DARE-TO-LOVE-TRUTH-AND-DARE-DUET-COLLECTION-by-Lylah-James-pdfarchive

My mother made a choking sound. “For four years, I’d
sneak food to him. We were both poor, but I had parents
who were still trying to get food on our table. Brad didn’t.
His mother was a drug addict and alcoholic. The little
money Brad saved up from working part-time at the
church, his mother would steal for drugs. When he was
eighteen, he left home with his little brother.”
“We were homeless,” my father broke in, with a whisper,
his voice cracking. “For months, we lived on the streets,
under a bridge with other homeless people. We were…
starving. I was …desperate. I stole a man’s wallet… and I
was…caught. Was thrown in jail for a night. It rained that
night. My brother…was… alone under the bridge. He
walked in the rain for hours, looking for me.”
He took a deep breath and paused with a cough. I was
glad I was sitting down when my mother continued. “Your
father’s brother… your uncle… he caught pneumonia.”
“He didn’t… make it,” I whispered, already knowing
where this was going. If I had an uncle and my father never
spoke of him, then it only meant one thing.
She nodded. “I used to sneak away from home to go
meet your father. You see, we had a dream. We wanted a
future together. We worked the cheapest job we could get. I
waitressed. Brad worked at a mechanic shop. At twenty, he
finally finished his high school diploma. Then came
university. We could barely afford it.” My mother paused,
sniffling. “Those days were the hardest, but it paid off.”
Her head fell into her hands, and she cried.
“Savannah…” I heard him whisper.
My father picked up, in his weak voice. “We were finally
able to buy an apartment, the cheapest one we could…
afford, but it was ours. Life… got… better. We were no
longer homeless or starving. I got a job, one that paid the
rent and put enough food on the table. We lived paycheck
to paycheck, but everything was…okay. Life… was good.
When your mother found out she was pregnant with you…”