Winter Toes III: Defending the Heart

WT3| "Love And Hate"

This book has not been edited.
c h a p t e r o n e
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where there is love, there is hate.

. . . 1 4 y e a r s b e f o r e . . .

Glynn crept the steps to the large Victorian home's porch. The wind blowing viciously against her wind.

"Okay, stand here and knock on the door. She will take you in, I promise." Glynn told Rei.

"Why?" The four year old asked. Glynn frowned and Rei could see that she was dying even through the rain.

"Because I'm just not cut to take care of you, Rei. Your auntie Taylor... she... she just put a little bit too much pressure on me. You deserve better." Glynn said with a frown.

Rei didn't understand it. Why didn't anyone want her in their lives? She reached out for Glynn but she backed up and turned away running off the porch, slipping and falling on her way down. Glynn looked back and shot her the middle finger quickly before getting back up and continuing to run off into the rain.

Rei turned towards the big door, frowning as she reached her hand out to knock. She was hesitate but she was young and even then she knew she wouldn't be safe just running around. She knocked quietly at first and soon as she started to get a little more frightened she knocked harder. The door opened and a tall, slim lady looked down at her, confused.

"Um hi?" She said, her eyes shooting from side to side.

Rei wanted to speak but she didn't know what to say so she just waved. She looked nervously behind her hoping that Glynn would come back to get her but no one was there. She was gone.

"My aunt Glynn.. um.."

"Who?" The girl asked, her brows furrowed up.

"Um..." Rei hesitated looking to the ground. She felt intimidated. She immediately began to cry. "I just wanna go home."

"Hey, hey... don't cry." The woman kneeled down and looked at her. "Did I scare you? I'm sorry."

Two little kids around Rei's same age ran up behind the woman. "Mommy who's that?" One asked.

"What's wrong with her?" The other asked.

They looked exactly alike so it was obvious they were twins. "This is your cousin... what's your name, babygirl?"

"Reiya!" Torei yelled up the stairs. "Come do these dishes!"

Up the stairs, down the hall, to the right behind the white door with butterfly stickers and letters spelling her name, a eighteen year old Reiya- also known as Rei- laid in her bed with her headphones in as she kicked her feet to the beat. Her normally curly textured hair was up in a tight curly ponytail that she remembered having a lot as a kid. She was rolling a blunt on an E! Magazine with Rihanna on the cover. She listened to a song called "Winter Toes" by SPZRKT and Sango as she sung along.

"What makes you so sure? What makes you so sure about us?" She sang in a voice she developed over the years, though she wasn't amazing. She preferred ballet with her cousin Chase.