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PROLOGUE
EVERLEIGH
Age 16 . . .
“Please let me see him,” I cry, holding my arms out for the baby. My baby. Tears stream down my face as I plead to see my son.
“You will do no such thing,” my mother, Dixie Bates, snaps. “Get that child out of here.”
“No,” I scream and try to get up, fighting against the restraints across my chest. “He’s my baby. Please, you can’t do this.”
“I can and will.” Dixie sneers. “You will not disgrace this family by showing the world you had a baby out of wedlock. The good Lord will not have it.”
I close my eyes and roll my head to watch the nurse carry my child from the room without me seeing his face. A sob escapes before I can stop it, earning me a backhand from my mother.
“Now you will behave and do as you’re told. Do you hear me?” she snarls, pinching my cheek. “You will not embarrass this family. The mister will not have it.
I swallow thinking of the man she speaks of. My father’s brother and the leader of the community that my parents live within. I want nothing more than to take my baby and run away, but I don’t even know where they’re taking him or who they’re giving him to.Another sob escapes me as I think of the father of my child, the one who tried to help me escape this place . . . Case.
We were friends from school and his family made me feel welcome any chance I got to be around them. I’m sure they blame me for his death, but they can’t prove what happened to him. My father and uncle both made sure he paid for his said ‘crimes’ in trying to help me escape my life within the community and what was to happen at any moment. I don’t know the extent of the pain Case went through but I’m sure it had to be excruciating.
Afterward, my uncle came to me and said once the child was born, they’d cleanse me for the good Lord. I’m pretty sure they also paid off whoever they needed to in order to keep it quiet. The police report states he’d been in the midst of a gang war and was a victim, as were many others.
The people around here are insane. But being sixteen, they’re not going to let me get away easily. I’ve been lucky enough that they let me associate with anyone that isn’t a part of their circle. If not for my friends and them sneaking me a cell phone, I wouldn’t have any way to communicate with the outside world. For the last several months, I’ve been locked away ‘sick’ and unable to go to school. Instead, so my parents didn’t get in trouble with the state, they enrolled me in the homeschooling program my high school offers.
Why can’t I simply have normal parents who weren’t dictators or overly religious freaks? I have nothing against religion. I pray and read the Bible. But I don’t believe we have to live in a community like this one. It’s filled with nothing but men who think they can do as they please while looking down on women. Well, those women who are in lesser power than others. Even some of the women like my mother, talk down to the others as she did the nurses throughout the delivery of my child.
“You need to get straightened up for the day. We have things to do, and you will not be out of my sight,” Dixie declares, curling her lip in disgust. She doesn’t care that I just gave birth or anything else.
I nod on a shuddered breath, not knowing what else to do. I need to figure a way to get out from under their thumb, I just don’t know how.
* * *
Two Years Later . . .
“Please just let me live a life outside of the community,” I plead to my father as he stares down at me. I’ve finally hit eighteen and graduated from school. I want to go to college and find a life for myself.
“And why should I do that?” he demands, crossing his arms trying to seem intimidating. In truth, he is, and he knows it. Him and my uncle both. With my uncle being the leader of this community, my father took his place at his side gleefully and in the past few years, things have gotten weirder. I wasn’t allowed far from anyone’s sight. I always had a tail on me, no matter where I went. My mother became more of a dictator, controlling every aspect of my life.
“Because I’ve done everything you’ve told me to do, and I just want to be able to go to college and . . .”
“Is she pestering you again, William?” my uncle asks, joining us along with my mother right behind him.
I swallow the bile that threatens to rise as I’m sure what they’d been doing. My mother isn’t just my father’s wife, but my uncle’s as well. The two of them share without issue, and I find it strange that they can do so without fighting.
“She was just talking about college and wanting us to let her live outside the community,” my father answers.
“Everleigh, if you don’t stop—”
“I think it would be fine,” my uncle interrupts Dixie. “On the condition that when we pick acceptable suitors, you’ll date them. And when one decides he wants to marry you even knowing the disgrace that mars you, you’ll do so without protest.”
I meet my uncle’s calculated gaze and nod. I don’t speak for fear he’ll change his mind. I’m getting what I want but still it’s not easy as it sounds. I know he’ll have more conditions for me to abide by.
To get away from here, I’ll do just about anything and agree to whatever I have to for a taste of the freedom I crave.
CHAPTERONE
EVERLEIGH
