After stealing money from her wealthy but controlling stepfather, Nataly Collins makes the bold decision to run away with her four-year-old sister. But as she does, she crosses paths with an escaped convict from the local penitentiary, and he plans...
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My stepdad is going to want to murder me when he finds out what I've done. But I don't care. Fuck him. It's come to the point where I'm more afraid of staying than running away.
"Where're we going?" Nova asks me in her sweet little groggy voice.
I've wrapped her in her favorite Jack Skellington blanket because the current temp in Sweet Valley, Utah is 38 degrees. Now my four-year-old sister looks so tiny and scared while blinking up at me. That's probably because I yanked her out of bed in the middle of the night and told her to be super quiet while we crept downstairs and out the front door.
I just couldn't, in good conscience, run away without her. Ken may be her biological dad but he's a monster and won't extend any mercy to her just because she's blood. Not when he's already starting to control her too. The things she likes. The kids she plays with at church. The clothes she wears.
"Shh, it's okay. We're uh...taking a trip."
"A trip?" Her eyes go from terror to excitement all in one question. She's been as trapped as I've been in this house the last couple of years. My sister squeezes my hand and jumps up and down as I wrestle with the key fob to Ken's Mercedes. "Can we go to Disneyland?"
I chuckle. "Uh yeah, bug. Now I need you to be quiet while I buckle you in, okay?"
We're in the driveway of our double-story estate, but definitely not out of earshot. Ken has cameras in places I don't even know about. If he hears us, all he has to do is roll over and lazily check his phone's security app. There's a push button to call the police on that thing.
"Can we see Oogie Boogie?" As I buckle Nova into her booster seat, she hums This is Halloween cheerily.
I hate lying to her. But sometimes it's okay to lie. I'll explain the truth to her eventually. One day when we're far away from the devil's lair. One day she'll understand that I did what I had to do to keep her safe.
I kiss her forehead. "Yes. We can see Oogie Boogie. Now watch your fingers because I'm closing the door."
Shivering from the cold, I close Nova in and freeze my ass off to the driver's seat. But before I get in, I take a moment to ceremoniously raise my two middle fingers and flip the mansion off. This is the place I've come to loathe since my mom passed away two years ago.
I really hope his cameras got that.
Ken was an asshole from day one, but at least I could still attend private school and hang out with my friends on the weekends. That was until Mom died. And then her stupid husband kept me from ever leaving the house without his permission. It became all about control.
He wanted to know where I was, who I was with, and for how long. He'd go through all my text messages, social media accounts, and sift through my clothes, including my underwear drawer—warning me that I better not have drugs in there. Then he forced me to break up with my boyfriend, forced me to do online schooling...honestly, the list goes on. I couldn't even go to my high school graduation.
