All Chapters of My Life as Dad's Living Deterrent: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The metallic taste of blood surged up from the back of my throat. I clawed at the gaps in the well's brick wall, having already ripped off two of my fingernails. Every brick my fingers touched was slick with mud and my own blood.Half my body dangled over the water, suspended above a freezing, pitch-black abyss. If I let myself slip for even a second, I would drown.But I couldn't die.Voices drifted down from above.Even through the echo of the 30-foot-deep well, I recognized my sister, Elizabeth Wilson's voice instantly.She was shaking. "Dad, where's the tracker? Just tell me, please. I'm begging you!"Dad's voice came next, carrying his usual chilly composure. "Promise me you won't join the police academy, and I'll tell you.""Dad, stop pushing me!" Isabelle practically screamed, her voice cracking with emotion.At the bottom of the well, I parted my lips, desperate to tell her not to give in. But nothing came out. I only had a ragged stump left where my tongue used to be.

Chapter 2

The light above me vanished.A heavy engine roared to life overhead. Dad had started the car and driven it straight over the well cover. The tires groaned against the wood, showering my face with dust."Dad, what are you doing?" Isabelle yelled, her voice laced with panic.Dad remained completely unfazed. "Nobody is letting him out. Rip up that admission letter, or the car stays put.""Benjamin, you've lost your mind!" yelled Uncle Harrison."What's the matter with you?"Dad actually sounded amused as he explained, "The kidnapper is already behind bars. Before he even brought Gabriel to this hideout, I'd already had undercover cops stake out the perimeter. He's perfectly safe. You're all making a scene like he's actually dead."Huddled at the bottom of the dark well, I couldn't stop shaking as I listened to him.All Dad cared about was the sting operation and whether the bad guy was caught. But he had forgotten that we were in the middle of nowhere.It took a full 24 hours for

Chapter 3

Above the well, Uncle Harrison's shouting grew louder and more frantic. "Benjamin, you've lost your mind! Gabriel's life is on the line here. Let's just get him out first!""For what?"Dad's voice cracked. "So he can watch my daughter go kill herself on the force?"The two men scuffled over the sickle. Uncle Harrison let out a panicked cry. "What the hell are you doing?""Stay back! Both of you!"Dad panted heavily."Benjamin, put the sickle down!" Uncle Harrison yelled.Dad laughed. The sound echoed down the well, warped and sounding more like a sob."If someone has to die with Gabriel, it might as well be me. What do I have left to live for anyway? My wife died when I was young, and now that I'm old, my daughter wants to die, too. What was the point of all my sacrifice, huh? For what?"A heavy thud shook the top of the well. He had sat right down on the wooden cover.The boards groaned and sagged under his weight, sending a shower of dirt and gravel raining down on my head.

Chapter 4

Finally, Uncle Harrison shoved Dad aside. "Move! The tow truck's already on its way. You're not stopping me!"Dad stumbled, slamming hard against the car door.An engine rumbled in the distance. A yellow truck rounded the corner, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. Uncle Harrison ran toward the road, waving his arms until the truck pulled up right next to the well. The driver jumped out of the truck and immediately started hooking up the steel towing cables.Isabelle knelt by the opening, frantically clawing away the loose gravel. Her voice had gone completely hoarse. "Gabriel, the truck's here! Just hang on a little longer!"The cables snapped taut, and the winch began to crank. The car frame shuddered before gradually shifting sideways.The wooden cover finally came into view.Uncle Harrison rushed over, tearing the heavy boards away. The well lay completely open, allowing the midday sun to pour down into the darkness.At the very bottom, my body floated face-up in the dilap

Chapter 5

Uncle Harrison's frantic voice echoed in the well.Standing by the well, Dad went pale. But seconds later, he squared his shoulders and let out a cold, mocking laugh."They said the same thing about Catherine when she died." Dad sneered. "They told me she was gone. And what happened? She still found a way to call me, didn't she?"This kid is just like his mother. He's a master manipulator. You think you can play dead to get your way? Think again!"Down in the well, Uncle Harrison finally snapped. "Shut up, Benjamin! Gabriel is already stiffening up! How can you still stand there and make cynical remarks? Pull the line, hurry!"The winch roared back to life.The steel cables went taut, groaning under the strain as they dragged my body out of the dark hole.When the sunlight hit me, I was floating in midair, looking down at my pale face and the 47 knife wounds covering my torso. The waterlogged flesh had turned a sickly white, and every single cut went straight to the bone.Isabe

