Please, god, don’t let anything happen to them.

Pressing a few fobs in their garage, she found a car she could drive, and it turned out to be a Bentley. The rest were sports cars.

Not caring about rules, she zigzagged her way through traffic, had tons of cars honking at her and showing her the middle finger. She wiped the tears from her eyes with shaky hands, her mind racing nonstop.

How had Carl gotten out of prison? He couldn’t have escaped. She checked once a week to make sure he was still there. But he was at the farm at that very moment; how was it possible?

She forced herself to stay alert and not allow her body to go into shock when she recalled her nieces’ petrified screams. She stumbled out of the car before it had completely stopped and raced into the old farmhouse. Memories of neglect, hunger, shame, and misery rushed through her, all from her childhood. And now her nieces and nephews were experiencing the same thing with their father. How were they ever going to escape him?

The scene she walked into chilled her even more. Every piece of furniture had been broken, and the place was ransacked. The kids were nowhere in sight. Laura was sitting in a corner, her hands over her head, protecting herself. Sutton went to her immediately.

“Where are the kids?” she asked.

“In the barn,” Laura whispered, bewildered.

The barn was a safe word for the basement under the floor of one of the bedrooms. Her parents hadn’t known it existed, and it was where she and Laura would hide.

"Well, if it isn’t the snobby little sister herself.”

Sutton rose after she made sure her sister wasn’t injured.

Why was she being punished like this? A few more days and Laura and the kids would have been somewhere else entirely.

Carl Johnson, dirty, unkempt, and reeking of alcohol, stood looking at Sutton.

“The police are on their way,” she said, aiming to be brave.

“The police?” Carl started to howl with laughter. “The police are going to do nothing to me. You know why? Because I’m their prize witness. Made a deal with them. How do you think I got out just like that, huh?” He laughed again, and it sickened Sutton to her stomach.

“I’m just here to teach you two a fucking lesson about what happens to people who sell me out.” He took off his belt and unbuckled his jeans. Sutton thought she was going to be sick.

“It’s good you’re here now, pretty Sutton. My dick would prefer some nice tight pussy first before I get to your sister's overused one.”

He came toward her.

Sutton was so mad that she wanted to kill him with her bare hands. She looked around for a weapon. She had been so stupid not to come armed with something. But he grabbed her and slammed her against the wall.

“Pretty Sutton. You were always my favorite. My dick is rock hard for you.”

Her blood boiled over. She reached to scratch his face off while she attempted to knee him in the nuts as well. She had never hated anyone more in her life.

But as the weight of lead lifted off her, Carl dropped to his knees and then fell over. Her father’s ax stuck in the middle of his head.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Heaving in thick breaths, Sutton kept her eyes glued to Carl’s body as he lay at her feet.

Her sister killed her ex-husband.

Her sister killed her ex-husband.

No. No. No.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Laura? Laura, listen to me.” Sutton took her sister by the arms, but Laura had already escaped inside herself. When she became this way, not even Sutton could get through to her. But this time she didn’t have the luxury of fleeing into oblivion, ignoring all her responsibilities. She had to take care of her children.

Shaking her until she made eye contact, Sutton spoke to her sternly.

“Laura, the cops are on their way here. I called them before I got here. I need you to go and hide with the kids.”