Wasn’t he already doing that?
I didn’t move, aware that the pressure on my chin would increase with any little movement. I held my breath, waiting.
“I think it’d be a great idea,” he said, lowering his voice as he moved closer to my face. “Then I can come home with you being tied to the bed, or get a mind-blowing blowjob on my lunch break.”
While he talked, his other hand squeezed my breast hard enough I whimpered.
“Alan!” Lisa hissed, “let her go.”
My father raised his eyebrow at me, daring me to do something. I didn’t.
“Alan! Now.” She must not have been able to see where his hand was, which was a blessing and a curse at the same time. I felt ashamed that Lisa knew my one dark secret, one of which would forever be taken to the grave by the both of us.
“You’re going to be late for work,” she said, not seeming to fear him.
He tilted his head to the side and flexed his hand on my breast, digging his fingertips into the flesh. Then, in the next moment, he released me.
My knees nearly gave out, but luckily he didn’t notice the impact he had on me. My father turned, glaring at Lisa before stomping out of the house for work.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said, quickly pulling me into a tight hug.
I had nothing to say. Lisa had her own life outside of this house. She once told me she had a husband who was a lawyer. A few weeks earlier, she said that they were having some issues, and she preferred to be here with me rather than at home with him.
“So,” she pulled back, “what do you want to do today?”
“I have homework,” I answered. I didn’t, though. I just wanted to be left alone.
“Let’s go for a walk first,” Lisa said.
“I…I…I can’t.”
“Alan won’t know. It’s not like I’m going to take you walking down through town. Just around the yard, okay?”
“All right.”
I followed her out of the house, letting the spring sun shine down on top of me. We were both quiet as we started the slow walk around the property.
I did have to admit that it was peaceful out here without Alan yelling at me. The trees were starting to bud and the grass was beginning to grow. Spring was one of my favorite seasons just for the beauty of the earth.
If I had a happy life, maybe even one where Lisa was my mother, I’d be able to sit out on this green grass and read a book or do my homework. Or maybe, better yet, be hanging out with friends. Maybe I’d actually be happy, if that were even possible.
I’d spent so much time daydreaming of what I’d do, of what I’d enjoy, if I had a different life. I wanted to be happy. Be loved. Neither of which would ever happen.
I was stuck here with my father, a man who hated me more than the dirt stuck on the bottom of his shoe. And he did everything he could to make me as miserable as possible.
“What’s on your mind, girly?” Lisa asked after walking part of the yard.
I shrugged.
“Scarlett…” she began.
“I don’t like it here. I never have,” I said quietly. “I want to run away, but he’ll find me, won’t he?”
“Yeah, he would,” she said sadly. “But, listen. I have a plan. When you turn eighteen in a few years, I have a way to get you out. He won’t be able to keep you here anymore. You’d be an adult, and it’d go against all the rules and laws if he kept you here without your consent.”
I’d be eighteen in a little over a year and a half.
“What do you plan to do? Kill him?” Like she’d ever be able to pull that off. I’d thought about it, once. But I knew he’d kill me before I’d ever had the chance to act on it.
