Page 133 of Torin

“We’ll be fine now, Frank. Thanks for stopping.”

Frank hesitates.

“Don’t leave me with him.”

His face crumples. “Hannah⁠—”

“Please.”

For a second, I think I’ve reached him.

Then he looks towards the Volvo disappearing up the drive.

“Dr Whitmore will take care of you.”

“Go on,” my father tells him. “I’ll call you later.”

Frank gives me one last troubled look before climbing back into his SUV.

I watch him drive away.

As soon as he disappears around the bend, my father grabs my wrist and twists my arm behind my back.

Pain shoots through my shoulder.

“Stop!”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then let me go!”

“You’ve made that impossible.”

He forces me towards the house.

I dig my heels into the gravel, but he keeps me moving.

“Keep fighting me if you want,” he says, almost conversationally. “But when Whitmore asks why I had to drag you home, I’ll tell him.”

I stop struggling.

“I’ll tell him you tried to jump out of a moving car. That you ran into the road. That you tried to steal Frank’s vehicle.”

My stomach drops.

Every word is true.

Just not in the way he’ll tell it.

“And the more you fight me now, the easier you’re going to make this.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If Whitmore decides you need something to calm you down, that’ll be his decision.”

A chill runs through me.

“You wouldn’t.”