A Missing Key 218 Missed Calls One Family Secret novel Chapter 37

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Life was sweet as honey.

At the end of the semester, I got first place in my class.

I clutched my two perfect test papers and ran all the way home from school.

Uncle Tiger scooped me up and lifted me high, rubbing his stubbly chin all over my face.

“That’s my girl! You’re making your old man proud!”

I’d almost forgotten about that tiny burger joint and the people who used to be my parents.

Until one day after school, I saw a familiar figure at the school gate.

It was my “mom.”

She looked thinner and darker, with this fake smile plastered on her face as she walked toward me.

“Mia…” She wrung her hands. “Come home with Mommy for a visit, okay? Your little brother… misses you.”

I instinctively stepped back, hiding behind Uncle Tiger who’d come to pick me up.

I didn’t want to go back.

In that place, I was always hungry.

I got beaten… and there was no love.

Uncle Tiger shielded me, his face darkening. “What are you doing here? Already blew through the money?”

My “mom’s” face twitched, then she forced that smile again. “Tiger, what are you saying? We just missed the kid… That fifty thousand, we never touched it. We’ve been saving it all for her…”

“Really?”

“Because I heard you sold the burger joint, your husband’s gambling at the card parlor every day, and your son got pulled out of that preschool.”

Her face went white as a sheet.

Caught in her lie, she plopped down on the ground and started wailing.

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A Missing Key, 218 Missed Calls, One Family Secret

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Chapter 5

“I can’t live like this! We gave you our daughter, and you’re living it up while we can’t even afford to eat! Where’s the justice!”

Her screaming drew a crowd of parents and students. They all started pointing and staring at us.

I grabbed Uncle Tiger’s shirt, scared.

Then my old “dad” and Cole came charging out from around the corner.

“Dad” pointed right at Uncle Tiger’s nose and yelled:

“Tiger! Don’t push us around! We agreed on fifty grand, and now you’ve got us backed into a corner! What’s your

game?”

Cole ran straight at me, trying to grab my backpack:

“Bad sister! You stole all our family’s money! Give it back!”

This backpack was from Aunt Sarah, with a little photo charm of our family of three at the amusement park hanging

from it.

It was my treasure.

He shoved me and I stumbled, but I held onto that backpack for dear life.

This time, I didn’t cry.

Looking at the three of them, I felt angry.

Before Uncle Tiger could lose it again, I stepped out from behind him.

I stood up straight, looked at that woman crying on the ground, and used every bit of strength I had to say clearly:” You’re not my mom.”

The crying stopped dead. She stared at me in disbelief.

Then I turned to the man pointing at my dad’s nose.

“And you’re not my dad.”

Finally, I looked at Cole trying to steal my backpack.

“I don’t have a home, and I don’t have a brother.”

I held up my backpack for everyone to see that little photo charm.

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A Missing Key, 218 Missed Calls, One Family Secret

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Chapter 5

“These are my real mom and dad. This is my real home.”

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