Fighting For Hope

Chapter Twenty Three

"I hear them talking behind my back. At least there is a reason why they are behind me."

—

HOPE'S POV

I portrayed the bag as the simmering emotions I was trying so hopelessly to hide. A spark of satisfaction ignited every time I made a decent hit on the heavy bag. I held it by the sides to steady it before stepping back, delivering stronger punches.

Claiming I was pressured from all the negative news was a vast understatement. They were weighty, holding me down and affecting me more than I could ever admit out loud.

My hands were now harder to lift, but I kept going. The searing pain was the only thing that took my mind away from everything else. My body was drained of energy, begging me to stop.

Then the promise my father wanted me to fulfil clouded my head, "Take care of yourself."

That was all it took for me to stumble back from the punching bag and replenish the energy I desperately craved.

My life crumbled when I was a child, and like a curse, it never ends. My mother, Calvin, Ian, and Clyde. How long would it take until I found peace?

I stepped forwards, fluttering my eyes closed for some time, before balling my fist and throwing punches once again.

Everything started when my father was murdered. It was the root of the problem. Before that night, my father sent me a gargantuan sum of money along with a compact disc. The very night he passed, after I left the picture with a dress tinted with currant red, I have a brief idea of what had happened.

Josh alarmed me with the fact that Clyde betrayed his father. Following that statement was the reason why he was so stunned at the fact that Calvin is my father. Ian used to work for him.

I recalled more about what occurred on the date thirteenth of March and discovered that it was a day after my father died. But I was sure it was nothing coincidental since I could just moderately remember the date, but there is only a minor possibility they were related. My father said, although not sounding entirely sure that Uncle Clyde had also once worked for Calvin.

I realized there was a chance Clyde and Ian were present on the night my father died and even assisted in clearing his body. Perhaps that was when my uncle deceived Ian. I was just baffled about why and how.

I stopped punching, giving the bag a final glance before leaving. I started the ten minutes' walk home, unchaperoned and subdued.

I was aware that night had settled, and I had to report to school the next day, but it was currently in the back of my head. I had thought about skipping school but realized it would never cross my mind before I met Tyler. He changed me. The moment I agreed to talk to someone after years and let down the wall that isolated me from others, I became more carefree and lively.

It felt like an eternity when I finally returned home, welcomed by silence. I got ready for a warm shower when knocking arose from outside my door—three knocks to be precise.

My heart began pounding at an outrageous and excessive speed. Only Ian would knock in threes. But it was not any of the three days he usually came, and it was not like him to visit at night.

Just as I was expecting another three knocks or his shouting behind the door, it became utterly silent. For a brief moment, I thought it was a stranger who had found the wrong house.

I moved over to the front door, pulling to open to see no one on the other side.

A second before I shut it, a hand snaked around my neck, strangling me and pushing me inside my house. The act stupefied me, leaving me struggling against its grip as I was dragged into the living room.