A/N: I was walking around Central Park East in a dress in 30 degree weather, filming a movie. It was insane...
"Will you hold, please?"
"Yes, I'll hold." Elena adjusted her sunglasses and cradled her cell phone between the side of her head and her shoulder. With both of her hands free, she dug in her handbag and fished out her compact. Dabbing some powder onto her nose, she listened to the never-ending elevator music.
There was a shuffling. "Hello?"
Elena put the sponge into the compact and set it down on the table in front of her. "Hello? Debbie?"
"Ah, it's you. You receive the money?" Reno's grandmother's voice sounded hollow… distant.
Elena smiled. "Of course I did. So," Elena switched ears and leant back comfortably in the metal chair of the outdoor café. "How's prison life?"
There was a grumble. "Not. Good." Deborah grunted. "You'd think they'd treat me better, but what do I get? I just get a cell, all by my self. But y'know what Elena? If one person in my cell block smells like shit-everyone else does."
"That's… marvelous." Elena took a sip of her water. "But can I ask you another thing?"
"Yeah, go ahead, hon."
"Why do you want to hurt Reno so bad?"
There was an obvious pause on the other end, and a sigh.
"Deborah?"
"Elena, my daughter Ida was… how you say… perfect. She did her chores, never spoke back, and was completely innocent… until she met the boyfriend from hell."
"Reno's father." Elena answered. Well duh, it was Reno's father, who else could it be?
There was another long sigh. "Jack got her pregnant. My husband and I were going through a difficult time already, and Ida had to get pregnant at sixteen. I went over my head moving out and taking Ida with me. I had to pay the hospital bills for Reno's birth, had to buy all the baby things, since Ida was underage and had only a part-time job as a waitress at a restaurant. And to think… she died on Reno's first birthday."
"She died?"
"Hit by a drunk driver."
"I'm sorry-
"No need." Deborah's concise, emotionless interjection spoke through the phone. "I didn't even raise her right anyways."
"So you want Reno to get hurt just because you had to go through a lot to take care of him?"
"If you put it simply, yes."
"You're… sick."