It wasn’t like Mandy was a complete stranger to nice neighborhoods or anything, but damn, this was a nice neighborhood. Sprawling houses, manicured lawns. Not a single payday loan or liquor store in sight. Good for Svetlana. Apparently, third husband was the charm.
Kind of made her feel like her entire reason for tracking Svetlana down and driving all the way out here was for nothing, to be honest. If she was loaded now, had things under control, what could Mandy possibly have to offer her? What good would a few hundred dollars possibly be to someone who lived in a place like this?
But, she argued with herself, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel of her car as she leaned forward to read the addresses on the sides of the houses she was passing, if this was Svetlana’s husband’s money, if this was Svetlana’s husband’s house, maybe she wasn’t all that squared away herself. Maybe she’d appreciate having a little something just for her, and her son.
She found the right house easily enough, and pulled into their long, winding driveway to park her car. She hoped that her arrival in the middle of the afternoon would mean that Svetlana would be home, and that her husband wouldn’t be. She steeled her nerves and grabbed her bag, climbed out of her car and made her way up the porch. She knocked a couple of times on the door, and then spotted a doorbell, so she rang that as well.
Either Svetlana or some grumpy old British butler would answer, she figured, and then she could hurry up and get this over with.
