Scars. |✔️|

Chapter 22: Your Life

Saturday, July 20
Los Angeles, CA
11:47 PM

"What do you want from me?" I mumble to my dad, gazing out of the window.

"I want you to tell me where your mother is," he says with his classic devilish grin.

"Since when do you care about Diana? She left. She's irrelevant," I respond.

"Her name is Imani. Not Diana," he says referring to my mom's first name.

My mom used to hate being called Imani. She said that that was that name her father gave her, and she refused to be called by the name that her father called her. Her father, my grandfather, was a rapist. He used to beat the shit out of my mom and my grandmother, and everyday usually ended with him getting off on my mom's little ten year old body.

"Imani... Diana. I couldn't care less about whatever her name was. And I couldn't care less about where she is. After all she did leave me with you," I say with a smirk.

"I know you saw her. I have eyes on you at all times, LiyBear. So..." he says pulling over to an abandoned house by a dead end. "Tell me where she is, and I'll let you go."

"If you had eyes on me, then you should know where she is. And what are you gonna do to her anyway?" I ask mildly concerned.

"You just said you didn't care," Cole interupts.

"Nigga no one was talking to you. Shut the hell up," I shoot back.

"Cole it's okay. This is family business," my father says smiling and getting out of the car.

Cole closes the partition so I can no longer see or hear what is happening in front of me. I hear my father opening up my door. Then he yanks me out by my arm.

"Tell me where she is. Now," he says holding my face close to his.

A long, uncomfortable silence floats around and when he finally notices that I'm not gonna talk he backs away from me.

"Aaliyah, your mother put us both through hell. She left you with your abusive father and she left me a little girl who I barely knew shit about. Don't you want to get back at her for that. I know I do. And LiyBear, you can help me. Just tell me where you saw her," he says softly.

"Answer my question and I'll answer yours. What are you gonna do to her?" I repeat feeling tears escape from my eyes.

"I'm gonna do something I should've done a long time ago," he smirks.

"Kill her?"

"Don't worry about that. Now where is she?" he repeats.

"You know you're right, I hate that woman, with all my heart, for what she did to me. She left me with my crazy, abusive ass father and now she wants to come back into my life and claim she's the victim. She's full of bullshit. I'll tell you where she works, if you give something to me," I reply.

"I am giving you something. Your life," he replies. "Now tell me where she is," he says sternly.

"No," I state.

"I'm sorry, what? Tell where she is Aaliyah Taylor!" he screams. "I am trying to make this easy for you, but if you insist on making this hard we can do that too."

Damion quickly and swiftly grabs my neck as he pushes me against the now closed car door. He starts to continually tighten his grip until I start to get dizzy.

"I told you we could've made this easy. But you insist on making me angry, Liy. I told you what I wanted and you are gonna give it to me. Maybe not today. But soon enough. I want you to know that I will do anything to get to your mother. I might even ask James to help me. He's such a nice guy," he smirks as he releases the hold he  had on my neck.

I fall to the ground and start to cough my lungs out. I curl up into a ball in an attempt to ease the pain of my upper body. Fail. Damion bends down to me as if he was talking to his child and begins to stroke my hair.

"I own you Aaliyah. I want you to know that. And I will get what I want. Eventually," he says with his all too familiar grin.

He punches me in the head, hard, and he walks over to his side of the car and pulls away. Leaving me there. Alone. 

After about 10 minutes of straight coughing and experiencing a pain that felt like I was on the brink of death, I see bright lights getting brighter and brighter. Since I am still very flustered I can't get myself to get up and run, or call for help. I just lay on the concrete in a ball crying myself an ocean. I assume it's my dad coming back to finish the job.

"Oh my god! Ma'am are you okay?!" I hear a female voice scream.

"Help... me," I manage to get out, despite my now throbbing throat.

The unknown female walks up to me and picks my chest and head up, holding me in her arms. She reaches in her back pocket and pulls out her phone. I see her dial a number and everything starts to become extremely foggy.

"Hello?!... My name is Jasmine Taylor. I found a girl on laying on the sidewalk... Yes, her face is extremely pale and she is bleeding... I don't know what happened to her... Andes Street, at the dead end," I hear her say, but most of the time her voice is fading in and out.

Her last name is Taylor. Like mine.

I slowly start to feel myself falling out of consciousness and everything goes black. The last thing I hear is the deafening sound of the ambulance.

~~~.

I wake up to the sound of beeping and people screaming. My vision is blurry, but I can automatically tell that I am in a hospital. I know those sounds anywhere. I turn my head slowly toward the sound of a woman shrieking and crying. When I turn my head I see the woman in question. Imani Diana Taylor. My mother.

"Mom?" I murmer before feeling the pain of a thousand knives stabbing me at once.

"Shit! Owww," I cry out. "Help me, please!" I scream in pain as I start to lose control over my breathing.

"Aaliyah sweetie, we are going to need you to stay still," One of the nurses says.

I feel the room starting to go dark again and the only thing I can think of is my mom.

Why is she here? Who told her to come? Who else is here?

"She's losing too much blood. We need to get her to an OR now!" the doctor screams.

Blood? He only choked me and hit me. How in the hell am I losing so much blood. None of this makes sense. And surgery? No, I can't have surgery. They will have to take off my clothes and people will see.

They will all see my sca....
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How y'all feeling? I'm really sad because I didn't want her back in the hospital, but I've got some good ideas floating around in my brain.

Hope y'all enjoyed chapter 22! Make sure to vote, comment, share, and follow me for more!

Stay tuned for Chapter 23... coming soon!

- Nadia ❤️