LOGINAiden's POV The back of the police car smelled like old coffee and disinfectant that couldn’t quite cover the metallic tang still clinging to me. My hands were cuffed in front of me, blood already drying in the creases of my knuckles, under my nails, in the webbing between my fingers. Every time the car hit a bump the cuffs bit deeper but I didn’t flinch. I just stared at the dark smear on the seat in front of me and tried to remember how to breathe without tasting copper.They’d taken the bat. They’d taken the knife. They’d bagged the letter. They’d left my mother’s body floating in the tub like something that didn’t belong to me anymore.At the station they processed me like evidence. They collected my fingerprints, too my photographs and swabs under my nails. Someone cut my blood-soaked clothes off with scissors and handed me a paper jumpsuit that scratched. They left the cuffs on while a nurse cleaned the worst of the blood from my face and arms. She didn't ask me any ques
**Aiden’s POV**My eyes darted around for anything I could use. Under the bed sat an old cardboard box, the one that held the things I’d once wished I could do with my step dad. Inside it was a baseball bat. I stretched for it just as he came down on top of me, trying to force himself on me.I snatched the bat up and swung hard. The wood cracked against his skull with a wet, sickening thud. He collapsed on top of me, palms pressed flat against the place I’d struck. Warm blood rolled down his face in thick, sticky streams and dripped onto my skin. The metallic scent hit me immediately, sharp, coating the back of my throat.I shoved him off and scrambled for the door for the third time, but his bloody hand clamped around the fabric of my joggers. The bat was still in my grip. I swung again. And again. And again. The impacts jarred up my arms. Splinters of wood mixed with the wet slap of blood. Everything I had ever said about wishing my parents would look at me with love in their ey
WARNING THE CONTENT OF THIS CHAPTER MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR READERS WHO HAVE EVER GONE THROUGH ASSAULT. IT MAYBE BE MILD BUT IT MIGHT TRIGGER YOU. **Aiden’s POV** We separated in the hospital parking lot. I took a taxi home. Jordan had offered to drop me off, but I refused. I didn’t want my parents finding out I’d been with any of them and by now, I was sure they already knew I hadn’t been home. There was no point sneaking back in. Climbing through my bedroom window was impossible, and like I’d already told myself, they were waiting. “Where the hell are you coming from? After ignoring your father and me, you had the guts to sneak out of the house?” My mother’s voice sliced through the air, sharp and ear-piercing. “Where I’m coming from has nothing to do with you, Mother.” She flinched, eyes widening. Disbelief tightened every line of her face as she glanced around the room, as if looking for an audience. “You’ve grown wings now, huh? You have the audacity to talk back to me.
**Aiden's POV**Something tells me that message was from Macmillan and not his mother, but then what if it’s actually from his mother and not him? What if she really tripped and sprained her ankle?I stare at my door, I can't make use of it right now, I haven’t gone out since yesterday. I know the moment I open that door, they’re going to skin me alive.I’m going to use my window. It’s not that high, I'd rather break a few bones than argue with them right now. I changed into my hoodie and sweatpants, then slowly opened my bedroom window.Stepping one foot at a time, I jumped out of the window, landing in the bushes underneath.Without checking if I was injured or not, I tiptoed out of the house and ran far away before booking a taxi.I didn’t stop to check the cause of the pain I was feeling on my back and arm, even after I entered the taxi that took me to the hospital Mom was in.I texted her so she could give me directions to her room. She replied almost immediately. I don’t have a
**Aiden's POV**Something tells me that message was from Macmillan and not his mother, but then what if it’s actually from his mother and not him? What if she really tripped and sprained her ankle?I stare at my door, I can't make use of it right now, I haven’t gone out since yesterday. I know the moment I open that door, they’re going to skin me alive.I’m going to use my window. It’s not that high, I'd rather break a few bones than argue with them right now. I changed into my hoodie and sweatpants, then slowly opened my bedroom window.Stepping one foot at a time, I jumped out of the window, landing in the bushes underneath.Without checking if I was injured or not, I tiptoed out of the house and ran far away before booking a taxi.I didn’t stop to check the cause of the pain I was feeling on my back and arm, even after I entered the taxi that took me to the hospital Mom was in.I texted her so she could give me directions to her room. She replied almost immediately. I don’t have a
Macmillan's POV"You do not believe that Aiden went willingly to that house, right? Something isn't right," Jordan asked."Obviously. Aiden was happy with us, so why would he choose to go back to the one place that caused him so much pain? I think his parents are blackmailing him," Orlando muttered."If Aiden doesn't want to leave that house, there's nothing we can do. We can't call Child Protective Services on them because Aiden is not a child, and we can't go to the police to report them because Aiden clearly stated that he wasn't forced," I muttered."Can't your dad do anything? Send Aiden's parents to jail? He did a background check on Aiden, right? I'm pretty sure the information he gathered can put those people behind bars," Jordan suggested, eyes sparkling like he had just found a way out."The images my dad recovered from the investigation don't show Aiden's parents hitting him. It's mostly neighbors' testimony and pictures of Aiden with bruises. This could hold up in court, b
Aiden’s POVThe city felt like it was pressing in on me tonight, every streetlight too bright, every shadow too deep. My head was a storm, replaying what happened in the bathroom with Jordan like a broken record, the hollow ache in my chest that had been growing for two weeks. I thought I had suc
Jordan's POVI don't know how long I've been sitting here on this toilet seat, holding Aiden's boxer briefs.For a while now I've been concealing my feelings for my roommate. I know I am not his type, I know he won't accept someone like me.So I hid my feelings and suppressed them, dying in silenc
Aiden's POV It's been more than two weeks since the incident at the subway and my touching moment with Jordan.Mr Reginald hasn’t tried anything funny since that day however I also try to avoid being around him when we are alone.I was so worried Jordan would tell the others about what happened th
Aiden's POVI stood in front of the teacher's office, my heart pounding in my chest not because I just ran all the way here but because I was scared.I can't lose my scholarship, I did everything I could to get it because I knew I wouldn't be able to sponsor myself to school and I can't depend on m







