Chapter 2: I Know
Those boots stopped in the center of the room.
I pressed myself flat against the floor, not breathing.
Then I heard Maya's voice — small, nervous, nothing like the confident girl who had laughed at dinner the night before.
"You said you wouldn't come here anymore."
The man's voice was low.
Calm.
Too calm.
"I needed to see you.
You haven't been answering."
"I told you I can't do this.
I'm thirteen."
Silence.
Then he said something that made every muscle in my body turn to ice.
"You didn't say that the first time."
I bit down so hard on my lip I tasted bl00d.
My whole body was shaking.
I had my phone in my hand but I couldn't move.
Couldn't think.
Maya was crying now — soft, ashamed sounds, like she'd been carrying this alone for a long time.
"Please just go," she whispered.
"My mom thinks I'm at school."
"Then we have time," he said.
That was the moment I started to move.
But before I could get out from under that bed — I heard a third voice.
From the doorway.
Someone else had come in through the front door.
And that person said two words that stopped everything cold.
"I know."
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What Renee saw when she finally crawled out from under that bed will break your heart — and what came next changed Maya's life forever.
The full story is in the link below.
May you like
Don't stop here.
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