Chapter 1
"Father, you cannot do this to me,"
I said, my voice coming out steady even though anger was boiling up inside me like a storm I could not control, standing right there in the dim living room of our rundown house, my hands clenched tight into fists at my sides so hard my nails dug into my palms.
The air hung heavy with the stale smell of smoke from his constant cigarettes, the kind that clung to everything, and the old floorboards creaked loud under my bare feet as I shifted my weight, trying to hold back the words I really wanted to scream.
He had just dropped the bomb on me, told me straight up that he sold me off to settle his gambling debts, handed me over like I was nothing more than a thing to this stranger named Damien.
Some big time guy from the city who ran dirt
