His Lethal Love by Monika Singh (book series for 12 year olds .TXT) 📖

Present 

Camille 

“I’m sorry, ma’am, we can’t lend you money at this moment.” I nipped my nails in frustration when the banker said this over the phone. Despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t get a loan to save my house. 

Now, I don’t understand what to do. 

I hesitated as I asked, “Can you try once again?” 

“I’m afraid I can not,” he replied with a sigh and paused for a moment. “Is there anything I can help you, Miss Davidson?”

I rolled my eyes while gripping my cell phone in my hand. “No, thank you, Mr. David.” I hung up as fear twisted my gut. My life was in the middle of nowhere. Despite my wish to kill myself, I was unable to do so because of my three younger siblings.

“Camille…” suddenly, my father’s pale voice tumbled in my ears. 

I jerked my head towards his voice and nearly screamed out when I found his weakened body on the ground; he was grasping a glass and blood was dripping from the side of his mouth. I knew his time would come, but I never imagined that this would happen so soon. Our mother left us eight years ago, now my father was impatiently waiting to leave us forever.

As I watched his body lying on the floor and begging for death, tears formed in my eyes. I desperately wanted to help him and make him free of the agony he had been suffering from cancer for years, but I was powerless. His disease robbed us of everything, but I didn’t care about money. I wished he were still alive, but he was living the most painful life. He asked me to kill him at once, but no one knew better than him how much I loved him.

“Dad!” I cried out while running towards him. Kneeling, I placed his head gently on my thighs. Blood was still dripping from his lips, and his eyes were half-open, as his face was wrinkled, as if he had been dead for days. He was living the life of an eighty-five-year-old at fifty.

“Camille…” he whispered and wrapped his bony fingers around my hand. “Have...you...arranged...loan?” Hiding my disappointment, I gave him a brief nod and said nothing. “Good,” he coughed. “Then you won’t be homeless. I’ve never thought my bad habits would make me bankrupt…” 

My father had a dependence on drugs and gambling after the death of my mother. Her absence left him feeling emptied and lifeless. There was a time he tried to end his life, but the thought of his kids made him stop. I hated to accept it but if he had killed himself that day then I would not have to see this day. 

“I’m sorry, I’ve never wanted to leave my kids in this condition…” he rasped and peeled his eyes open. “I know you’re strong enough to take care of your siblings, aren’t you, Cami?” 

I’m weak! 

I couldn’t help but cry, realizing he wouldn’t be able to be there for us anymore. “Fact is, Dad, you’ve never given a damn about your children. If you’d considered your health and business, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

He squeezed my hand, his eyes shone with despair and failure. “You don’t realize until you fall in love how difficult it would be to live a life without someone who matters to you, Cami.” 

I felt my heart skip a beat when his face flashed in my head. Once I was madly in love with a boy, but he never looked back at me. How could he? He was the most handsome boy in high school and I was the ugliest? He was an angel, and I was a devil. He was kind and I was greedy. Everyone wanted to be with him and no one wanted to be near me. Maybe that’s why I was suffering because I made everyone suffer. 

My mother used to say no matter how hard life gets, you must always remain strong and brave. Nothing was permanent in this world, neither your happiness nor your sadness. But my life has always been sad. My life was not hard, but harsh. Despite my father’s multi-millionaire business, we had nothing left to run our family. My future was uncertain and so was the future of my siblings. After the death of my father, I didn’t know where I would be taking them because, after his death, the creditors would auction our villa. 

“Camille, dad is dying…” Caden, my ten-year-old brother said in his shaky voice and kneeled next to me, watching our father in fright. “He needs help.” 

“He wants to die,” I said blankly, and fixed my eyes on him. “His time has come, Cad.” 

My teen brother Clarence asked bluntly, “Where will we be going after he dies? He left us nothing except debts. We’ll be bankrupt even after we sell our house.”

“Shut up, Clarence!” My eighteen-year-old sister, Natalie, scolded him. “Everything is going to be alright.” 

“Nothing will be…” Clarence was about to speak, but I cut him off. 

“Stop your argument and help me to lift dad,” I ordered him while grabbing dad’s head. “Come now!”

“Ugh, this old man stinks!” Clarence cringed, and my jaw flexed. 

“Shut up or I’ll break your teeth!” I gritted out and he snapped his mouth shut. 

We carefully placed our father’s fragile body on the bed and gently put his head on the pillow. His arms were shaking and so were his legs. 

“Give...me…your...mother’s...ring…” dad said shakily. “And...leave…me...alone.” 

Natalie cleaned dad’s face and I put our mother’s wedding band on his chest. He quickly fisted it in his hand and squeezed his eyes shut. I nodded to my siblings to give him space and we got out.  

“I’m scared,” Caden said. “How many days does he have?” 

“I don’t know, dear,” I muttered before closing the door.

******

Finally, the day had arrived when my father died and our home was sold at auction. I was sad, stressed, and exhausted. We did not have enough money to feed our family even for a month. Our lives were in an unstable state and our future was uncertain.