Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Lewis was going to come over to study, but I was in a crap mood, so I told him to hang out with Callie instead. He tried his best not to be a bad friend by not forgetting about me, but I knew he enjoyed any chance he could to hang out with his girlfriend. I let him off the hook and trudged home, hoping Mum would be gone when I got there.
When I stepped in the door, I stumbled to a stop.
The living room had been ransacked. Cushions torn off our old sofa, the drawers in the sideboard pulled out, contents everywhere.
“Mum?” I called out, dropping my heavy backpack.
Nothing.
A feeling came over me.
A knowing.
“Fuck!” I bit out, rushing toward my bedroom.
Sure enough, it was completely upended.
And the drawer where I kept a stash of my money in a sock was on the bed, the socks all unraveled.
The money was gone.
Heart racing, I pulled up the rug by my bed and pressed down on the floorboard. It popped up and I sagged in relief when I found the majority of my earnings still secure. I’d planted the sock money as a red herring because I knew one day she’d look for it.
Getting up, I stalked into her bedroom and halted again.
Her closet was open and every item in it was gone. As was the suitcase she’d kept in there. She’d never taken all her things before.
And I knew. Deep in my bones.
This time, she was gone for good.
I stumbled back and lowered myself to her unmade bed. My chest ached. A dull, throbbing pain near my sternum.
But there was relief too.
And that made me feel as bad as the pain.
I tossed my glasses onto the bed and buried my head in my hands, shoulders shaking as I cried quietly in the silence of her empty bedroom.
Tears were the last thing I ever let that woman take from me.
The knock at the door had me wiping my face and eyes and reaching for my glasses. It was possible it was Deirdra and that she’d heard Mum make the commotion when she tore up the place. Hurrying through the mess to the front door that led straight into the living room, I yanked it open.
And then froze.
Lewis’s wee sister, Eilidh, stood on the other side.
She was two years younger than us at fourteen, but with her height and confidence, she could pass for our age.
“What are you doing here?”
Eilidh shrugged with dramatic exaggeration. Since she’d started taking acting classes down in Glasgow during the summer (she’d even been on a Scottish TV show), Eilidh’s natural drama had gone up a level or two. “I haven’t been able to find my copy of It Happened One Summer since we went camping before school started.” She pushed past me before I could stop her. “And I wondered if—” She stopped talking abruptly as she gaped at the mess.
My pulse jumped. The last person I wanted to find out about this was Eilidh. Despite her having flirted with me since she was eleven years old, I’d found Lewis’s sister cute rather than annoying. Even when I agreed to let her sleep in my tent on the aforementioned camping trip and she’d prattled on and on about silly stuff until I eventually fell asleep.
But Eilidh was all about the drama, and I did not need that kind of reaction to this situation.
She whirled on me, her long dark curls whipping with the movement. Her blue eyes were striking against her olive skin and right now they were huge. “Fyfe, did you get robbed? Should we call the police?” She waved her hands frantically at the mess.
Fuck.
I slammed the front door shut. I honestly didn’t know whether to be more annoyed with her terrible excuse to come round to my house and flirt with me, or the fact that I now had to explain the truth to someone when I’d had no intention of sharing the news about my mother’s abandonment with anyone.
“I didn’t get robbed and you’re not telling anyone about this.”
Eilidh gaped. “What am I not telling them?”
Narrowing my eyes, I wagged a finger at her. “If I tell you, I mean it, Eilidh—it stays between us. I’ll never forgive you if you tell.”
To my surprise, her expression softened with sympathy. Her tone was sincere as she replied, “I promise, Fyfe. I won’t tell anyone. What’s going on?”
At first, I was so surprised by her maturity and measured reaction that it took me a second to respond. Then I couldn’t meet her eyes. “Mum left. Permanently. But first she tossed the place, looking for my money.”
Suddenly, Eilidh’s arms were around me, her cheek pressed to my chest as she squeezed me tight. I stiffened in her embrace, my anger rushing forth. Fury at my mum, and at Eilidh for being here when I wanted to be alone. My first thought was that she was using this moment to get close to me, which pissed me off.