CHAPTER ONE
ALMOST TWO YEARSAgo
Tulsa, OK
Sloane
Something’s not right.
My half-brother, Austin, has never been nice to me a day in my life. His brown eyes have been flitting around the restaurant like a paranoid person since we sat down in this greasy booth, like he’s expecting someone to jump out from behind a plant or something.
What’s even more creepy is the painted-on smile as he makes small talk and rotates his water between his fingers on the table. My brother doesn’t like me, he’s made that clear since I was a small child, and he doesn’t give one flip about how I’m doing.
From the moment I got in his car, the hairs onthe back of my neck have been standing up and this forced conversation is not making me feel any better. I wouldn’t even know what a normal conversation with Austin feels like, I don’t have any point of reference.
The only time I’ve heard him have any conversation is all the times over the years I would hear him and Daddy fight over money. Austin was always demanding money, and Daddy didn’t want to give it to him.
When he called me, asking if I would like to have lunch with him, red flags were popping up and pinging in my head like a video game.
One of the first warnings to pop up reminded me of four years ago when Mama and Daddy died, he didn’t waste any time letting me know that I needed to find a new place to live before he dismissed me with a wave of his hand and went back to his phone conversation.
That was the last time I spoke with him.
Not only did he stop all payments to my university, the School of Dance in Oklahoma City, forcing me to drop out at the beginning of my senior year, but he quickly sold the only home I had ever lived in. We didn’t even have a funeral for Mama and Daddy, he just had them cremated and left their ashes in the small plastic boxes that the crematory released them in.
Just thinking about that time in my life and how indifferent he had been regarding my well-being brings back the feelings of helplessness, fear, and loneliness I felt. He never hesitated to make me feel worthless and unloved. I shouldn’t have accepted his offer for lunch, nothing about this feels right.
Even though he won’t look at me, he’s started asking about my work life and has now moved to questions about my social life, “Do you go out with your friends a lot?”
“Uhm, sometimes we go out. Most of my friends are fromdance school and they don’t live here anymore, they joined dance troops after graduation, so we meet up when they are in town.”
Because you stopped paying for my classes and I lost my place.
Why do I feel like I shouldn’t be answering personal questions?
He’s looking behind him toward the entrance as he asks, “How often is that?”
My eyebrows pinch together as I watch his head swivel to look around the room, he’s about as interested in my social life as I am about his hygiene routine, “Excuse me for a minute, I’m going to use the restroom.”
Still not looking at me, he says, “Yeah, sure.”
The bathroom in this restaurant is just about as unimpressive as the restaurant itself, so I’m trying not to touch anything more than I need to as I wash my hands. Of course there are no paper towels, so I wipe my palms down my hips while trying not to leave water marks on my dress, my hand falters as I reach out to touch the door handle that looks like it has years of grease buildup on the wood around it.Gross.
Our booth is on the other side of the restaurant lobby and all I can see is the back of his balding head over the seat, he’s fifteen years older than me and I’m pretty sure he’s going to be nearly bald like Daddy, he looks like he is on the phone as he waves his hand around. With each step, my skin starts to crawl, and I grip my purse strap tighter.
As I get closer, I can hear him whisper yelling, “Yes, she’s here with me right now. Meet me in the alley in fifteen minutes and you can dose her.”
My heart starts to race, and I stop, he still doesn’t know I’ve walked up behind him.
Dose her?
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?I don’t know anything about her sex life, don’t you have people who check that kind of stuff?”
Hearing him is becoming difficult because my heartbeat is thumping in my ears, why would he be meeting someone in an alley with me? What does dose her mean? Is this why we are in one of the shady parts of town?
And why is someone asking him about my sex life?
“I don’t care what you do, I just want my money by the end of the day.” He demands as he jabs his finger on the tabletop.
