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"La Diabla?!" she yells, her grip on my hands now tighter than before. "Kalani, are you fucking serious right now? You've been with that lunatic who's slaughtering everyone?!"

The look in her eyes only confirms the horror of my confession. Who wouldn't be horrified though? I mean, this woman has destroyed thousands of people's lives. She's crazy. Just hearing her name gives me anxiety.

"Kalani, Kal!" Demi shouts, breaking me away from my thoughts, and I look up to see her eyes holding that same fear. Her gaze is questioning, but I don't know if I can tell her what happened.

"I--I don't.. I can't--"

"Hey" she interrupts, loosening her hold on my hands but still keeping them in hers, "you can talk to me. I don't want you keeping this inside Kal. I know that you've no doubt gone through so many horrible things, I just want to be there for you. Please let me, okay?"

Tears race down my cheeks at the words of my best friend. I don't know how I managed to get so lucky with having her in my life, not only as my best friend but as the girl who has my heart. She's everything. I really would have given up if I didn't have the memory of her in my mind.

Taking a deep breath, I keep my eyes focused on our joined hands, finding some comfort in knowing that she's here for me. Also, I can't bare to see the look in her eyes when I tell her what happened, especially with my parents.

"God, I don't even know where to begin Dem. It's all so messed up" I sigh, feeling a lump form in my throat.

"Okay, well how did you even end up with La Diabla?" Demi asks, and for a moment I swear I can feel my blood boil remembering how.

"My parents." I spit out, my teeth clenched. Fucking traitors.

"Your parents?" she questions, "but, how?"

I look up at the eyes of my best friend, wanting her to see that what I'm about to tell her is the 100% truth. She has to know what they really are.

"Okay, well it turns out that the people who I thought were my parents are nothing but liars and selfish bastards who only care about their next hit."

I've been back home for a couple days, visiting my parents.. No one else knows that I'm here. Not even Demi. I seriously can't wait to surprise her. I've been a little distant and I know she's upset, but I've just been so stressed out with college and things have been pretty difficult lately, I didn't want to burden her.

Walking down the stairs of my childhood home, I hear my parents speaking loudly. It's late, around 1am, so I should really be asleep but their voices have been keeping me up.

"Are you sure Dante? I mean, will that be enough for her?" my mom questions my dad as they stare intently at each other.

"It's all we can do Samantha. We owe her over $500,000 dollars and you know we don't have that kind of money" my dad confesses, and I nearly collapse on the stairs at my dad's words.

Who the hell is "she" and why do they owe her $500,000?

"Do you really believe Kalani is even worth that much? I mean, yeah she's got a pretty face but she's not that pretty" my mom says, and I feel a metaphorical knife stab me in the heart. How can my own mother say something like that? And how the hell can my parents just try and pawn me off to some stranger?!

Not wanting to hear anything else, I turn around to head back up to my room. Just as I'm about to make it back into my room, a creak from a loose floorboard announces my presence to my parents. After that, everything changed.