Free Found (Lost and Found #2, New Adult Romance) (Lost & Found) by Nadia Simonenko

terrified, sad face bursts to life inside me and my jaw drops as I realize the full extent of what I’ve just done.
    Oh my god... I just broke up with her. I just told the woman of my dreams to leave me alone, that I needed to be apart from her. Why the hell did I do that? I... I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know what I really meant, but it sure as hell wasn’t that.
    “ Call her, damn it! Apologize to her! ” shouts a voice in my head that I really ought to listen to occasionally. “ She’ll understand what you’re...”
    I shake my head and ignore myself as usual. She’ll think I’m insane. How can I tell her about all the crazy and sometimes suicidal thoughts racing around inside my head? Gee, Maria, sorry about ripping your heart earlier; I’m just a psychotic nutcase. Oops, my bad. Still friends, right?
    I shake my head again. No, that’s not going to cut it. I don’t know what will, but that’s not it.
    “I should’ve gone home. If I’d gone home, Mom wouldn’t be in the hospital. ”
    I can’t seem to keep my thoughts focused on anything. Maria’s tear-streaked face fills my mind one moment and then my mother’s battered, broken body the next. She’s lying at the bottom of stairs, looking straight up at me just like Samantha did. Every bruise, every black eye... years and years of abuse, all visible on her skin inside my mind.
    Years and years and years of that asshole beating her senselessly, and the whole time she was being tortured, I thought she was a terrible mother. I was a horrible son.
    If I’d just gone back, none of this would’ve happened. Mom would be alive and he’d have killed me instead.
    “ I should have killed you the day you were born, ” hisses my father’s voice inside my head.
    Suddenly, I’m seven years old again.
    “Oh no,” I yell. “The dinosaurs are attacking the truck!”
    The king’s knights and the green plastic army men circle around the dump truck full of shiny pebbles—the king’s gold—as toy dinosaurs emerge from the mud puddle to steal the precious treasure. Can the army men save the day? The army takes aim and the knights charge into the midst of the dinosaur hordes.
    “Owen? You out there?” calls Dad.
    “Coming!” I answer, and I put down my toys and run to the back door. I accidentally step straight into the mud puddle in my hurry, but that’s okay. I’ll take off my shoes before I go inside.
    Dad’s waiting for me at the back door with his arms crossed and he looks a little nervous. He’s wearing his green and brown military suit so there must be something important happening tonight.
    “Owen, I have company coming over in an hour, so you need to get dressed for dinn...”
    His voice trails off and his mouth drops open when he sees me, and I stare back at him in confusion. Why is he looking at me like that? Is it the mud? I’m not inside yet so it’s still okay.
    Suddenly, he grabs me by the arm and yanks me so sharply toward the house that my shoulder pops. I trip over my feet and fall, but he doesn’t even slow down. He keeps dragging me across the flagstone patio.
    “Ow! What did I do?” I cry out as he drags me toward the house, and he stops for just long enough to bend down and slap me hard across the face.
    “I told you I had people from work coming tonight!” he screams at me. “I told you not to get dirty, and look at you!”
    His eyes are wide and crazy with anger, and he grabs me by the neck and drags me inside.
    “I’ll go take a bath,” I offer, hoping desperately that he’ll stop hurting me, but he isn’t listening. Even if I could find my balance for long enough to get back on my feet, I don’t think my legs would support me anymore. I’m too scared of what he’s going to do to me now.
    “You did this on purpose,” he hisses at me. “You’re trying to ruin me!”
    Ruin him? I don’t know what he even means. I was just playing outside like he told me to while Mom cleaned up for company. I