Heroes and Wolves [book 1]

Chapter forty-four

Layla

I am speechless. 

     "My dad is dead" My sudden words take me by surprise as I realise it's the first time I have ever let the truth flow. The hard, unimaginable truth that I've been avoiding all this time. 

I am really alone in this world. I don't have anyone. 

I kept hoping that my dad was alive and believed that he was missing but he died, which is why he never came back for me. I've been locking the truth away in the depths of my mind for so long and it's taken this to unlock it, for me to realise it. 

That man in the painting is not my dad. 

     "Why are you doing this? That man is not my dad!" I glare at Baymin and Maylock.

     "He is Layla" Maylock simply states and his tone makes rage build within me.

How can this be real! 

     "No, I can't believe this" my fury creeps higher each time I look at the picture. "This can't be true" Every glance I make, another feature of his resembles me. 

     "This was taken seven years ago" Maylock quietly adds. 

     "But how can he be alive!" my voice breaks from disbelief. The reality of this comes crashing down. This means that my dad truly left me. 

He never came back for me. 

I thunder into the medical room, wanting to be out of line from their gazes. 

I sit leaning against the door with my head in my hands. The heat of my raw anger slowly ebbs to make way for another force, a cooler emotion that results in many wet paths running down my cheeks. My dad left me. He really did. My dad was alive all this time and didn't ever think to come and find me and take me back from that awful place.

     "Can I come in?" Maylock's voice comes from the door after two knocks that I ignore. 

     "Leave me alone!" I wipe away my tears and sniff heavily. 

     "I have something from your dad. A letter." 

Something touches my back and I move to find a white envelope pushed under the door by him. It's slightly ripped with smudges of dirt over it. 

     "Why didn't you give me this before?" 

     "Maybe I lied when I said that we weren't looking specifically for you" 

     "You seem to have a habit of lying to me" I seethe. 

     "We couldn't have given this letter to anyone. We had to be sure. We had to find you because of the danger"

     "Oh, the danger that you don't know anything about" I roll my eyes. "I guess that's why you asked me that personal question" I remind him of the first time we met and the probing question he asked about my parents. 

Maylock doesn't respond but it makes me think that this 'danger' might have something to do with my parents, my dad especially since Maylock had to be sure it was me he gave this letter to.