Chapter 1

I hadn't managed to die. Mara Baines caught my ankle, dragged me across the ground toward the hog pen, and tore at my pants.

"Mmmph!"

Years earlier, she had burned away most of my tongue with red-hot tongs, leaving me unable even to scream for help.

I clawed at her face with all the strength I had left, and Mara drove her fist into my face.

White light filled my vision. I fell backward, and the back of my skull struck the edge of a shovel lying on the ground. Pain tore loose every nerve in my body.

Mara touched the scratches on her cheek. "Damn little monster. You've behaved like a trained dog for years. What possessed you today?"

Still furious, she kicked me hard in the face.

The hog pen was too dark for her to see the blood pouring from my head and spreading beneath my hair.

She raised her foot to kick me again, but someone outside spoke urgently. "Are you insane? If you damage him too badly, everyone in Red Willow Hollow goes down. Get out here and lock the door."

Mara spat on me and walked away.

The smell of blood drew the hogs. They crowded around me, snorting and rooting while the stench of manure filled the air.

Cold spread through my entire body, but I could no longer lift a hand to drive them away.

"You're both here, Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne." Mara's voice outside turned instantly oily.

"Is my son finally trained? I don't want to take him home and find him still lazy, careless, and undisciplined."

It was my mother. No one else could speak about me with that particular disgust.

I wanted to laugh, but the movement in my chest made me cough up mouthful after mouthful of blood.

Looking back, this wasn't the first time I had heard my parents' voices in this place.

I had been in Red Willow Hollow less than two years then and still thought constantly about escaping.

One of those attempts ended with me captured again.

A whip struck my back until every lash opened the skin, but I refused to cry.

I clenched my teeth and thought that they had better watch me every second, because the next opportunity I found, I would run again.

"What are we paying you people for if you can't control one child?"

Was that... my mother's voice?

My whole body started shaking. I crawled desperately toward the frosted-glass partition until my fingers caught the toe of her shoe.

A high heel came down and broke the bones in my hand.

A woman's disgusted voice carried through the partition. "Where did this filthy little animal come from? No manners at all."

Then I heard the voice I knew better than any other.

"How is he still this disobedient after all this time? Don't you know how to use stronger methods?"

No. The voices only sounded similar. Those people couldn't be my parents.

I held my broken fingers and shook. When I was little, my parents' eyes filled with tears if brushing my hair pulled out even one strand.

My mother and father could never knowingly hurt me.

After those powerful visitors gave their approval, the beatings became even worse.

Now the bloody truth lay before me. Every part of my suffering had come from my own parents.

I lay on the ground with nothing left inside me.

A new commotion started up outside.

I tried to lift my head, but my body suddenly became weightless.

I floated up and out of it.

Looking down, I saw my own hands turned see-through, and below them my own body twisted on the ground.

Was I... dead?

I drifted out of the hog pen and saw my parents covering their mouths as they faced a television camera.

"Thank you for speaking with us. Seven years ago, our son was involved with a girl, got her pregnant, and ran away. That reckless decision allowed criminals to take advantage of him. We searched for years before finally finding him here.

"Although he broke our hearts, we are willing to give him another chance. We hope these difficult years have taught him maturity and that he will no longer behave so selfishly."

My heart felt crushed in a fist as the old, familiar humiliation surged through me.

Seven years earlier, my mother had done the same thing.