Chapter 64

Nerezza's Point of View

Somehow they found me in my old home. All three of them. None of them knew what to say to me when they entered. But I barely acknowledged their presence. Dug the palms of my heels into the carpet I had walked over the last time my parents had been alive. Having them here almost felt like we were disturbing my parents. That they were sleeping upstairs and the moment they noticed boys with me, I would never hear the end of it.

No one had bought the house. For obvious reasons. The walls were cracked. Windows shattered. The sink was stolen from the cupboard. It was all in ruin. Most of our possessions were still inside. Crumbling with age. Still smelt faintly of my mother. Her perfume a painful reminder of what I had endured the last few years.

Old family photos hung on the walls. As if someone had drawn a line at tearing down the personal touches. But the rest was a nightmare. Feces, both of a person and animal, lay scattered about. Needles for drug addicts. The c