Facade

By Mai Nakawa

Ryan and his brother Luke have gone through 10 years of beatings and harassment at the hand of their father. Ryan is treated as an only child, his parents ignoring Luke and his needs. The way he survives is by the help of Ryan. Just beneath the surface of every mask the three keep up is the fear of Arthur's retribution for the slightest mistake. Alice, his wife is an abused woman, afraid to go against the man she thought she loved when she married. She knows what's going on is wrong, especially toward Ryan, but she believes she cannot do anything to help him. Ryan does the best to help Luke but he is also abused and afraid. One beating always a precursor to another. Then they meet...them. The girls, who are going to help them change their circumstances and make sure their father is incapable of hurting them further. But first, they have to escape.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heavenly Fangs Books
• Release date: Feb 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9780989768580

Book preview

Façade

By Mai Nakawa

Published by Heavenly Fangs Books

[e-mail]

Friendswood, Tx. 77546

Copyright © 2017 by Haven M. Hawley

Smashwords Edition

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9897685-8-0

Print ISBN: 978-0-9897685-9-7

Heavenly Fangs and the halo/fangs symbol   are trademarks of Heavenly Fangs Books

Copyright February 2019: © Haven M. Hawley

Cover Illustration February 2019: © Haven M. Hawley

Layout by BB eBooks

This is primarily a work of fiction. Names characters and incidents are largely the imaginings of the author, except in cases noted as historical. Locations are real but fictionalized. In no case is there an intent to infringe on anyone’s copyright or make any other claim to ownership. The fictionalization is to tell a good story, that’s it.

All Rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction of this work, in whole or in part, in any form, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including serigraphy, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

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If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received payment.

Dedication

I want this story to be for my Grandma and my mother. They both pushed me to continue writing this and listening to me rant and rave when I couldn’t figure out what to write. Thank you two!

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

1: We Sit Here

2: Dazed

3: Our Dreams are Caught

4: Broken with Pride

5: Stuffed down Our Throats

6: Nutrition of a Visual Failure

7: All We Hear is Laughter

8: Disgust and Hatred

9: We Cannot Win

10: So, We Run

11: We Cannot Break

12: So, We Build

13: We’ll Always Wonder

14: If We’ll Survive

15: Probably Not

16: We Will Fail

17: But Once I Leave

18: Once I Let Go

19: I Will Finally Breath Free

Author’s Note

Acknowledgements

This book has been a long time coming. I’ve been working on the universe behind this book for years now. Many people throughout these long years have helped me, and to those of you that I fail to mention, I’m truly sorry.

First, I want to extend my thanks to two people that put up with me the most: Cat and my Grandmother Charlayne. I understand I was a very stubborn person to work with, but they helped me so much to grow through this process with both personality wise and my skills as a writer.

Next, I want to thank three amazing teachers that helped me in a multitude of ways. My tenth-grade math teacher that has been a great inspiration to keep going, mainly due to her continue pushing to get this out. My ‘creative writing’ teacher that helped me learn how to look objectively at my own work and make it better. And my middle school librarian, someone that really helped a lot, and even has a character based on her. All of them helped me in different ways, but all of it really helped me grow.

Lastly, I want to thank some friends. Gracie, someone that helped me so much during the beginning of the book. Felix, for helping me out with writing and talking through my problems with the plot. And Emily, someone that accidentally was Luke. She helped me so much by teaching me how to see through a different point of view. Also helped me with dialogue, my weakest point.

And of course, thank all of you for sticking through to the end of this book. All of you, if you’re a fan of my online work or just picking up my writing now, have and will anyway be a great inspiration to me. Thank you for even giving me a slight chance, even if you didn’t end up liking the book. I’m glad that I got to try out a dream I’ve had since I was barely old enough to think. So, as always, with hugs and love, thank you all for reading.

1: We Sit Here

Ryan

I listened to another fight, another argument, and another crack in our masked face. Something that we’ve had to wear every day of our lives. I held my brother’s hand as we listened to another dumb fight. His hand softly shook as I held him close to my chest. His breathing was ragged. I brushed his tangled black hair as I placed my chin on his head.

He’s scared, but I’m not. I can’t be scared around him; I’m the strong one. This happened all the time like clockwork. Every time this happened, Father would get violent afterward. I didn’t want to start wearing long sleeves again; it was too hot outside for it to look normal. The only reason Mom stayed with him was that she didn’t want to give up that perfect