Everything She Lost by Alessandra Harris

Author:Alessandra Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mental health, suspense, mystery, thriller, African American
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Published: 2018-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

TUESDAY

Though Nina had woken up over an hour ago, she couldn’t get out of bed. It was a cruel cycle. It’d take forever for her to fall asleep, but for those precious hours, everything was fine, and she had no recollection of the murder. But as soon as she woke up, her hell continued. Curled into a ball, she couldn’t rid herself of the gnawing ache in her belly.

The doorbell rang, but she didn’t move. She wasn’t up for seeing anyone. But when it rang twice more, she finally got up, worried it might be important. After grabbing her robe, she walked to the door. “Oh. Dad.”

Her dad held up a paper bag and handed her a coffee cup. “I come bearing gifts.” He smiled and moved past her into the house.

Outside, the weather was dreary, and rain fell from the gray sky. She hadn’t even heard the rain. She imagined raindrops soaking the blanket wrapped around Kevin’s corpse. It was mere days until she could pay to have the body removed, but every second crawled by. They went to the kitchen, and Nina sank into the chair, exhaustion setting in even though the day hadn’t started yet.

Her dad plucked two glazed donuts from the bag. “I’m worried about you, Nina. What’s going on?”

Nina hesitated. Holding what had happened with Kevin inside was unbearable. When she had stayed with her dad for six months, they’d grown closer than ever before. He’d literally nursed her back to health: giving her medication, taking her to psychiatrist and therapist appointments, and encouraging her to eat when she had no appetite. He had done everything in his power to make sure she got better. And she had. She’d come out of her darkest days. She trusted him. If she told him about Kevin, maybe he could help her figure out what to do now.

“Dad, I—”

The doorbell rang again.

“Do you want me to see who that is?” her dad asked.

“Well... I guess.”

Her dad rose. “Hold your thought.”

Minutes later, her dad returned with Deja. Nina didn’t even try to fake a smile.

“Since you’ve been sick, I wanted to see if you needed anything.” Deja looked at Nina’s dad. “Am I interrupting?”

Nina’s dad removed a glazed donut and held it out to Deja. “Not necessarily. Nina was just going to tell me what’s been going on lately. But why don’t you take one of these off my hands.”

“No, thanks.” Deja focused intently on Nina. “Hopefully, you weren’t going to get into the details of us drinking a little too much on Saturday night.” Deja let out a nervous laugh. “That’d be so embarrassing for me.”

Deja was right. It wasn’t only about Nina. She couldn’t tell him what happened without mentioning Deja’s part in it. The last thing she wanted was to implicate Deja in her mess. “No, I was just going to say I haven’t been sleeping so well. That’s all.”

“Is that all, honey?” Her dad’s hazel eyes were so concerned it pained Nina.

Nina looked away. “Yeah.

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