Page 59 of The Lair

“What’s all this yelling?” my father asked as he walked into the dining room. His voice was calm, too calm, like he didn’t really care and was only stepping in to fill some kind of father-peacemaker quota.

“Your daughter won’t let me do my job,” my mother spat out.

“I never consented to being part of your job,” I bit back.

“Consented,” she mimicked. “Some big word that is, huh? You think you’re doing something here? You’remydaughter, and you’llconsentto whateverIsay.”

“That’s not how it works.” I looked at my father, knowing this was a lost cause. “You know I’m right. I shouldn’t have to be in the videos if I don’t want to.”

I got kidnapped because of it.

That was something we never talked about in our family. Ever. As if the worst day of my life had never happened. I wasn’t even sure Johnny knew about it.

“Just give your mother the camera, Allison,” he said in an almost-robotic voice, once again confirming he didn’t care about my feelings or decisions. “Those videos you don’t want to be part of pay for all the nice things you have, so behave.”

“You heard your father. Stop being an ungrateful brat and cry for the camera.”

And cry for the camera.

I was ready to throw the camera across the room and smash it into pieces when my anger subsided unexpectedly, and a sudden realization arose.

I didn’t want to be here.

With my family. In this house. In Los Angeles. In California.

I wanted nothing to do with the life I was born into. Absolutely nothing.

Cry for the camera.

Taking advantage of my momentary distraction, my mother snatched her camera from my grip. But I wasn’t expecting her to grab menext by the back of my hair, forcefully dragging me down the hallway.

“I warned you,” she snarled, gripping my hair tighter.

I gasped, her actions taking me back to that man. To the warehouse. “Stop! You’re hurting me.”

She only did after pushing me inside my bedroom and shutting the door.

“You’d better stay there until the morning, or you’ll go without dinner for a whole week,” she shouted from the other side.

I didn’t react. Didn’t yell back. Didn’t say anything at all.

Claudia can’t hurt me anymore. I’m safe.

But was I?

My eyes drifted to the laptop on my bed, and something lit up inside of me. Something that shouldn’t have felt as right as it did.

Sitting on the ground, I kept stealing quick glances at the door to check that my mother was truly gone. And then I typed in what I hoped would be the beginning of the end.

Farthest state from California.

Chapter Eighteen

“I’m so sorry, honey.”

I’m fine. I’m totally fine.

“She posted it last night in response to George Eden’s statement, but from what I’ve seen, it hasn’t made any major headlines yet.”

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