A Missing Key 218 Missed Calls One Family Secret novel Chapter 35

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After that day, Tiger didn’t come back for days.

My plate went right back to just fries and a tiny bit of ketchup.

But Mom seemed way happier. She stopped making me stand in corners and stopped yelling at me. She even gave me some leftover meat scraps from Cole’s plate once.

I couldn’t feel happy at all though.

I kept staring at the door, hoping that familiar shape would walk through again.

A week later, right when we were about to close up, Tiger finally showed.

He wasn’t alone. Behind him was a lady in a dress who looked really nice.

Tiger wasn’t wearing his usual black tank top today. Instead he had on a clean white t-shirt, and the tiger on his arm looked friendlier somehow.

He pulled out a chair for the lady, then sat across from me.

“Same as always,” he called out, then pulled something from his pocket and set it on the table in front of me.

It was a brand new pink backpack with a cute cartoon bunny on it.

I stared at that backpack and forgot to blink.

Mom and Dad both came out of the kitchen. They looked at Tiger, then at the backpack, with weird expressions on their faces.

“Tiger, what’s this about…”

Tiger ignored them. He just looked at me, his voice still rough but somehow different.

“Kid, take it. Tomorrow morning at eight, I’m picking you up for school.”

My heart felt like something slammed into it hard.

I slowly reached out and touched the backpack. Was it really mine? Could I really… go to school?

Then Cole suddenly burst out of the back room and grabbed the backpack, hugging it tight.

“Mine! The new backpack is mine!” he screamed.

Mom immediately ran over, trying to get the backpack away from him while coaxing:

“Baby, that’s sister’s. Mommy will buy you a new one tomorrow, a blue one with superheroes, okay?”

10:25

A Missing Key, 218 Missed Calls, One Family Secret

25.6%

something realy Sardom,

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