A Missing Key 218 Missed Calls One Family Secret novel Chapter 50

Chapter 1

Everyone said my mama was blind. Crazy. But only I knew the truth-

She couldn’t see clearly. Could barely get around. But that wasn’t blind. She just had really bad vision.

Sometimes she’d say words nobody understood. But that wasn’t crazy. I looked them up in the dictionary-benzene ring. People just didn’t know what it meant.

But when I tried explaining, Daddy would beat me and Mama both.

So Mama stopped talking. Stopped going outside. Her eyes went dull. Empty.

Until one day my teacher told us something: “The farther a mother runs, the farther her child can run.”

My heart jumped.

That day, I snuck Miss Carter’s thick glasses home and put them on Mama.

Grabbed five hundred bucks from Daddy’s stash and shoved them in her torn pocket.

“Mama, do you want to run?”

Behind the glasses, her eyes suddenly focused.

Then, the next second, they went hollow again.

“If I leave… what happens to you?”

“You little shit! You steal from me?!”

No! Dad! If he finds out, we’re done!!

I shoved Mama toward the door with everything I had.

“Mama! Run! Don’t look back! RUN!!!”

Daddy’s belt came down hard.

Again and again.

11:27 C

A Missing Key, 218 Missed Calls, One Family Secret

36.8%

Chapter 1

Finally he stopped.

They tied me up with rope and threw me in the shed.

Engines started. Got quieter and quieter till they were gone.

I lay there on the old hay, trying to breathe.

Tasted blood in my mouth.

Probably the broken rib got my lung.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify