Read Online Survival (Twisted Book 1) by Rebecca Sherwin - Free Book Online

turned upside down. She had found our savings. All that remained of mine and Oliver’s hard work was a five pound note on his bed. She had taken it all.
    I fell to my knees and cried.
    She had taken everything from me. More importantly, more painful than that, she had stolen from Oliver. It opened a fresh cut, split open the scar tissue and the tears bled from my eyes with every beat of my heart. I couldn’t believe she had done it.
    I should have hidden the money somewhere else. I should have known she would do it. How could I have been so stupid?
    I scrambled to my feet, picked up the money and left the flat. I stood outside as the spring air whipped my hair around my face and called for a cab.
     
    I got fifty pence change from the cab fare to Geoff’s and went straight inside. My mind was numb. My head was silent, except for my own voice telling me I had failed again. I let myself into the hallway and up the stairs that led to the flat. I stepped over the threshold before reality hit me. I covered my eyes and stood at the door, listening for Curtis and another woman. I shouldn’t have gone to the gym. He was going to think I was crazy.
    “What are you doing?”
    I heard his voice and a calm washed over me. But the gut-wrenching ache wouldn’t dissipate.
    “What?” I peered through my fingers, but he was alone. Thank God.
    “What are you doing?” I heard the humour in his voice, the bastard. He knew exactly what I was doing. “I’m alone.”
    “I see that,” my voice was shaky as I approached him and he turned on the sofa.
    He knew.
    “What happened? I was about to come and get you.”
    “You were?” I slumped onto the sofa and fell into his embrace.
    “Yeah. The TV is no fun without you attempting to imitate every voice.”
    “You missed me. You can't deny it.”
    “To the grave.”
    That halted the almost light conversation. Grave. Death. Oliver. My mother. I felt my bottom lip tremble. I tried to control it. I tried to hold it in. I couldn’t.
    The floodgates opened and I cried. I cried for my brother, for my screwed up life of loneliness. I cried for the rejection and I cried because everyone in my life, everyone who was once part of who I was, had left me. And I cried because my ridiculous excuse for a mother stole from the most important person in my life. She threw everything away, halted my plans of getting out, moving on, learning to live without the man who was born mere minutes before me. She had ruined everything.
    “Hey,” Curtis comforted, but his tightened hold only made me cry harder. “What happened?”
    “She left,” I sniffed. “She stole our savings and she left.”
    “Your mother?”
    I nodded. I couldn’t think of her as a mother. Mothers don’t do that. Mothers love their children unconditionally, support them no matter what, and put them first. My mother had never done that and now…Now, I no longer had one.
    “What did I do?” The tears continued to fall and I let them. “What did I do to deserve this?”
    Curtis stroked my hair and rocked me gently. I couldn’t stop the crying. I couldn’t make the pain go away. People left, one after the other, but the pain stayed.
    I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands and sat up on my knees.
    “Make me forget,” I met Curtis’ gaze and saw the hesitation in his eyes. “Please. Make me forget.”
    He stared at me and I saw him going over the decision. I couldn’t wait. I needed him. For a while, I needed to forget who I was and how I got there. I needed to forget everything I felt, because it was crippling. It was eating me alive. I waited for his answer, and what came took my breath away.
    He leaned towards me and I prepared my lips for his, but they touched my cheek; a whisper of a touch that didn’t feel real. His kiss took away the lingering moisture from my tears.
    “Don’t cry,” he whispered, pressing his lips to every spot where the tears still laid.
    I could feel a new supply building as he took care of