Chapter 329
KESTER.
I sat in the living room, hunched over the controller, with my eyes glued to the TV screen as the video game blared through the speakers when I heard Dad’s car in the parking lot.
They were here.
I had already rehearsed this moment over and over in my head like a scene from a movie, and I was certain I’d do even better than how I had it planned out in my head.
Ignore them. Don’t speak. Don’t look. Just keep your eyes on the TV nd pretend they don’t exist.
Simple.
I turned the volume up a notch.
I heard giggles.
They were already a happy family without me. But it wasn’t new to me. Whoever the little girl who’d now become his new daughter was should be happy she met the monster when he was in his pretentious era.
She probably thought she’d just won the jackpot. Got herself a daddy
I couldn’t wait for her to learn how wrong she was.
The front door creaked open.
I didn’t even turn to look.
The maids followed behind, dragging in glossy suitcases and fancy bags with golden zippers. The heavy luggage was carried upstairs.
I could feel them stop behind me but I kept my gaze focused on the game, pretending I didn’t hear the tiny exhale Dad always made when he was trying not to lose his temper.
“Kester,” he called, clearing his throat.
But I didn’t move.
“Kester,” he tried again in a firmer tone.
I still said nothing. He didn’t deserve a reaction.
There was silence… And then, snap!
The controller was yanked from my hands, the plastic digging into my fingers before it slipped free.
I shot up, my body gong stiff, with my head turning slowly like a machine until my eyes locked with his.
I looked him dead in the eye.
He stared back like he was daring me to speak, his jaw twitching like it always did when he was pissed but trying to act calm.
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“Be good,” he said in a low ang light voice, ‘Greet your new mother.
I didn’t blink.
New mother?
He said it like I could just swap my real Mum out for a replacement ke changing a battery.
I slowly turned my head to the woman standing beside him.
Jorja.
She smiled at me. I guess she thought I was some kid who could be won over with a plate of cookies and a hug.
“Hello, Kester,” she said, all warm and fake and patient.
Her smile made something in me twist.
I didn’t answer her. I just stared at her like she was a cardboard cutout. Maybe she was. Because I only saw her as a background prop in the nightmare my father was trying to make my reality.
Then, I heard someone else speak… Someone I hadn’t even noticed.
Hello, Kester.” The voice was soft, clear, sweet, and a little shy.
My gaze immediately snapped sideways, past Jorja.
The voice sparked something in me.
I blinked when my eyes rested on her.
She was the one… The girl who had saved my life by wishing me a happy birthday on my 11th birthday.
My throat burned like I’d swallowed something wrong.
She smiled again, and my heart, the one I thought was all scabbed over and cold, did something awful.
It ached.
Immediately, all I had practiced, all my defiance… Everything just came crumbling at once.
I walked past my “little sister” as she sat cross–legged on the floor, her eyes glued to one of those bright, squeaky cartoons kids her age seemed to love. I just hoped she was too distracted to notice me slipping upstairs.
But with Kasmine, hope was never enough.
She’d been trying so hard to get close to me these past four months. ever since she and her mother moved in. Always smiling, always giggling, always offering her damn gummy bears and weird–shaped cookies like that was enough to make me smile. She was always ready with her tiny arms thrown open like she could offer me the kind of warmth I needed.
I didn’t want a sibling.
I had wanted her as a friend once before everything changed. But this new version of me, this colder, emptier me… didn’t need
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friends. I didn’t want warmth.
didn’t want
to be coaxed into
silly
ganes of pulled into family dinners of hugged
goodnight.
I didn’t
to feel better. I didn’t want
to feel anything.
I loved
being alone. But she kept pushing
“Kester!”
Oh, yeah! There she
comes!
I quickened my steps and slammed the door shut behind me, my
jaw clenched tight.
But she never took a hint.
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