Her Father

[Avery's POV]

I take deep breaths, trying to calm my tumultuous mind, but with each passing minute, I'm being dragged further and further into the past, until it feels like I'm there again on that night that my mother and I finally escaped that hell.

Despite all the years that had passed, it was still so fresh that I remembered every damn second of it vividly.

The night had started like any other, with my mother in the kitchen cooking dinner while I did my homework in the living room.

I wanted to get it done early so that I could show my father just how smart I was because I was sure he would be proud of me.

Back then, life was simple, and my family was happy. Little did I know that underneath that facade, my parents both kept a horrible secret from me. One that would change my and my mother's lives forever.

It was right around the time that my mother finished cooking and ordered me to go wash up when the pounding on the door started.

At first, I tried to go answer because I was too