Bullied Cinderella - Hollie Hutchins Page 0,13

the police coming after you.”

I hesitated for a moment, still afraid that he might be tricking me. But my gut told me to go with it. It was still hard to accept that he would be so kind and that I was finally free. There wasn’t time to stand around and ask a million questions. I thanked him and kissed his cheek. Once I climbed onto the back of the cart, I climbed to the front to give the driver the address to my mother’s house. I was on edge for the entire journey, just waiting for something to go wrong and rip this all away from me. I didn’t want to get my hopes up that everything could work out, but my heart still swelled with happiness. Soon, I would be home in the loving arms of my family.

After the long bumpy ride, I emerged from the cart to find my mother’s house was dark. Not surprising since it was so late at night. I went to the door and knocked. No one answered. I knocked again and waited. I don’t know how many times I repeated that cycle before finally accepting that they weren’t there.

A chill crept up my spine. Where would they be, if not there? Had something gone wrong with Elaina’s assignment? I had not been given the time or the permission to write home. I was entirely in the dark about the well-being of my family, but nothing explained why they would all be gone...leaving the house entirely empty. Unless it was something very bad. Sirens started going off in my brain...begging me to consider the one thing I refused to acknowledge. Had something happened to our mother?

Everyone in the neighborhood was asleep, and I didn’t want to run around in a panic, knocking on doors. I decided I would find a way inside and sleep in my own bed. The next morning I could try to find out what had happened to my family. There was a window around the back of the house that Jada once knocked the glass out of when we were kids. She accidentally kicked a ball straight through it, and our poor, sweet mother never had the money to repair it fully. The misshapen pane that took the old one’s place was wobbly and easy to sneak in and out of.

With the window opened enough for me to climb through, I started to hoist my leg up. But light turned on from behind me suddenly, followed by a woman shouting at me.

“You! Hey you! Get down from there! What are you doing!? I’m calling the police!”

I put my hands up in surrender, as if she was the police, and slowly climbed back down to turn and face her. I was ready to explain everything, but her face softened as soon as she saw me.

“Lucia!?” she gasped. “Oh, child! You’ve come home! Your mother and your sister have been worried sick about you!”

“Where are they?” I asked urgently.

“They moved. I have the address. Hold on.” She turned and wobbled back into her house.

While I waited, I tried to imagine how on earth they would have managed to move. Could they not afford the house anymore? Had Elaina stopped sending them money? That’s when I realized that without any way to send my own money home, I had been stashing it all back in my room at the estate. I was so excited to get the hell out of there, I didn’t even think to ask Dario to bring it to me. Every moment of torture and mistreatment I had endured had been for nothing, and now I had nothing to bring my struggling family to make up for my disappearance.

I was on the verge of tears when the neighbor finally returned with an address scribbled down on a piece of paper. I cringed at the sight of it. I recognized the name of the road, and it wasn’t anywhere near here. In fact, it was close to where I just came from and where I never wanted to go again. It was the same road the estate I worked at was on. How was this possible?

“Your house is without power and food. Come in and stay with us for the night. I’ll warm up some food for you, and you can call for a ride tomorrow morning.”

I didn’t want to have to wait that long to know what had happened to them. Even if the neighbor could tell me more,