Prologue
14 years ago…
I heard the faint low rumbling sound of the removal van in the distance way before it wound its way around the corner of our cosy little neighbourhood. I’d been beyond excited for days now, ever since Mrs Price two doors down had told me that the old Lanson’s house had finally been sold to a family. I prayed hard every night after that, hoping they would have kids the same age as me. Being an only child was lonely enough, but being an only child with no extended family, cousins or other children around was downright depressing.
Our little road housed old people mostly, great when they passed you sweets because they just loved watching you playing out in the street on your own, or gave you ice cream on a hot day because they wanted to bring a smile to your ‘pretty little face’, but not much use when you needed another person in your game. In those instances I usually deferred to my cat Tilly or my toys to play those parts, but now with the possibility of another little boy or girl coming to live next door I might not have to do that ever again.
I slumped down on the dusty kerb outside our house, my denim dungarees had gotten really muddy that morning from playing armies and crawling through the dirt like the commandos my Dad liked to watch on TV but I didn’t care. ‘Our Chloe is a take me as you find me kind of girl. She can give any boy in her class a run for his money’, my Dad always liked to tell people. I had no idea what he meant by that but he always followed it up with a proud smile aimed my way so I guessed it was a good thing. My wayward brown curly hair was tied back into a pony tail, I liked to keep it long I liked how it felt down my back and when I twirled the curls around my fingers, but I always wished it was straight like the pretty girls at school. Their ponytails hung sleek and neat, mine was big and bushy and hung to the bottom of my back, with curly ringlets breaking free out of the sides by my ears because it was so unruly, just like me; that’s what my Mum said anyway.
I watched as the removal van pulled up outside the house next door, but I couldn’t see who was inside, they were all up too high in the drivers cab. I started to feel butterflies in my tummy so I held bow wow my threadbare cuddly dog up to my face to smell his comforting homely smell. I’d had bow wow since I was born and even though Mum was always trying to get rid of him, I always found him in time in the trash, often just before the men came to take all the rubbish away. He was always meant to be with me, that’s why I always saved him just in time, he was mine.
A man stomped out of the van first, he must have been the Dad I thought as he grumbled and muttered under his breath. He was dressed casually in jeans, old trainers and a dirty t-shirt and had a big fat belly that stuck out underneath. His dark hair was cut very short to his head and he had tanned skin with a tear tattooed on his cheek. Why anyone would want to have a tattoo that made them look like they were crying baffled me. He gazed up at the house but didn’t crack a smile, not even a hint of a grin graced his sour face. I wondered why he seemed so angry, wasn’t this the house he had wanted? He didn’t wait for anyone else to get out, just marched up the path like a disgruntled ogre without saying a word and disappeared inside. I never saw him again that day. I was glad really because he didn’t look too friendly.
I turned my attention back over to the van and saw a lady hop down from the open door. She was tanned like the man, but unlike him she looked kind and had a gentle serene smile on her face. She looked like the friendly Mums I’d seen around the school gates, the ones who took time to look at their kids art work when they left at the end of the day and hugged them telling them it would go up on the fridge or on the wall at home. Mine always went back in my bag or in the bin, but I was used to that it didn’t bother me anymore. I kept the best pieces for myself and didn’t even show Mum in case she threw it out.
The Mum looked around the neighbourhood with a nod of approval then her green eyes settled on me and I felt a warm buzz go through my body. She waved and I waved back and let Bow wow drop into my lap as I gave her my best and most polite smile. The one I’d always been told to give adults.
She turned and called out something to someone in the van and I tensed up with nerves, this was it the moment I would meet my new best friend. A boy around my age came out of the van from the same door she had exited and he grinned a huge silly grin at me as his Mum pointed me out. I felt embarrassed all of a sudden and clutched bow wow to my face again so only my eyes could be seen, bow wow was always my protector when I got scared, but when the boy waved I waved back. He was slightly chubby but not fat like his Dad, just cuddly with a round face and friendly laughing eyes. He wore shorts and a t-shirt and his trainers were old and scruffy but I didn’t care. He looked like the type of boy that liked getting into mischief and that was something I was extra good at.
