How to be a gold digger

Chapter Fifteen

Chloe stayed with the Richmond for 3 years. On the first Christmas with the Richmond that Chloe believed she was never leaving her foster parents. Aside from Linda’s occasional beating, life was endearing for Chloe.

She even made a friend in the neighborhood. Shion, a black American boy who was the same age as Chloe.

“Did you get the stuff?” Chloe whispered to Shion in the dark alley close to Chloe’s house.

“What’s up, girl, not even a simple how’re doing?” Chloe tapped her legs,

“Sorry,”

Shion dug through his pocket and handed her a white substance.

“Mama is asking for you?” Shion said as Chloe keep it her ankle.

“Tell her I will visit her soon” Chloe kisses him on the cheeks and runs back home.

Fredrick only looked at her a few seconds before going back to his sports channel. Linda stood up and walked close to Chloe. Chloe flinches at the sight of Linda because she never knew what to expect from Linda.

“Why you shake like that. Anyone see you think I am going to harm you” “

Linda extends her hand.

“Did you bring the stuff?”

Chloe bends down to get the white package from her ankle. She handed it to Linda, who took a sniff at it.

“it doesn’t smell like it used to be. So you sure Falcon isn’t selling me some other s**t from what I used to order.”

Chloe shook her head.

“It the same thing he has been selling to me,” Chloe murmured, and Linda dismissed with a flick of the hand.

Chloe met Shion the first time she ever went to buy illegal drugs from Falcon. He was the little guy amongst other men and the only one she was comfortable meeting.

He taught her the ways of the street. He had taught her how to exchange Linda’s regular drugs for a sleeping one without her knowing. Shion made his home her comfort zone. So although Chloe still made regular calls with Kaden, it wasn’t Kaden she told her chaotic life to; it was Shion.

Chloe preferred to keep Kaden, who was happy with his new sister and family, away from her drama.

“I love you to the moon and beyond,” Chloe whispered to the telephone at Shion’s place. Shion’s scrunched look didn’t stop her from saying those words to Kaden, despite her legs pacing around.

The line stopped beeping, and Chloe put the phone down.

“Bye, Mrs. Davidson,” Chloe said immediately she saw the time, and Mrs. Davidson squished her little boy’s cheeks.

“Their love story is going to be an epic one.”

But Shion simply frowned.

“Not everyone gets a happy ending, mom.”

Shion had been right for his case. Because if Chloe had known that the situation that happened to her mother would happen to Shion, maybe she won’t have asked him to sell those drugs to her.

Every day Chloe walked home with Shion after. Sometimes they thrashed people's cars for the fun of it. Other times they would sneak out of school and pretend to be adults smoking s**t, and they were mostly happy with their life.

They came after school to an old car garage that had been locked for ages. Shion had taken her here after he sold the drugs to her. It was here they had shared their sad stories. This was their place.

"How do you think we would be when we are older?" Shion asked.

"Probably less messed up than our parents."

They laughed together.

"Me, I just want to get my mama and me out of this neighborhood. Get a degree in something."

And Chloe laughed again.

"Get a degree? When you are skipping school."

Shion threw a scrap at Chloe, but she dodged it.

"Yeah, man! Definitely be a therapist for young children like us."

"Didn't know you knew the word 'therapist,'" Chloe mocked him, but his facial expression was serious.

"Whatever, man. You?" he asked, and Chloe thought for a min.

"I don't know. " she shrugged her shoulders, and Shion continued staring at her. Chloe felt the need to explain herself.

"The future is so uncertain and filled with many possibilities."

And they stayed silent to watch the sunset.

It was like any other for Chloe, a good dinner at the Davidson's house and a phone call from Kaden to end the night. Chloe kissed Shion on the cheeks and hugged him. For some reason, she felt emotional that night.

Shion was a good boy with a single mother

whose father ran away when Mrs. Davidson was pregnant. Shion always did everything he could to help his mother; that was how he joined Falcon's crew. But, it was something his mother never knew about.

But Chloe had made him promise her that he would leave soon.

Chloe rushed back home. She had even forgotten her favorite sweatshirt at the Davidson's place.

When Chloe arrived at her house, the black car she saw outside was a familiar car she always saw around the neighborhood.

Chloe contemplated entering back home, but that decision was made when Linda came out with Falcon. It was the most pissed she had seen Linda.

"You b***h!!" Linda said, running up to Chloe and pulling out her hair. Chloe struggled to remove Linda's hands away from her.

"You have been mixing my pills!! Where did you get it from? Am sure it's from that bastard!!"

Falcon stood on the front porch watching what was going on.

"Shion is not a bastard!!" Chloe said as she successfully removed her hair from Linda's clutches.

Chloe pants.

Linda looked at Chloe with disgust.

"I am going to kill you!" Linda screamed. She marched up the stairs to where Falcon stood. Instantly, she pulled out the gun from Falcon's waistline.

Before Falcon could drag the weapon away from her hand, Linda had pointed the gun at Chloe, and the shots were fired.

Chloe closed her eyes to wait for the impending pain to come, for the life that was never pleasant to her to end.

But she felt a trembling body fall on her.

Chloe's eyes widen as she sees Shion spit out blood. She steadied him on the floor.

"Your sweatshirt," Shion offered it to her, with his blood-stained on it. He had taken the bullet for her. Her, Chloe thought with no plans for the future.

Linda froze in shock, and Falcon spun out into his car, running away.

"Please call 911" Chloe cried out, but Linda still froze.

"Please!!" the tears dropped on Shion's face, and Shion clung to Chloe's arm.

"Tell my mama I love her."

"Hold on". Chloe tried to stand up to call someone, but Shion held onto her.

"Tell her. " his eyes were dead set on her. And Chloe nodded.

"Death doesn't feel so bad," he chuckled. Those were the last words of Shion Davidson as his body turned cold. It was the first time and only time Chloe watched someone's life slip away.

The police and paramedics came again a little too late, and they arrested Linda as she froze on the spot. But nothing compared to the heartbreak on Mrs. Davidson's face and refusing to believe that her son was dead.

A strong woman had turned insane right in front of Chloe. Soon after Chloe was back in the foster system, her life with the Richmond ended with the death of someone she loved again.