Page 15 of Scarred Heir

“Stop!” I ran my hand through my hair. “We’re not doing this again. I’m tired of running.”

“This is different from before.” He grabbed a duffel bag from inside the closet by the kitchen.

“Is it?” I asked.

Chance and I left home when he was seventeen and I was twenty to escape our abusive father. Our mother hadabandoned us a few years before that when she couldn’t take the mental and physical abuse anymore.

I never forgave her for leaving, but she did what she had to do. I tried to make a home for Chance, but when our father started hitting him, we both knew it was time to flee. We ran from Brooklyn to New York City, not going far, but our father never looked for us, so it didn’t matter that we were only a few miles from where we grew up.

Chance was right, this time was different, because when we ran the first time, no one cared. If we ran this time, Bello would chase us.

“We’re not having any luck in this city,” he said. “Let’s get a fresh start.”

“A fresh start?” I paced the room again. “We don’t have any money. How are we going to start over? We can’t even afford bus tickets.”

“We’ll get jobs.”

“We’ve been trying to get jobs.” Chance usually got fired, and I often got let go because of the crap economy. My associate degree hadn’t proved helpful. Even entry-level jobs wanted a candidate to have a bachelor’s degree. “How much do you owe him?”

“Ten grand.”

“What?” I shook my head. “How stupid can you be? Who did you buy these drugs from for that price?”

“I didn’t borrow that much, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been late repaying him.” He tossed some clothes into the bag. “I owe Romeo. He charges a ridiculous amount of interest. Can you believe that?”

“He’s a fucking loan shark!” I grabbed his bag from the couch and tossed it across the room, even though it probably was for the best that I get my clueless brother out of the city and away from people like Bello.

“That’s why we have to get out of here.”

“There’s nowhere for us to go,” I said. “He will hunt you down.”

“I can’t pay him back.” Chance leaned against the wall. “Not without the money I was supposed to make from the drugs I was going to sell.”

“Do you hear yourself?” How had we gotten here? “This is not who you are.”

“We can’t afford rent, and we haven’t had a decent meal in months. Not even on Thanksgiving or Christmas.” He looked down at the floor. “I hate living like this.”

“I do too, but it’s going to get better.”It has to.I had failed him on so many levels. I had convinced him to leave home because I thought we would be better off.

“You keep saying that, but we’ve been struggling for years. I’m tired of being poor.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “We can’t catch a break.”

“I’m tired too.” I hugged him. “I wanted to make a better life for you.”

“We can still do that.” He let go of me. “Let’s get far away from here.”

“I…” Maybe he was right. We did need a fresh start. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not working out for us here, so—” A loud bang at the door made me jump. The pounding sounded like it came from someone with large hands. “Oh God!”

“Chance, you fucking idiot,” the person on the other side of the door shouted. “Did you really think you could run?”

“Fuck!” Chance looked around the room before grabbing my hand. “The fire escape.”

“What?”

The man outside of our apartment kicked at the unstable door, rattling the old frame.