ログインChapter 111LAKE"I promised not to touch him," Samuel corrected, dragging me toward the open doors. "I didn't say anything about keeping you together. Ollie will be fine in the van for a little while. Won't you, Oliver?""MAMA!" Ollie was screaming now, pure terror in his voice. "Mama, don't leave me! Please don't leave me! MAMA!""I'll come back," I tried to say, but Samuel was already pulling me out of the van, my feet hitting the snow-covered ground. "Ollie, I'll come back! I promise!""Mama! MAMA! NO!"Frank was climbing into the back of the van, and I saw him reaching for Ollie. My baby was still screaming, still fighting, trying to get to me even though he was so much smaller than Frank, so powerless."Samuel, please," I begged, trying to pull against his grip even though it was useless. "Please don't do this. He needs me. He'll hurt himself fighting. Samuel, please, I'll do anything—""You're already doing anything," Samuel reminded me, his grip on my arm bruising. "That was
Chapter 110LAKE "And you," Samuel said, addressing Ollie now. "Oliver. You love your mama very much, don't you?"Ollie didn't respond, just pressed harder against my back."That's fine. You don't have to talk to me yet." Samuel's hand reached out, and I tried to shift to block him, but he was faster. His fingers brushed through Ollie's hair, and I felt my son flinch. "But you will eventually. You'll learn to be respectful to your grandfather. To be grateful for everything I'm going to teach you.""Don't touch him," I said, my voice low and dangerous despite my helplessness. "Samuel, I'll cooperate. I'll do whatever you want. Just don't touch Ollie. Please.""Whatever I want?" Samuel repeated, and his hand moved from Ollie's hair to my face, tracing the line of my jaw where he'd gripped it so hard moments before. "That's a dangerous promise to make, Lake. Are you sure you're ready to follow through?"I knew what he was implying. Knew what "whatever you want" meant in Samuel's twiste
Chapter 109LAKEOllie's eyes snapped open with a gasp, his whole body jerking like he'd been electrocuted. For a moment, he just stared at the ceiling of the van, confused and disoriented, his chest rising and falling too fast. Then his eyes found me, and I saw the exact moment awareness crashed over him."Mama?" His voice was small and terrified, nothing like the confident boy who'd been holding Julian's hand in the gardens. "Mama, where are we? Where's Mr. Hoppy? I want Mr. Hoppy!""Shh, baby, it's okay," I said, trying to keep my voice calm even though my heart was racing. I couldn't move toward him with my hands tied, couldn't pull him close and shield him from Samuel's presence. All I could do was speak, try to soothe him with words alone. "Mr. Hoppy is... he's safe. He's back at Grandma Elena's house. We'll get him back soon.""Why are we in a van?" Ollie was sitting up now, his eyes darting around the confined space, taking in Samuel sitting too close to me, the boxes, the la
Chapter 108LAKETroy had been protecting us. Had put himself between us and the men with the knife, had given me precious seconds to try to run. And now he might be dead because of it. Because of me. Because Samuel was my father and Frank was my old landlord and I'd brought this danger into their lives."This is your fault, you know," Samuel said, echoing my thoughts with eerie accuracy. "If you'd just accepted your place from the beginning, if you'd been grateful for the opportunities I gave you—none of this would have been necessary. You could have been making good money, building a life, instead of running off with that brat and making everything so complicated.""Opportunities," I repeated, the word bitter on my tongue. "You call selling me to men who hurt me an opportunity?""I call it survival," Samuel shot back. "We needed money, Lake. You were beautiful, desirable, in demand. Was I supposed to let that go to waste? Let us starve when you had a way to provide?""I was a child,
Chapter 107LAKEThe implications of his words hit me like a physical blow. He was going to force me back into sex work. Back into the life I'd barely escaped. But this time it would be worse because he had Ollie too. He could use Ollie against me, threaten him, hurt him—"And speaking of picking up where we left off," Samuel continued, his hand moving lower, down my neck, across my collarbone, "I was thinking we should work on giving Ollie a little brother or sister. You're twenty now, right? Prime breeding age. And you've already proven you can carry to term, even if the circumstances were... complicated."My blood ran cold. He couldn't mean—he wouldn't—But the look in his eyes said he absolutely would"No," I said, trying to put every ounce of strength I had into that single word. "No, Samuel. I won't—you can't—""Can't I?" Samuel asked, and his hand was on my chest now, fingers splaying across my shirt, teasing my nipple. "Lake, I can do whatever I want. You're my son, my proper
Chapter 106LAKEMy head was pounding when I came to, a deep, throbbing ache that radiated from the back of my skull through my entire body. Everything felt wrong—the surface beneath me was moving, vibrating, the air smelled stale and metallic, and there were hands on me. Hands that shouldn't be there.I tried to open my eyes, but the light hurt too much at first. I could hear voices though, low and conversational, like we were having a normal discussion instead of—Instead of what? What had happened?Memory came back in fragments, pieces of a nightmare that I desperately wanted to be just a dream. The gardens. Walking with Troy. Julian and Ollie holding hands. And then—The van. Samuel. Frank Morrison with a knife. Troy falling, blood spreading across his shirt. Ollie going limp in Samuel's arms. Something hitting the back of my head.Oh God. Oh God, this was real."—finally waking up. Took him long enough. You hit him pretty hard, Frank."That voice. I knew that voice. Had spent my







