A Famiglia Christmas by A.J. Daniels

Author:A.J. Daniels [Daniels, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Cooper

“Coop, I’m scared,” Lil whines, shuffling closer to me.

“I know, Lil. I’m going to get us out of here, okay?” I put an arm around her and pull her closer into my side, kissing the top of her head.

The room they stuck us in is cold and dark. It’s so dark that I can barely see my hand in front of my face or Lil sitting beside me. When I tried feeling around earlier, it felt like there was nothing in the room except for the mattress on the floor we both woke up on. There’s one window up high on one of the walls but there’s barely any light coming in from it.

“Do you think our dads are out there looking for us?”

“Sure, they are, Lil. I bet they’re searching the entire town for us right now,” I say, hoping I sound more convincing than I feel. I have no doubt that our dads will search high and low for us, but if they find us… that’s another thing.

“Coop?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry you have to spend your birthday like this.”

“It’s okay, Lil. I’m with you.” I give her another squeeze and lean my head back against the wall, ignoring the cold. Truth is, this isn’t all that different from the birthday’s I spent at home before the Ferrara’s adopted me and Cameron.

We lived in a shitty apartment above a whore house. We didn't have any heat and barely any food because our mom decided that feeding her addiction was more important than feeding her kids. Cameron was barely older than a newborn. I tried as best as I could to take care of him but, I was eight I didn't know anything about taking care of a baby. And then the Ministry of Children and Family Services came and took us away. The night we spent in the center was the first night I was warm in a very long time. And then Jessika and Alessandro came along and said they wanted to adopt us.

A smile tugs the corners of my lips. I’m glad we have them. I’m glad that Cameron will never know our birth mother or the way we lived before Jessika and Alessandro came into our lives. They are our parents. They’re mom and dad.

“Coop,” Lil whimpers, trying to crawl inside me by the way she plants herself into my side.

I’m about to ask her what’s wrong when I hear it. Footsteps bounding down the stairs above us and then shouting followed by loud pops.

“Cooper,” Lil sobs, burying her nose into the side of my neck while I hold her close.

“Lil,” I say, before taking a deep breath. “Liliana, I need you to listen to me, okay?” I pull away from her and grip the tops of her arms so that I have something to anchor me to her. “I’m going to distract them so that you can run.”

“No,” she cries, her hands clutching the front of my sweater.

“You can, Lil. You need to run and go find your dad or mine and tell them where I am.

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