My heart barely reacted. Numb. Just numb. “How much this time?”
“Four hundred fifty thousand.”
That number still made me flinch, no matter how numb I felt inside.
***
I glanced at the clock, it was 3 a.m. Outside, the night was pitch black—like ink that refused to fade.
The door creaked open. Luna stood there, completely naked, a lit cigarette glowing between her fingers.
“Luna, I need four hundred fifty thousand,” I said quietly.
She just laughed, locked the door and didn’t even look at me.
That night, I didn’t sleep—not for a second.
By six, the sun had begun to rise.
Three days later, the police called. “Mr. Gray, we’ve found a male body in the southern outskirts of the town. We believe it’s your father…”
I stared at the photo the kidnappers had sent days earlier. The man who raised me for over twenty years—limbs severed, the scene soaked in blood.
I kept staring until I started laughing. Maybe this was better. Maybe now, we were all finally free.
I slipped out of the house unnoticed. However, just as I turned the corner, a car pulled up and nearly hit me.
The window rolled down and a familiar face appeared. “I’ll give you a ride.”