You Told Me To Walk So I Walked Right Out Of Your Lives Chapter 02
My parents and Ronan all froze.
I looked at them. “You’ve had a hard time raising me all these years. I’ll pay it all back.”
“If there’s nothing else, may I go to my room? I’m exhausted.”
My mother burst into tears. “Amaris, what are you saying?”
She tried to come over and pull me close, but my father stopped her.
He stared at me, his voice cold as ice.
“So you think you’re all grown up now, is that it? You’re trying to threaten us?”
“Fine. Pay us back. Pay back every single dollar we’ve spent on you for the past eighteen years.”
“If you can’t pay it all back before you leave for college, then don’t you ever call yourself my daughter again.”
The old me would have begged them not to do this.
This time, I didn’t.
I only nodded.
“All right, Mr. Santoro.”
Then I turned and walked toward the tiny bedroom in the attic.
For the next few days, no one in the house spoke to me.
This had always been their way of dealing with me.
Whenever they thought I’d talked back, the whole family would give me the silent treatment until I was the one to break and apologize.
I always used to give in.
This time, I didn’t.
When I was hungry, I went out and bought a sandwich.
When I was tired, I went back to the attic to sleep.
The rest of the time, I took my sketchpad to a park bench and drew portraits for passersby.
It was the only way I could make money now.
My left hand had been twisted and broken during the abduction. Luckily, I could still use my right.
Most of the time, my left arm just hung at my side, and people didn’t seem to notice.
I drew for as long as I could each day.
Because besides paying back the Santoro family, I also had to repay the medical bills Detective Miller had fronted for me.
That day, I was just about to pack up the change from my tin box when a foot suddenly kicked it over.
The box flipped, scattering coins across the pavement.
I immediately bent down to pick them up.
By the time I looked up, Ronan had stepped on my sketchpad, snapping it in half.
He looked down at me, his voice laced with contempt. “Who told you to do this out here?”
My parents stood beside him, their faces masks of shock and disgust.
“So this is what you’ve been doing instead of going to school?”
I scrambled to grab the coins from the ground. “Don’t be angry. I just wanted to pay you back faster.”
That only made my father angrier. He slapped the back of my hand, and the coins scattered again.
“You’re willing to disgrace the Santoro name for this pathetic amount of money?”
“If people from the country club saw you selling drawings on the street, what would they say about us?”
I thought for a moment, then asked carefully, “Then could you just tell people I’m not part of this family anymore?”
“You—!”
My mother’s eyes reddened again.
Sofia sobbed softly beside them. “Amaris, do you think I’m targeting you? Is that why you’re doing this, to make everyone pity you?”
“But I’m not. I even got you a gift for my birthday. I just forgot it at school. I’ll go get it right now.”
With that, she turned to run off, but my father grabbed her arm.
“Don’t be ridiculous! It’s almost dark. It’s too dangerous for you to go out alone.”
Sofia cried, “No, Amaris must have misunderstood me. I have to show her I really care.”
My mother stopped her too. “Absolutely not. You’re a girl. You can’t go out by yourself when it’s getting dark.”
“Didn’t you see the news a few days ago? A girl was walking alone at night and got abducted.”
I froze.
If I was right, the girl in the news was me.
But my mother only cared about the story.
She had no idea the victim was her own daughter.
“Forget it,” my father said, making a swift decision. “Since Sofia feels so strongly about this, she won’t give up.”
He turned to look at me.
“You go.”
I lifted my head and stared at him.