Promises and Deception (Lane Family #2)

Prologue

Elliot

Ilook out the window and wish for some light to shine through the cloud of darkness that surrounds this strange house, but the light never comes.

There’s just darkness and more darkness.

He’ll come back. He said he would. Believe him.

I’ve been thinking those words for the past month, and they haven’t came true.

I have to keep believing them, though.

I have to keep hoping he won’t go back on his promise, because if he does, that would mean we will continue to live with someone we don’t even know.

Just because we’ve spent the last month with Papi’s brother doesn’t mean we know him. It’s possible he hasn’t showed us his true colors yet, something our abuelo used to tell us.

I hate it here.

I hate this house, this city. I want to go home.

I want to be with my mom and dad. I want to go back to Mexico and see my friends.

I want to go into my abuelo’s office and pretend to work like he does.

I want to go to the store down the street with my brother and sister and get one of everything we want.

I want to walk into the living room and have my mom be there, watching her favorite telenovela.

But in order to do that, I need Papi to come back.

I need him to come back and takes us back home, because maybe if he does, then Mami will back too.

He thinks I didn’t hear him talking to Bennett. He thinks I was taking care of Drake like he told me to. He thinks I don’t know, but I do.

I heard him. Mami is missing, he is going to go look for her, and he’s leaving us here. Where he said we were safe.

I wanted to go him. I wanted to help him find Mami, but no matter how much I told him that, it didn’t work. He told me I had to stay here and look after my siblings. He promised he would come back.

That was a month ago.

If he’s been gone this long, does it mean he hasn’t found her yet? Does it mean he’s not coming back for us? Will we live here forever?

Maybe he needs help looking for her. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t come back—because he needs help. I can help him. I know I can.

Maybe I can get Bennett to take me to him. If he says no, I can go myself. Mami taught me how to ride the bus back home. I can try and get to Mexico that way. Maybe I can even use the money Papi left. It’s not like Bennett is going to miss it.

If I go, though, I have to leave Sammie and Grayson behind. They can’t come with me, and neither can Drake—he’s a baby and I can’t take care of him alone.

I have to go by myself.

Papi and I can’t find Mami with them there. They will be a distraction. It has to only be me.

It’s late, and I know if Henry or Bennett find me awake, I might get in trouble, but I don’t care.

Putting on my shoes and grabbing the sweater Papi told me to put on when we left our house in Mazatlán, I slowly open the door to the room I was told was mine and check that nobody is standing in the hallway.

With the coast clear, I step out and start making my way downstairs. As I pass the rooms my siblings sleep in, I decide I will do anything to bring my parents back.

The second I make it downstairs, I head to the big front door and try to open it, but no matter how hard I try to push down on the handle, it doesn’t move.

Está atrancada.

Looking up, I spot a lock on top keeping me from opening the door. I try jumping to reach it, but I can’t get high enough. My arms are too short.

I keep jumping. I keep trying to get the door to open, but nothing works. I can’t open the door.

“Open.” I try to jiggle the handle, but it doesn’t help.

I keep trying and trying, but nothing happens.

I need to open the door.

I need to get out of here and find my dad. I need…

“Elliot.”

I stop jumping as soon as I hear the voice that just sounds like Papi’s but isn’t. I’m not going to be leaving the house tonight.

“What are you doing, bud?”

Bud. I hate it when he calls me that. Papi is the only one who gets to call me that.

I start jumping again, trying to reach the lock. “I need to go help my dad,” I say, not even looking behind me.

“Elliot, you can’t do that.”

“Yes, I can. He needs my help. I need to go with him.” I jump up one more time, but when I land back on the floor, my left foot goes to the side, and I fall.

My eyes start to sting—not from the pain of falling, but because I can’t open the door. I can’t get to my dad.

A hand lands on my shoulder, and the next thing I know, Bennett is crouched down next to me. His eyes look angry, but they also look sad.

“You can’t go with your dad, bud.”

I start to feel angry. “Yes, I can.”

“No, you can’t.” My uncle’s voice is stern and just hearing it has me hating him. I know he’s not going to let me go.

“I don’t want to stay here. I want to go home.”

The anger in my uncle’s eyes goes away, but only a tiny bit. “I know, but you can’t do that right now. Go back upstairs and go to sleep.”

“No.” I throw back. He’s not my dad. He can’t make me.

“Elliot, listen to me.”

“No.”

Bennett’s jaw clicks like papi’s does when he’s angry. Whenever that happens, he or Mami usually gives us a spanking, but Bennett doesn’t do that.

“Go up to your room.”

“I want to go with my dad.”

“And I told you that isn’t going to happen. Go up to your room.”

The sting in my eyes gets worse as my eyes start to water and tears roll down my cheeks. I push myself off the floor and slam into Bennett’s shoulder as I pass him on my way to the stairs.

As soon as my foot lands on the first step, I turn to look back at my uncle. He’s still crouched down, his eyes looking up at the ceiling. He must have heard me stop, because he turns to look at me.

“I hate you, and I hate being here.”

He only says two words back. “I know.”

I wipe the tears from my face angrily and head up to my room.

One day, I will get out of here if my father doesn’t come back first.

I’ll get out of here, and I will never come back.