Page 8 of Out to Find Freedom

I sucked down a shocked breath. Poisoned and taken?

“It was nearly six months ago,” the woman pointed out. She made it sound as if it was years, not months.

The man dropped his box, glared at the woman, and stormed back around the front of the house. Out of my sight.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about it in front of Declan,” the woman suggested.

“Maybeyou shouldn’t be blasé about it, Mum,” the boy snapped.

The woman stepped over to him, took the box out of his arms, and placed it down. She cupped his cheeks. My heart gave a lurch at her gentleness.

“I know. I’m sorry. Promise I won’t make light of it again.”

He nodded, she smiled, and then they hugged, but the teen pushed her away when more people came down the side.

Moving back, I leaned against the wall. My chest rose and fell rapidly.

I wanted that.

A family who cared.

But I no longer had anyone who would.

I understood why God wanted to take Dad away. He was wonderful, caring, and just an amazing person. God probably needed him for some saintly duty.

But it left me alone.

Alone to deal with Gloria and Lenny. Both of them didn’t have a caring, nice bone in their body.

Never would have I known just how things would change in my life after losing Dad.

I hadn’t known the hell I would be forced into.

Hadn’t realised people could be so cruel, disgusting, and sadistic.

But there were people like that.

And I was under the same roof with two of them.

They hated me. I had something over them, something that could destroy them like they deserved. I didn’t understand why they didn’t kill me already, until about six months ago when Lenny was being loud and talking shit on the phone.

“Yeah, brother, we still got her. You want a piece of her?” He paused. My throat closed over to keep the bile from rising. “Ha, you being funny. Nah, she’d be pure. You’d have to pay a mil’ or I might just have a go myself.” I clutched my stomach. “We’re keepin’ her until she gets her inheritance. We want the big, fat pile of money; then she’s dead. So you got some time to make up your mind. Six years.”

It was a few weeks after that call when I found out what Lenny meant by “having a go himself.” I’d been sitting on the bed in the dark, just glancing up at the sky, waiting for a falling star to wish upon. It sounded ridiculous, but my luck had ended the day Dad died, and I thought just once, some miracle could happen and I would awaken from this nightmare.

A few seconds after, I learned luck was a crock of shit.

I’d heard the front door burst open. I’d jolted and gripped my knees to my chest tighter. Closing my eyes, I’d prayed the staggering footsteps would continue to the bedrooms.

But they stopped.

Just outside the basement door.

The door banged open, and Lenny stumbled down the stairs. “’Dere she is,” he’d slurred.

My body chilled, noticing his hungry eyes running over me. My heart spiked.

I hated it.

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