"let me tell you something, darling. you've unlocked a side of me, even I fear. but since you want to keep me up all night, challenging me, he's gonna show up at some point." Mateo whispers, huskily into my ear, gripping my neck.
"what are you talki...
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"he hasn't been here all day?"
"no one's called to even say he'd be absent."
Nyla and I are at Zayvion's classroom to pick him up, only to find out he was never brought to school.
"ok. thank you, Ms. Helen." Nyla says with a smile before we leave the classroom.
"that's weird," she mumbles taking out her phone.
"we'll go by your house, see if he's there." I wrap my arm around her.
______________
"dad?"
"Zay?"
"Maria?"
we walk through the house. all the lights off, all the cars in the garage.
"somethings off," I mumble.
"I'm gonna check upstairs," Nyla tells and I nod.
I stand in the kitchen going on my phone and calling my dad.
"ya?" he answers.
"Have you seen or heard from King at all?" I ask.
"no."
"well him, his son and wife are not here. I'm with Nyla while she checks the house, but all the lights are off and all the cars are still in the garage." I run a hand through my hair.
"that's not like King. let me ask Malik to check."
"ok," I say before we both hang up.
"Hello?" I hear Nyla's voice echo through the house
"This is she," she says coming into the kitchen, her phone to her ear
"Yeah, that's my father and brother," she mumbles, worry across her face. "my step-mom," she says next.
"a car accident?" soon her expression turns to panic.
"ok, alright. yeah on my way now." she hangs up.
"What happened?" I ask following behind her as we walk toward the garage.
"my dad, Maria and Zay were in a car crash. Maria and My dad are in life-threatening conditions."
_____________
"breathe, baby, breathe." I hold Nyla as we stand outside her family's hospital room.
"I shouldn't have... I should've gone home this morning." she sobs into my sweater.
when we walked into the room her dad and stepmom were both hooked up to different machines. both almost unrecognizable. Zayvion is asleep, his arm is broken along with his ribs.
Immediately Nyla broke down and now she's regretting everything.
"Ms. Jay." A doctor comes up to us. "does your Stepmother have any family we can contact?"
