Chapter 20

ALANA I PUT THE PHONE DOWN AND SMILED TO MYSELF. ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL CALL to a local businessman had just got us twenty-thousand dollars closer to our new building. I’d been working at the shelter for four weeks now and I loved it here. Hugo accompanied me every day, and while men weren’t usually allowed inside the place, he was given special permission by Kristen, as long as he kept to himself and stayed with me at all times. That rule had lasted about five minutes though, because the kids loved him, and they were constantly pestering him to play soccer or baseball or check out some video game. More often than not, he politely refused because he rarely let me out of his sight. But now that I had my own lockable office, he was a little more open to giving in to the kids requests occasionally. I had told him to go and have fun about half an hour earlier, when I’d known I wouldn’t be leaving the office for a while. The women and c