My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 529

Chapter 529

It didn’t help.

The cold crept through my clothes. I pulled my jacket tighter. For a while I watched people pass. Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going. I didn’t.

Three days.

Three whole days.

And I was no closer to finding my mother than when I stepped off that bus.

A laugh almost escaped me, not because anything was funny because if I didn’t laugh, I might cry.

My eyes drifted upward. The sky above Chicago glowed faintly orange from the city lights.

I thought about Mom. I wondered if she was looking at the same sky. I wondered if she knew I was here. If she was searching for me too.

My eyelids felt heavy, exhaustion wrapped around me like a blanket, just for a minute, just until I figured out what to do next, just until I rested my eyes.

I curled slightly against the bench. My cheek pressed against the cold metal armrest.

My stomach still hurt, my feet still hurt, everything hurt but eventually even hunger lost against exhaustion.

My eyes closed.

And alone in a city of millions of people, with nowhere to go and nobody to call, I fell asleep on a park bench beneath the Chicago night sky.

–

A hand touched my shoulder. I jerked awake so violently that I nearly fell off the bench.

For a second I had no idea where I was, there was darkness, cold air, streetlights.

The park.

Chicago.

My heart immediately began pounding.

A woman stood a few feet away with both hands raised, “Easy.”

I scrambled backward anyway, clutching my backpack against my chest. Every horrible possibility rushed through my mind at once.

Daddy or one of his people. Someone sent to drag me back. The woman blinked, then her face softened.

“Oh, honey,” her voice sounded genuinely concerned, “What are you doing out here?”

I didn’t answer. My father taught me to never trust strangers, especially not kind ones.

The woman sighed softly, “Alright.”

She lowered herself onto the opposite end of the bench, not too close, just enough to show she wasn’t leaving.

1/3

+15 B

“I’ll go first then.”

I remained completely silent. The woman looked like she was somewhere in her early fifties. A little round around the middle, soft face, soft eyes. The kind of face that looked like it smiled a lot.

Her dark coat looked expensive but worn. She reminded me a little of the teachers who used to sneak me extra cookies when they thought nobody was looking.

“My name is Denise,” a small smile appeared, “Denise Walker.”

I said nothing.

Denise looked up at the sky dramatically, “Well, this is awkward. I’ve been talking to girls like you for twenty years. Usually I can get at least one word.”

I tightened my grip on my backpack. Her eyes dropped briefly to my clothes, the dirt, the exhaustion, the dark circles under my eyes and then her expression changed.

“You been out here long?”

I still said nothing.

“Do you have somewhere to stay?”

Still nothing.

“Do you have family?”

Nothing.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify