Page 16 of Fame & Chaos

Not seeing anything.

Behind me, I heard movement, and I looked up and saw Indi standing in the doorway. And suddenly it was like watching her soul slam back into her body all at once.

Her expression shattered.

A scream ripped out of her so loud it echoed through the entire house.

I scrambled to my feet instantly and grabbed her around the waist before she could reach the bathtub.

“Indi—”

“Mum!”

She fought me wildly, hysterical sobs tearing from her throat while she reached desperately toward her mother.

“Mum, wake up!”

Her mum’s body shifted in the water as Indi grabbed her shoulder, causing her to slip lower beneath the surface.

“Indi, stop!”

But she couldn’t hear me.

Couldn’t process anything.

She dragged her mother upward again, only for the body to slip helplessly back beneath the bloody water.

That image still haunts me.

“Indi!” I wrapped both arms around her and physically pulled her backward. “She’s gone.”

“No!” she screamed, fighting me with terrifying strength. “Mum!”

I dragged her out of the bathroom while water splashed across the tiles behind us. She kicked and fought and sobbed violently against me, and eventually I slid us both down onto the bedroom floor because I physically couldn’t hold her upright anymore.

And then I just held her.

As tightly as I could.

Because her entire world had ended in a single night.

Her father overdosed.

Her mother killed herself.

And at seventeen, Indi Malone was completely, and utterly, alone.

I hated her parents in that moment with a level of fury I’d never experienced before.

Because no matter how broken they were…

You don’t leave your child behind to survive something like that.

Chapter Three

Caleb

The neighbors must have heard Indi screaming, because the police arrived not long afterward.