Chapter 2

I was sixteen the year I met Ryan, and I was living through the darkest chapter of my life.

That year, my dad, Daniel, had a stroke while out drinking with his coworkers. He slipped into a vegetative state overnight, bedridden and incontinent, unable to do anything for himself.

My mom, Sally, was forty-four, still a beautiful woman.

But to cover Daniel's 2,848.80 dollars in medical bills, she started sleeping with Frank Mason, the bald, pockmarked owner of an underground card room.

It didn't take long before every neighbor on our block knew about the affair, and they whispered about it behind my back constantly.

I kept my mouth shut and swallowed all of it.

I knew what Sally was sacrificing to keep Daniel alive and to keep food on my plate.

But even with attentive care, Daniel showed no signs of improvement.

Sally began cutting corners on his sponge baths and massages. Then she picked up Frank's gambling habit and started staying out all night.

Her temper got worse by the week, and something inside her slowly came unhinged.

I'd hear her screaming at Daniel from his room.

Sally shrieked, "You're useless! All you do is soil yourself all day long! Hold it in! Hold it! Why won't you just die already? Why won't you die?! You'd be free, and so would I!"

Daniel had always been a warm, talkative man with a sweet tongue.

He had adored Sally the same way for over a decade, never wavering once.

Yet after only a few months in that bed, she was already wishing him dead.

One afternoon, I came home from school and pushed open the front door. Daniel was lying alone on the worn-out couch in the living room.

The apartment reeked of cigarettes and something sour and foul.

The bedroom door was cracked open, and muffled sounds slipped through the gap.

I knew exactly what was going on in there.

The blood rushed to my head all at once. I stormed across the room, shoved the door open, and screamed at them for the first time in my life.

I yelled, "Get out! Both of you, get the hell out!"

Sally threw on one of the man's tacky shirts and stormed straight at me, shoving me hard before I could even react.

She snarled at me, "You little brat, you think you're grown now? Who the hell are you yelling at?"

I shoved her right back and screamed, "You! I'm yelling at you, and that disgusting creep!"

My voice cracked as I pointed toward the bedroom. "Have you two lost your minds? My dad is lying right there in the other room! If he ever found out about this, it would destroy him!"

I was screaming so hard my throat burned raw.

Sally grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me forward. "Your father doesn't know a damn thing! If he had any clue, you think I'd still be working this hard? He's useless, and so are you!"

She tightened her grip and hissed, "Frank's been good to us, and you don't even have the decency to be grateful!"

I thrashed against her like a wild animal and screamed, "Mom! Don't you have any shame?"

Sally slapped me across the face for the first time in my life and threw me to the ground. She pinned me down, and we clawed at each other on the floor.

Frank watched for a moment, then strolled over like he had all the time in the world.

He pulled Sally off me and reached down with both hands as if to help me up.

His fingers clamped under my arms, but they didn't stay there. He used the chaos as cover, and his filthy hands groped where they had no right to be.

I screamed and twisted against his grip, but he seized both my arms and wrenched them behind my back.

He licked his lips and grinned. "Damn, this girl's got some fire in her."

The second his guard dropped, I drove my knee straight into his groin with everything I had. He doubled over, and I shoved him aside and ran.

I ran so fast I never looked back. I had no idea whether those two were chasing me, and I didn't care.

Terror and panic hit me all at once, and tears streamed down my face before I could stop them.

I didn't slow down until I reached the main road outside the neighborhood, and I slammed right into someone. A scream tore out of my throat before I could think.

He grabbed my shoulders to steady me and blurted out, "Hey, what happened? Are you okay?"

That was how I met Ryan.

He stood tall with sharp, striking features, and his eyes carried a quiet intensity that cut right through me. Everything about him radiated a strength that made me feel, for the first time that night, like I might actually be safe.

His eyes swept over me, taking in my torn clothes and the mess I'd become. Ryan asked, "Do you need me to call the cops?"

I stared at him, and it took me a long moment to snap back to reality. My whole body was shaking, and my nails dug into his arm.

I choked out, "Please, help me. I need to make a—"

My lips wouldn't stop trembling, and the words kept falling apart before I could get them out.

Ryan raised an eyebrow and flashed me a grin. "Make a what? A scene? A bet? A break for it?" He leaned in closer. "Or did you take one look at me and decide you wanted to make out?"

My heart sank. I'd stumbled into a good-looking creep.

I forced the words out. "A phone call."

My breathing came fast and shallow. The second those words left my mouth, a crushing wave of suffocation slammed into me, and my head started to spin.

My vision blurred at the edges, then swallowed everything whole.

I pitched forward, and a pair of arms barely caught me in time.

The man froze for a second, then shook me frantically.

He shouted, "Hey! Are you seriously pulling a scam on me right now?!"