Page 106 of Borden 3

“Come back,” I whispered, prodding him in the chest.

But Borden looked flayed wide open, unable to respond or even look at me.

“We gotta be careful leaving?” Hawke wondered as he helped Hector along.

Borden barely blinked, stating matter-of-factly, “They’ll be gone by now.”

I turned around, looking at all the puzzles and toy boxes still scattered around the place. What about Stasia’s toys? Did Theo leave it all behind every time? Was that why she said he always got her stuff? My heart sank.

Before we left, I made sure to grab the space puzzle.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Emma

Past

I felt like I was living two lives. One half of me was invested in my life at home with Granny. She never stopped trying, and I was starting to realise she had a never ending reserve of effort. I still held back, despite feeling a desire to open up to her.

But I had Theo, and that was the other half of me I was invested in. Our nights out with the kids our age. With the fun parties and the sneaky spots he took me to. With the fights that Theo always came out on top of, and the night breeze on my face when I ran, and he chased me.

Yes, this was a double life. I was dangling between living on the line. Being the perfect granddaughter. The perfect honour roll student. The young girl with hopes and dreams. Pretending to be happy. Pretending—pretending—pretending, until I hoped it would stick.

The other part dangled precariously over darkness. It represented the unknown. An exciting venture into a world where bleeding hearts could come together and survive against the pains of our past. We’d been discarded by our parents and forgotten. We were invisible to the real world, but amongst us bleeding hearts, we saw each other.

We existed.

We were important.

???

It was another fight night. It seemed like they were happening more and more lately. I pushed through the throng of teenagers, trying to get to the ring and to Theo. I frowned, noticing a lot of these kids weren’t part of our Lost crew. They needed him more than these strangers. Didn’t Theo know that?

I found Theo in the centre, making bets with the kid he was fighting against. They’d pooled their money in a basket. More shit was being added. A golden chain. A cell phone. The boy he was fighting was named Miles and he didn’t look like a boy at all, but an actual young man with tattoos everywhere. His hair was long, and he looked hard but not the sort of hard we bumped into on our side of town.

Theo noticed the looks I was giving the guy. He grinned and whispered in my ear, “He’s a poser. I’m going to wipe the floor clean of him.”

“Then be quick about it. I thought we were going for a walk together.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Except he was missing it for a fight.

I ground my teeth together, channelling some patience. He got his hands all taped up. So did the other guy. It felt a little more real with that boxing tape. Like this wasn’t a silly little punch up the boys got into every now and again for stuff. In fact, there was a lot of stuff. I stared down at the winning basket, piled high. I saw a bag of white stuff and my frown turned to alarm.

Theo had said he’d dumped the backpack.

I looked back up at him. He was talking to the boys. There was a smile on his face, like he was at peace, except his body was tight. Something was up with him.

I came closer to him, and then he looked at me. “Hey.”

I pressed my hand against his cheek, redirecting his face to look at me. I stared into his eyes, trying to see if his pupils were dilated. They seemed normal.

“What is it?” Theo asked.

“Just looking.”

No, he wasn’t high. I relaxed my shoulders.

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