me this week?" Galina asked, handing Nicky back her book.

"Like what?" Nicky asked skeptically. She leaned down to pick up her backpack from the floor and began stuffing books into it.

"Whatever you'd like," Galina replied. "We can paint the walls any colour you want. Maybe blue? If that's your favourite. Buy a new comforter, new curtains. Posters for the wall. We could even get rid of the bunk beds so you have more floor space. We have a cot folded up in our closet for guests anyway."

"Really?" Nicky asked, looking touched and a little embarrassed. She focused on stuffing all her books back into the backpack and then zipping it up slowly. She got up to set it on the floor by the door, and Galina waited until she was seated back on the bed with her before she continued.

"I'd like this to be your forever home, if you agree," she said gently, her talk with Lida making her feel brave.

Nicky's eyes lowered to the floor as she bowed her head in shame. As far as rooms went, this one with three beds crowded into it and a tiny closet was incomparable to the huge one she had grown up in. The bedroom in Marka's townhouse had been equipped with an ensuite bathroom and a walk-in closet on the fourth floor she shared with her nanny. Her mother worked long hours at the office and often hadn't been able to make it home before she was tucked in bed. Nicky loved the feeling of having parents right across the hall, mere steps away, and she felt a strong pang of guilt for the fact that was ruining everything for herself. Galina really had no idea.

"I'm the first kid you ever fostered," Nicky said dryly. "Don't you want to check out a few more before you go all in? I'll be eighteen and gone in less than two years anyway…"

"You don't have to be," Galina replied. "You can stay here and commute to college or whatever else you want. Even if you do decide to get a place of your own straight after high school, don't you think it would be nice to have a home to come back to whenever you want? I know my boys appreciate having that."

Nicky brought her legs up against her chest and rested her chin on top of them. "That's different though," she said gruffly.

"How is it different?" Galina asked patiently.

Nicky looked up at her with shiny brown eyes. "You're their mom," she said, before burying her face back against her knees. Her next words were muffled, but Galina could still make them out. "You're not my mom."

Those words hurt. Like a dagger to the heart. She may not have birthed Nicky; she had known her less than a year. Yet, she had been there daily devoting all of her focus and time to this girl, ahead of everyone else in her life. She provided for her, loved her, listened to her. She did everything a mother should do. In her opinion, she did it better now than she even had the first time with her sons, because she was older and wiser now. Though apparently that still didn't make her a mom.

"I know you miss her, Nicky," Galina said patiently. "You always will. You'll always love her, and yes, I know, she is always going to be your mom ahead of me. It's okay."

"No, it's not," Nicky mumbled into her legs again. "She doesn't deserve it. Just like I don't deserve you."

"It's okay to be mad at her for leaving," Galina said. "It doesn't mean you don't love her."

"That's not all I'm mad about," Nicky sniffled. She raised her head, and Galina saw that the tears that had been threatening to fall had been sliding now her girl's face this entire time. There were damp spots on the knees of Nicky's jeans.

"It's going to be okay, Nicky," was all Galina could think of to say. She took her chance, and stroked Nicky's hair off of her face. Some of her curls had stuck to her damp cheeks. "You're going to be just fine."

"I don't want to leave," Nicky's voice was pleading. She shot a nervous glance at her foster mother, who realized at once that even after expressing her own desire to make this situation permanent, that Nicky still had serious doubts. Perhaps even more than before, as a consequence of not responding in the way Galina had hoped. Maybe it was all too much, too soon. Just Lida bringing it up had made Galina hopeful they could begin the process now.

"You're not going anywhere," Galina whispered. She moved closer to Nicky on the bed and placed an arm around her waist. She was surprised when Nicky fell back into her, weight crushing against her chest as Nicky openly cried. Desiring nothing else but to be held.

"I miss her," Nicky trembled.

Galina tightened the hold she had on her girl. "Of course, you do," she soothed.

"But she wasn't like...this," Nicky stammered, leaving more heavily into Galina's embrace. "She wasn't a mom like you are."

"I'm glad we're not the same," Galina replied. "Then, maybe, there's enough room in your heart for the both of us. Do you think we could give it a try?"

Nicky nodded her head. She turned her neck and bestowed an affectionate kiss to the silk sleeve covering Galina's arm. It was damp from the tears she couldn't stop crying.

"I'm sorry the world has been so cruel to you," Galina said, rubbing firm circles on Nicky's back. Her mother had died three years ago, she'd gone to live with her estranged father who rejected her when her behaviour became too disruptive. That had preceded many different foster homes, as well as a stint in Juvie, for allegedly stealing cash from a teacher's purse and being picked up by police several different times for skipping school.

"You are so loved," she soothed, repeating the words again, as Nicky crumbled against her. "And you're my girl. There is nothing that could change that."

"Do you promise?" Nicky trembled.

"I promise," came the reply.

Thank you for reviewing A Star in My Universe, wallscollide, galinareznikovlove, whenaspritemeetsaunicorn, Johanna-002, and guest.