Page 15 of Caged Bird

Eddie’s friends all knew how he treated me, and not one of them had ever cared. In all the years we’d lived here, not one of them had ever helped me. Eddie didn’t hang out with men who had empathy.

I undid the locks, trying not to weep in relief as the cuffs fell away, exposing my bruised skin.

Eddie was already gathering up the long chains that tethered me to the house. It reached every room, but no farther.

I didn’t question what he was doing, just watched him shove it into the safe and shut the door, the locks engaging automatically once more.

I knew better than to ask questions, even though they burned on the tip of my tongue.

He headed for the door again, but I stared at the floor, trying not to set him off. It didn’t save me from him grabbing my arm roughly before he went back outside though. He smelled distinctly of hospital, something between disinfectant, bad food, and that unpleasant odor sick people just seemed to have.

He hauled me in, and I fought the urge to wrinkle my nose.

“I love you,” Eddie whispered, his voice more a hiss than a caress of kind words. “You love me. Remember that. Remember how much I’ve done for you. Given you this home that you’ve never had to work a day for. We are a happy fucking family, and you’ll show it.”

I was too slow to respond. I knew it before he gave me a sharp shake, his eyes narrowing.

“You’ll show it, or I can make this house so fucking unhappy you’ll beg me for your chains back. You hear me? Don’t try anything, Fawn. It won’t work, and it’ll just mean I have to punish you and the boy. You know I hate doing that.”

I was quicker to nod this time, the threat to Otis one I was never willing to play fast and loose with, even if sometimes I did with my own life.

But I didn’t know this game. Didn’t understand what we were playing, so I needed to abide by his rules until I worked it out. “Okay,” I whispered.

He nodded. “Then come and greet our guest like a good woman should.”

I jerked my head sharply in his direction, not understanding what that meant. When he told me to be a good woman, it generally meant getting on my knees for him. But surely that wasn’t what he wanted me to do now with this stranger?

Eddie had done a lot of bad things in his time, but he’d never pimped me out to his friends. His jealousy could never. It ran a mile deep and a mile wide.

I was Eddie’s woman. His property. His plaything.

Nobody else’s.

He hobbled through the door then held it open for me. I schooled my face into something neutral, even though I was surprised. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d bothered to hold a door open for me. He was more likely to slam them in my face than to act like a gentleman.

The surprise turned to pure confusion when he laced his fingers between mine, holding my hand gently and leading me over to his friend, rather than dragging me by the wrist, which was more his usual style.

The way he held me now had me flashing back to when we’d first met. When he was charming and sweet. Back when he’d bothered to hide the jealous, possessive nature that had sat just below the surface, waiting for a stupid young thing like me to fall into his trap.

Oh, how I’d fallen. I’d fallen so hard, the first time he’d hit me I made excuses for him. And the second time, I’d blamed myself.

By the third and fourth time I’d felt so stupid I hadn’t even told my sister. I hadn’t wanted to see the look of disappointment in her eyes when I told her a man was abusing me.

Ophelia was smart. Strong. A wicked fighter who could take a life without remorse, well trained by our parents to do exactly that.

And yet I had always been the black sheep of the family. Too weak to even take care of myself, let alone anything else.

I’d never been like them. Too sweet. Too soft.

And after falling for Eddie’s lies and the trap he’d set, we could add too stupid as well.

Eddie squeezed my fingers in a way that might have looked affectionate to a bystander, but his grip was viselike, crushing my already bony knuckles together painfully.

“Smile,” he murmured. “Happy family, remember?”

I forced expression into my face. One that didn’t meet my eyes.

“Mommy!” Otis called. “Did you know I have an uncle?”

---