The Day Silence Spoke novel Chapter 54

Polly was holding a baby, seemingly waiting for someone.

Latisha instinctively clutched the bag of medicine and the prescription papers, lowered her head, and hurried past them, quickly leaving the hospital grounds.

When she got back to the villa, Clifford wasn't home. She hid the medicine and started preparing dinner.

By midnight, it was clear he wasn't coming back. She ate some of the cold leftovers.

When she was alone, she preferred not to sleep in the bedroom. She liked to fall asleep on the sofa with the sound of the television in the background.

Just as she turned on the TV, her phone rang.

It was Nikita.

She paused. She wasn't sure why Nikita would be calling so late, but she answered.

“You finally picked up! Where have you been the last few days? You weren’t answering my calls or texts. Check your WhatsApp, now.”

After that, Nikita hung up.

Latisha opened the app and saw a string of messages from Nikita, all asking where she had been. She quickly typed out a plausible lie.

A voice message came through. “As long as you’re okay. I escaped from the Stafford estate, but the old man froze all my accounts. Can you lend me some money?”

Hearing that Nikita was broke, Latisha didn't hesitate. She transferred the money Clifford had sent her that afternoon, keeping only a thousand dollars for her upcoming medical appointments.

She texted: [Is that enough?]

But during the race, neither of them had returned.

Latisha and a few others had searched the mountain roads all night. They found the other kid first. His car had tumbled down the mountain. He was dead, the body mangled beyond recognition.

Terrified that the same had happened to Clifford, Latisha plunged into the woods, searching frantically. She stumbled through the darkness, falling again and again, covering herself in scrapes and bruises.

She finally found him under a pile of broken branches. Clifford had reacted quickly. As the car went over the edge, he’d jumped out, landing in a tree. The branches had broken his fall and saved his life.

He was barely conscious. Latisha sent her location to Yesenia, telling her to call an ambulance. She did her best to stop the bleeding, then managed to get him on her back and began the arduous journey out of the mountains.

She was so thin, yet somehow she found the strength to carry a man who weighed over a hundred and fifty pounds through the rugged terrain. Even she didn't know how she did it.

As he lay on her back, fading in and out of consciousness, she heard him whisper, “If I die… the little mute girl will be bullied… Help me protect her.”