Louder.
Until there’s a heavy clang, then I’m left with just the shrill tone. I look up, feeling something on me. Helene stands in front of the metal door, her hands wrapped in black leather gloves—reminding me of Kane—as she rests them on top of her stick.
I wet my dry lips, swallowing hard before I ask, “Kane?”
It takes me a second to find the word to describe the strange quality to my voice: broken. I sound broken. Iambroken; she knows it too.
“Would you like to earn a bed?” she asks softly. The same tone she used to promise me I’d torture my parents triggers the memories, pulling them forward like a warning because I’ve met her before.
There’s no force required to strengthen my voice as I meet her eyes. “Not from you. Fuck you.”
Her lips slowly lift into a sinister smile as she takes a step forward. “There’s my sweet girl. I’d begun to think you’d never come back.”
I lock my jaw shut to prevent losing the only advantage I have. If she finds out I remember her, she’ll take more things away from me. This motherfucking cunt pried my baby out of my arms after stroking my hair and asking me what I want more than anything in the world.
I hate her. I hate her with every fiber of my being. I hate myself for not remembering my baby.
So I silently sit in the corner, waiting for her to do whatever she wants. All I need to do is get back inside her house, then I can search for Kane. He’ll help me and we’ll find out where shetook my baby. It’s still fuzzy so I can’t even remember if it was a girl or boy, but I remember the warmth in my chest and sweat coating my skin while I held them.
A shadow slowly moves across the threshold of the door as she steps to the side, allowing my father into the room in his usual suit—loafers bearing our family crest on the sole, the watch I gave him when I was dumb and naïve. I’m no longer disillusioned by who he really is because I’m going to kill him one day. Not because he’s a shitty father, or because all he has ever done is hurt his children. No, I’m going to kill him for taking Kane away from me. For stealing the precious time we could have had. For making the best person I had ever met become bitter, so this bastard’s web of lies meant I lost him twice.
He stops beside the stupid bitch, both of them politely smiling at each other like they’re acquaintances catching up rather than in a creepy dungeon in front of his naked daughter.
“The choice is yours, Harkin. You may correct her behavior, or out of loyalty to our ties, I will facilitate it.”
I hug my knees tighter as he smiles, using the same voice he would when he had one of his parties to gain favor for some acquisition he was excited about. “It would be my pleasure to teach her the error of her ways.” He looks at me. Really looks at me, his eyes slowly raking over every inch of my exposed skin in a manner no father should with their own daughter, then turns to the old bitch. “It will be a punishment for me too. I should have taken your advice and raised her like I did the others.”
No.
No. Fucking no.
Ruby and Scarlet knew. They knew he’s a pedophilic, rapist piece of shit but they still left. They knew our family is a million shades of fucked up but they still left me. They left me with them, and they didn’t even tell me so I could protect myself.
They knew it all, so did my mother. That’s why she wasn’t surprised when I showed her the recordings because I was the third person, third child, third daughter this cunt had violated.
I scream. Not words or insults. I scream in pain, frustration, anger. Every emotion within the realm of being is encapsulated in my scream.
5
CHAPTER 5*
Delilah’s screams echo through the stone basement under Helene’s fortress at the highest point of the island. They travel through the space, reaching the other captives held within their stone cell, their screams mixing together as Harkin gestures for Helene to leave. Once the steel door is secured in place, she’s trapped with her screams for comfort while her father shrugs out of his suit jacket. “Don’t worry, princess.”
She whimpers, holding herself tighter to stop what’s about to come, despite knowing it won’t stop him. She can remember every pixel of the previous instances of his abuse while she slurs through her drug-addled fog for him to stop. He never does, yet she tries again as she weakly says, “Beat me instead.”
Harkin drops down to his haunches, resting his arms on his thighs, loosely steepling his fingers together between his knees. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he says softly. “You’re daddy’s princess.”
There’s no escape from his hand as Delilah pushes herself deeper into the corner of the room. The first brush of his fingersagainst her damp temple causes her to violently flinch as he coos, “Don’t be scared. Ruby was never scared.”
“Fuck you,” she cries out, kicking him in the calf.
Harsh fingers wrap around her ankle, keeping it hostage so she can’t complete the shield of her limbs again. Her father continues tightening his fingers around the fragile bones, waiting for her to scream out in pain.
Stubbornness.
A trait she inherited from her father, which makes her refuse to voice her pain. Whereas it’s quick to make Harkin anger. With his other hand, he holds her leg just above where his fingers are already wrapped around her ankle, then brings it up. “You are like your mother,” he snarls, twisting his hands in opposite directions. “She was also harder to break than your sisters.” He continues twisting, applying even more pressure. “But she broke.”
A scream erupts from Delilah when Harkin carelessly drops her leg, so the delicate bone slams against the stone floor then slams his knee into her ankle, grinding it into harsh stone when he can’t break it by hand. The amount of pain he’s already caused isn’t enough to entertain him, so he slowly lowers his knee over her ankle. The slightest pressure makes her scream out, “Please don’t!”
