Page 66 of Darkest Deception

Mum left, I never met my dad, and now I only have her.

So I swallow.

Squashing the need for food and wanting to help my sister, I slowly open my hand, revealing the ten-pound note.

Her eyes widen.

“Did you hide this from me?” she grits out.

I flinch. “No, I was going to give it to you for food and—”

“You hid it from me because I get to eat and you don’t?”

How could she think that?

I shake my head, but her eyes look crazy.

“You did, didn’t you? You think I can eat and dress well and you can’t, so you hide money from me to keep it for yourself? You think I’m doing drugs and it is ruining your life, right?” She shakes me once more, her nails digging into my shoulder, and I hiss.

The wind picks up, wrapping around me, and my teeth start clattering.

“No, it hurts, Nala.” I cry out when I feel her nails dig deeper, the pain searing through my skin, deep into my flesh.

“You hate me, is that right?” she shouts in my face, and for a second, I don’t recognise her.

She shoves me away, grabs the money, and jumps out of the window. I am left in silence. For the next three days, I stay there, hungry, cold, and waiting for Nala. She never comes.

Just as the winter is freezing over London, it also slowly starts to freeze my heart.

A thud awakens me. I get up, blinking, only to see Nala.

I smile, jumping up.

“Nala! I—”

She brought a friend with her.

A guy.

Now that I notice, she is dressed very nicely. She looks clean, showered, and her cheeks are a little red. Is she still cold?

“Helia, meet my boyfriend, Kaden.”

I have a bad feeling.

Why did she bring him here when we have nothing to offer? In our hiding place?

And then I watch them take more of that powder. They laugh, drink alcohol, and then their frenzied eyes turn towards me. Nala watches as Kaden reaches out to the small corner I am huddled in and touches my eyes.

“Oh, how beautiful your eyes are,” he murmurs, his speech slurred, his eyes bright red. “You will grow to be pretty. Pretty eyes, pretty hair, pretty face.”

Something twists in my stomach, and I try to move away from his touch, but he slaps me, keeping me in place.

My cheek burns.

“You stay still, boy, or I might just carve these eyes out, so no one touches or wants you.”

I frantically look for Nala, but she’s lying motionless on the cold floor.

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