An Ace Of Hearts (Book #1) (Completed)

Chapter 39: An Anonymous Threat

AHVI TAKEDA

The floor is littered with clothes and pizza boxes and a bunch of things that I don't want to identify. I am huddled in a corner, holding my stomach which keeps cramping from hunger. I don't remember the last time I ate. I think it's been quite a few days.

Ren left four months ago. He left for college. My brother got a scholarship to his dream college. I am so proud of him. I am so glad that he escaped this hell hole but it makes me miserable thinking that I am still stuck here.

My mother is passed out on the couch a few feet away from me, her mouth gaping open. Drool leaks out of the corner of her mouth and her skin looks awfully pale. Honestly, if it wasn't for the rise and fall of her chest, I would have assumed that she was dead. She looks like it.

The thought of her dying doesn't bring with it a crushing grief or desperation that I know other kids experience. I guess I am just kind of used to it by now, the knowledge that my mother would die anytime and I wouldn't even know.

I am young but not naive. I know that the drugs she is on hold the potential to take her life. If she isn't scared, why should I be? I am more concerned about my own self than I am about her. I don't have food and my homework is incomplete and I know for a fact that I will slowly slip into the arms of death either from starvation or the looks my teachers shoot at me at school.

The money dad left us is enough to cover my school fees and it is how I am still getting an education. Otherwise, I am aware that I would have nothing, not even the school to escape to for six hours everyday. I don't have much money to spend on food. Right now to be honest, I have none. It ran out a few days ago and I don't know how to ask Ren for more.

I know my brother will send me the money if I asked him to but I am scared. I don't want to become a burden. Ren isn't here anymore and I don't know how things are with him in London. I sigh as I pull my knees closer to my chest as if it would put an end to the rumbling pain in my stomach.

I stare at my mother's sleeping figure, imagining her to be a caring, loving mother that she was supposed to be. I don't know what went wrong. I don't remember when she snapped, after dad's death or before. I can't remember a time when she wasn't out of her mind and if she was ever sober, then it must have been when I was too young to remember anything.

The doorbell rings, pulling me out of my thoughts. The sound echoes through the studio apartment and I get to my feet. It must be the landlord, coming to demand rent from my mother. I know it is outstanding. Ren assured me on call yesterday that he will take care of it. Even then I couldn't bring myself to ask him for money for food.

I swallow, preparing myself for the wrath of the balding old man who calls himself our landlord as I unlock the door to the apartment and pull it open. I pause when I find Hailey standing outside again, my best friend from school.

She has a bag in her hand and she offers me a cheerful smile when I open the door for her. "Hi, Vi!" She greets me cheerfully, using the nickname she picked on from my brother and his friends. Everyone calls me Vi at the house. The guys, Ren, my dad, my mom...when she is sober enough to form words and remembers that she has a daughter.

The nickname brings me a comfort that I didn't realize that I was desperate for. "Hey. What are you doing here?" I ask, glancing over my shoulder at my mother who is sprawled on the couch. I close the door behind me, stepping outside, too embarrassed of the condition of my apartment and my mess of a parent.

Hailey doesn't seem insulted or wounded that I didn't invite her in. She is still smiling at me when I glance at her again. Raising the bag in front of her, she nods at it. "I brought this for you."