There was no such thing like that for someone like me.
I would never get it.
I could accept that now.
Now it was all about survival.
My survival.
And I would survive.
I would escape and disappear into the wind. Never to be heard of again. I didn’t mind being alone. I welcomed it. Living by myself, only relying on my own, was my future.
I knew that now.
As long as men like my father lived and roamed the earth, I would never be safe. No woman, man, or child would be.
I remembered the first time I laid eyes on my birth father. I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn’t know why that shocked me at the time, but it did. And when he smiled at me, I knew genuine fear. He was a man no one should ever have as a father. Everything I had learned about him was true but seeing him in person, I knew no one really knew the vile nature of the beast before me that day.
My life wasn’t easy by any means.
I may have had a good childhood, but that was where it ended because when the Black Vultures started sniffing around me, my idyllic world turned sinister. Gone was the laughter and freedom I once enjoyed, only to be replaced by fear and torment. There were moments of happiness, like when I lived with my brother and met Kitty, but even that ended when the truth of who I was came out.
Then my absolute hell began, and as much as I wanted to believe it stopped when I met Giovanni, it never really ended.
I just exchanged one cage for another.
Reality sucked, and the more I thought about what I was about to do, the pain of that reality surfaced, almost suffocating me. But I didn’t have any other choice, and I refused to condemn two lives to the same fate.
I may be related to that fucker who contributed his DNA to mine, but I was also my mother’s daughter. She was a survivor. She was strong, and she never gave up. I wanted to be just like her, and I would be just like her. I just needed to bide my time and find my way out of this mess. Eventually, I would, and when I had my freedom again, no one would ever put me in a cage ever again.
I slowly turned my head, hearing voices outside my door. I said nothing, just waiting and watching, willing him to finally show his face again. I knew he would, and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. He was that vain. And when the door opened, and I braced myself for what was to come.
He liked showing his power.
I liked pissing him off.
It was going to be a game of wills.
One, I planned on winning.
So, when he walked in and said, “Hello, daughter.”
I smirked.
Let the games begin.
37
Layla
The loud sound of his hand connecting with my face rang in my ears as my cheek throbbed horribly.
I had to give it to him.
He wasted no time.
When he walked into the small room I was being held in, he had two men drag me from it. I was still a little out of it and unable to fight them. So, I kept quiet. I knew what was about to happen. I’d seen this story play out too many times to know that I would be excluded from his wrath. It was a good thing the drugs they injected me with hadn’t worn off yet, because when he placed me in another room and tied me to a chair, the drugs helped ease the pain of his men hitting me.