Page 26 of Broken

Nova

All I could feel for days after was his fingers. The way his hands had dug into my flesh as he had pushed me up against the wall. His hands had more than likely killed people, and yet when he had touched me, I hadn’t cringed.

I’d almost welcomed it.

No.

It wasn't going to happen. Whatever stupid game this man had thought he was going to play with me. I wasn't going to play. He thought that he had me under his thumb because he knew about my living situation. What he hadn't known was the very next day, I was going to get the twins up early and pack up everything we owned into black trash bags. When I awoke them at six-thirty in the morning, after sitting up all night because I was paranoid as hell, they hadn't asked questions. They only packed their things, yawning as they did so, and we'd caught the bus to the apartment complex.

That’d been two weeks ago.

My place was furnished, and the twins were getting ready for a Halloween party. Yara was dressed as a cute pirate, and Des was dressed as a vampire. They refused to do dress alike costumes. They let me snap a ton of photos before they left out.

I walked them to the door, and I could already tell they were in a rush. "Okay, you two know the drill."

"Yeah, yeah," Des said.

"Be home by 11 o'clock on the dot," Yara finished.

I’d been telling them this all day. It had taken a lot for me to relent and let them go out at all. I did have to face the fact that the twins were growing up and they needed to have some fun. For too long, they'd been cooped up in that motel room living like they had.

"Love y’all, be safe," I said, and they waved me off.

Closing the door, I locked the bottom lock. They both had keys so they could get back with no problem. Padding over to the fridge, I pulled out a fancy bottle of wine I had bought at the grocery store. Pouring a glass, I mused to myself about how good life felt right now. Money was in the bank and we had a roof over our heads and dare I mention Netflix and Hulu.

The peach wine tasted delicious as it fizzed and buzzed on my taste buds. It went down so smooth I surprised myself with another glass within moments. Across the room, my phone started buzzing, and I saw it was Astrid calling me.

"Hey girl, hey," I said when she answered.

"Hey girl," she replied.

The mood had shifted. Something must have happened with the latest lover boy, and that was why she was calling. Pouring another glass, I sat down on my couch and got comfortable.

"What's wrong, you don't sound like yourself?"

She sighed loudly in such an exaggerated way that I had to hold the phone away from my ear for a moment before listening in again. "Capone...he wants to start a family, girl."

"Oh..." It was all I could muster.

"It's not that I don't love him," she started. "But..."

Chiming in, I said, "Babe, if there's a but you can't be ready then. Where is he anyway?"

"He left. I took the baby trick-or-treating and wore her out, and when I came back, he was gone. Probably went out to go to his boy’s house. Think he said something about that earlier in the week."

"Yeah, it's quiet over my way," I said. "Twins wanted to go out...God, remember when we used to be out partying our asses off in high school."

She laughed on the other end. "Yes. And Derek Randall used to throw those huge parties when his parents would go out of town."

"We are so old now," I replied.

"Girl stop...I am not. In fact, I want to go out soon. Me and Roxie were talking about this the other week."

"Whose Roxie?" I asked.

"A girl in my cosmetology classes," Astrid replied.

Shock covered my face. "Wait. Classes?"