Page 59 of Neverland

I was crying. Tears of anger and the sorry feeling of defeat. “We had a deal.”

He looked at me as if I was just a simpleton. “You think I give a fuck about a deal? Get the fuck out of here and don’t bother coming back for your next shift. We’re done.”

“You can’t.” I was breathless, feeling faint. But when I looked up, he was gone, and so was my last sliver of hope.

~~~

I stood outside my apartment at twelve-fifteen, clutching my aching ribs and staring at the sign pinned to the door.

Locks changed.

Even if I had arrived on time, it wouldn’t have mattered. It looked like Gerald had the locks changed just after I left for work, given I was only fifteen minutes late. Banging my fist against the door, I sobbed. Tired, exhausted and hurting, I wondered why bad luck followed me like a shadow. I just couldn’t shake it.

Taking to the flight of stairs, one step at a time, I winced as each movement felt like another blow to the ribs. There was the very likelihood that Franco had fractured or broken some.

The night had been hot and humid when I left The Boardroom and now rain was starting to fall. The only place I knew to go was the women’s shelter. They’d accept me if they weren’t full but still, getting there was going to prove difficult. Using the walls to keep me upright, I moved at a snail’s pace. I could barely breathe and every time I did, it felt like a knife twisting into my ribs. The rain went from gentle to heavy in a heartbeat, droplets clinging to my mascaraed eyelashes. I blinked them away and searched the street for shelter.

Everything seemed so out of reach and knowing I couldn’t make it, I broke down. Collapsing to my knees, I raised my face to the black and angry sky and cried. I cried for the punishments life kept cruelly dishing out one after another, and for the excruciating agony I was in. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, rain bouncing off the road at least a foot in the air. When I opened my eyes, I saw a figure standing in the middle of the dark street, his hands stuffed into his raincoat pockets. I watched as he walked closer, his figure emerging from the shadows and into the glow of the streetlamp.

I recognized his face the second I saw it. A face that belonged to a ghost from the past. A ghost I prayed I’d never see again.

“Well, well, well,” Dominic Salvatore smiled from ear to ear. “Look what I’ve just found. Little Lucy ran away from home and now here she is, on her knees in front of me.”

“I didn’t run away,” I yelled over the crack of thunder. My heart was beating out of my chest seeing Dominic again.

He threw his head back and laughed and I wondered what he found so funny. Perhaps the idea of the girl he once obsessed over was found on her knees in the street unable to hide from the pouring rain. I wiped my eyes so I could see him clearly. Dominic would be eighteen. He still had the same chiseled jaw, and black as black eyes. The only difference was he was taller and his shoulders broader.

“Why are you in the streets, Lucy?” The tone in his voice rattled my soul, almost like he had a particular answer in mind so he could capitalize on it. The street was empty, no one else to ask for help. Using the wall for balance, I rose slowly to my feet. With each small step I took away from Dominic, the worse the stabbing pains became.

“Where are you going?” he asked, amused at my response.

I quickened the pace even though he’d be able to catch me with just a few strides. I knew there was a café around the corner, I just had to get there. But it wasn’t meant to be. Biting my bottom lip to stifle the sobs, I breathed too deeply and fell into crippling agony. Collapsing to the ground, I landed in a puddle on the dirty street.

Dominic’s shoes appeared in front of me. Expensive shoes. Shoes too good to be out in this weather. “Are you hurt?”

I nodded.

“Do you need help, Lucy?” There was that soul-rattling tone again.

I nodded once more.

“Take my hand.”

Blinking against the heavy rain, I met his eyes, the street lamp behind casting deep shadows on his face. A flash of lightning lit up the street like it was daytime, and was followed seconds later by a booming crack of thunder which rattled everything around us. A cold chill ran up my spine but it wasn’t from the weather. With an outstretched hand and a small, knowing smile on his face, Dominic Salvatore gave me a choice.

“If you take my hand, I can give you everything you need and you’ll be off the streets. Don’t take my hand and I will walk away right now and leave you here. What’s it gonna be, Lucy?”

I had no other option. I was all out of them the second I left for work. If I were to be honest, having options had never been a luxury of mine. They especially weren’t an option when I’d been put on a Greyhound bus and sent to live four states away with an Uncle and Aunty who resented me before I even arrived.

Dominic’s black eyes twinkled. Turning his hand, palm up, he waited patiently and when I placed my hand in his hand, his ear-to-ear smile returned. He lifted me off the street and pulled me close, his mouth grazing my ear. “All good deeds come with a price, Lucy.”

On a fateful, dark and stormy night, being pelted with rain and with nothing left to lose, I sold my soul to a ghost from the past. A ghost who had every intention of making me pay.

~~~

“This apartment is all for me?” I asked, wide-eyed and doubtful.

Dominic held his arms out wide and looked around the bedroom. “It sure is. I said I’d give you a job and a roof over your head, didn’t I?”

---