I heard another door bang close and then a second boy walked around the back of the van and stood to join the Mum and her son on the pavement. The Mum had her arm around the chubby boy but this new boy didn’t go to stand on her other side for her other arm to hold him. He just stood slightly apart from them his eyes glazed over like a zombie as if he wanted to be anywhere but here in our little road. I couldn’t take my eyes off him though, I’d never seen a boy who looked as pretty as he did before; he was beautiful, so striking I felt mesmerised by him. He wasn’t chubby like his brother but taller and lean. His skin was tanned and his hair was jet black and although it was short at the side it was long on top and flopped into his eyes. His face had cheekbones like a girl, I think my Mum would have called them chiselled or defined. His Mum motioned over to where I sat and he turned to look at me but he didn’t smile and wave, he just scowled and looked away. I felt hurt by the way he ignored me, and his eyes made me feel a sadness I hadn’t felt before, why was he so sad? His stormy eyes were green just like his Mum’s but they didn’t glow like hers, instead they seemed to hold dark secrets maybe fears, and the way he stood made him look tired, weary, as if he’d already given up on the world. I should have shunned him then and there for being so moody and unfriendly but I didn’t, something about him intrigued me. I wanted so badly to be his friend, to change the look in his eyes, but also I wanted to be his friend so that I could stare at his pretty face whenever I wanted.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching avidly from the kerb as Mother and her two sons lugged box after heavy box into the house. When they stopped for a rest the Mum came over to me with an ice lolly and sat down next to me.
“Hi, I’m Maria, what’s your name?” Her smile was dazzling and infectious making me feel instantly comfortable in her presence.
“Chloe, Chloe Ellis and I live next door.” I announced as politely as I could pointing to my house behind me, “Thank you for the ice pop.”
“You’re very welcome Chloe. Is it fun living here?”
“It’s a nice neighbourhood, but I’m the only kid so it can get lonely sometimes.” I said giving away more information than she probably wanted.
“Well I hope you won’t have that problem now we’re here. How old are you Chloe?”
“I’m eight, I’ll be nine in eight months.” I was already counting down the weeks and she laughed at me, not cruelly like my Mum or the girls at school might, but with a hint of endearment.
“My son Freddie is nine. That’s him over there in the shorts,” she said pointing out the chubby boy who was bouncing a ball on the front lawn, “And my eldest boy is called Luca, he’s twelve.”
I looked round to where Luca was sitting. He wasn’t playing like Freddie or eating an ice lolly like me, he just sat on the porch fiddling nervously with his hands and looking thoroughly fed up.
“Luca is a quiet boy but once you get to know him you’ll see he’s just as fun as Freddie. Luca is just sensitive, more...closed off.” She sighed and smiled shyly at him, then s
tood up as if she just remembered she had work to do. “Well these boxes won’t move themselves.” She ran her hand down my cheek affectionately before saying goodbye and hauling another box into her tiny arms then puffing and panting up the path.
Luca stood and took the box from her to carry it inside, and all I could think was why wasn’t the big strong Daddy helping them out? My Mum never lifted anything when my Dad was there to do it, she’d always nagged him if he forgot too.
I never saw Maria again after that day, what happened to her none of us ever knew, but Federico ‘Freddie’ and Luca Marquez… they became my whole world.
Chapter 1
Present Day
Why did nothing ever go right when you were in a hurry? It was like an unwritten law, ‘Thou shalt fuck everything up whilst you fail miserably to be on time’. I made one last effort to fix my bouncing curls into a style that could be let down in an instant to add that extra turn on to the guys who loved the whole secretary letting her hair down and shaking it out fantasy, and just about managed to pin a messy bun up on my head. My curls were more defined now, less unruly thanks to decent hair serum and styling products but I still struggled with them.
“Five minutes Chloe, get a move on.” Ron shouted his countdown, he was one of the security guys here at the club. Jack’s Kitty Kat gentleman’s club, a far less seedy title than calling it what it actually was; a strip joint for old bald guys and perverts. I still had no idea who Jack was and neither did anyone else who worked here.
It was only my second shift but the money was okay and the tips were awesome so I just sucked it up and got on with it. It was just dancing but with less clothes on than a normal Saturday night, I reasoned with myself when I had debated over taking the job. Plus I needed the money to pay my tuition fees through medical school. I was pretty good at zoning out the crowd and the hecklers and just getting on with the job at hand. I was slightly less nervous tonight than I had been last night. Last night I’d panicked that I would stumble or struggle to get my clothes off in a seductive way. I needn’t have worried I could have stood on the stage in my sweats and stripped and they’d have loved it. The audience weren’t picky as long as they got what they wanted at the end.
Jack’s had a strict no touching policy which the patrons usually stuck to. The burly security guys pacing the room kept the more outrageous guests in check. It was a blessing for us girls that they took their job so seriously, as some of the guests could get quite rowdy and the stage wasn’t that high up, but easily accessible for the guests to reach and stick money where they wanted; which unashamedly they did. Tonight I wasn’t going out wearing that much to start with, I was doing a pole dance tonight. I liked the underwear I had for it though, black and lacy with tiny red roses in the middle of the bra, running along the edge of each cup and at the back of the thong just above my ass. I was borrowing a pair of black Louboutins from one of the other girls, the red soles set the look off perfectly, and the stockings I wore were the icing on the cake. I looked like every guys wet dream, or so Ron had told me when he checked in on me ten minutes ago. I was just debating whether to take a whip out with me when Ron called out, “You’re on Chloe.” I left it behind, I didn’t have the experience to introduce props to my act yet.