Chapter 6

Isabelle stayed hunched over my body, completely frozen. She stared directly into my open mouth, paralyzed by what she saw. My tongue was gone, replaced by a jagged, mangled stump where the killer had sawed it back and forth with a dull blade.Thick, dark blood clots collected at the back of my throat, sending up a sickening stench."No!"Isabelle threw her head back and let out a blood-curdling scream.She collapsed onto the ground, tearing at her hair so violently that her scalp bled. "His tongue… Where is his tongue? What did they do to him?"Dad flinched at her reaction.He forced himself forward to look, but the second he saw the insides of my mouth, he gagged, clapped a hand over his face, and scrambled backward until he fell flat on his behind."N-No way…" he stammered, his face turning ashen. "The guy was caught. The undercover cop told me Gabriel was perfectly fine. How could they cut out his tongue? How could they do that to him?"Uncle Harrison finished climbing up

Chapter 7

"Isabelle! Drop the weapon!"It was Astrid Larson, Mom's former partner from the force. She had practically raised us.Isabelle froze, the sickle still raised over her shoulder. She turned around, her face streaked with tears, her lips twisting into a bitter smile."You're too late, Ms. Larson. My dad just badgered Gabriel to death."Astrid flinched, her eyes darting past Isabelle to my body lying in the pool of muddy water.Taking in the deep, waterlogged gashes and the horrific way my lifeless eyes stared blankly at the sky, she choked up. The hand holding her pistol trembled.The medical examiner and forensic investigators piled out of the other cruisers, instantly stringing up yellow crime scene tape.Astrid marched forward, ripped the sickle from Isabelle's grip, and threw it into the distance."Are you out of your mind? How could you throw your life away for a monster like him? Gabriel could never rest in peace if you do this!"The medical examiner knelt in the dirt next

Chapter 8

Every eye on the scene locked onto the tweezers."What is it?" Astrid asked, her voice dropping.The medical examiner dropped the fragment into an evidence bag. "Crushed bricks and wood chips," he explained. "The victim's fingernails are completely torn away on all ten fingers, and there are friction fractures on the phalanges. Even the bone is exposed. "Before he fell into the water, he was climbing the well wall with his bare hands, clawing at the bricks. The wood chips are from when he was desperately pounding on the wooden cover."The medical examiner paused before continuing, "He wanted to live. But whatever was resting on top of the opening cut off his only escape route."He turned toward the wooden cover the car tires had already ground into. It was covered in dark, reddish-brown handprints.Isabelle stared at the bloody prints until her legs gave out, and she collapsed heavily onto the ground.It finally hit her.Half an hour ago, while she was confronting Dad and be

Chapter 9

Isabelle's hands shook so violently she could barely hold the bag. She peeled open the seal and slid the note out, her movements gentle.The paper had dried into a stiff, brittle scrap; the stains had aged to a dark, weathered brown.The handwriting was jagged and uneven. I had dipped my finger in my own blood, scratching the words out on the drywall of that abandoned cabin before the forensics team scraped it off to preserve it."Join the force, Isabelle. Forget about me."Those words held no resentment or fear, leaving behind nothing but a final, desperate plea and a pure, unadulterated hope.Isabelle stared at the message until a choked, broken sob tore from her throat.She clutched the note against her chest and curled into a ball right there in the mud, her body shaking so hard from crying that she actually retched up a mouthful of blood.Floating in the air, I watched her fall apart.I reached out to hold her, but my hands closed around nothing but thin air. I wanted to t

Chapter 10

It was a formal department transfer request, stamped with the blue ink of the state attorney's office. The bold heading across the top hit Dad like a bolt of lightning."Drug Enforcement Administration. Undercover Deployment Application."Dad's eyes went wide as he stared at the paper."W-What the hell is this?" he stammered, his voice trembling.Isabelle tapped her knuckle against the partition, right over the blue stamp. "Ms. Larson bypassed the review board to fast-track my application. I volunteered for the border task force as an undercover narcotics agent. It's a high-risk mission. There's a chance they may never find my body. It's just like what happened to Mom on her final mission. "This is exactly what kept you up at night, isn't it? Well, the more it terrifies you, the faster I'm going to run toward it. You traded Gabriel's life to make me drop out of the academy. Now, I'm using my own life to square the debt."Dad completely snapped. He went into a feral frenzy, thr

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP