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CHAPTERONE
SAVANNAH
“See you tomorrow!” Lisa yells out the passenger side window of her car.
“Yeah. See ya,” I say with a forced smile before waving over my shoulder and heading toward my front door.
I used to love coming home, practically sprinting through the front door every day after school into my mom’s waiting arms. Ever since my dad died when I was seven years old, it was me and her against the world. She was the best mom. The first to volunteer for a bake sale or to chaperone a field trip at school. Yeah, we both missed my dad terribly, but we had each other. We were the picture-perfect family until she met Hunter right after my fifteenth birthday.
Hunter was everything I could’ve asked for in a stepfather…until he wasn’t. Before he married my mom, everyone talked about how much he loved us. I scoffed when my friends told me horror stories about how their stepparent tried to erase all memories of their lives before they came into the picture. Hunter did the exact opposite. He made every attempt to ask me about my dad and the things we would do together and never made me feel like a burden or third wheel in their relationship. He even asked me if he could marry my mom before even proposing to her. He said that ensuring my happiness was one of his highest priorities.
What a crock of shit.
Not long after Hunter and my mom were married, she started feeling gross. I don’t really know any other way to explain it. She had no energy and was sleeping way more than usual. Hunter was hoping she was pregnant, and if I’m being honest, so was I, but we were both wrong. After spending weeks of trying to convince my mom to go to the doctors, we finally got our answer: cancer.
When they sat me down to deliver the news, I was heartbroken. With tears in her eyes, my mom promised me she’d fight this disease and kick its ass, just like we’ve done everything else in the past. And I believed her.
Not long after that, Hunter changed. Instead of wanting to do things as a family, he pushed me to the side. He even tried to convince my mother it would be better for her health if she sent me off to some boarding school. My mom said no, of course, but I should’ve known then that there was something off about Hunter. He was no longer the same loving stepfather I knew. Instead, he became dismissive, and as my mother got sicker, downright unbearable to be around.
“You only have a few more months and you’ll be off at college,” I whisper to myself as I turn the knob and a sense of dread settles over me.
“Where the fuck have you been, Savannah?” Hunter growls, storming out of the living room before I can even close the door. “You were supposed to be home before dinner.”
“You gave me permission to go out with Lisa yesterday,” I mumble, pulling my bag higher on my shoulder and bracing myself for Hunter’s rage.
“That was yesterday, you little shit.”
I bite down on my bottom lip, holding back my snarky retort.
“You want me to throw your ungrateful ass out on the street?” Hunter shouts, his alcohol-laced breath wafting across my face. “Then you could be my good little whore and at least earn your keep.”
Tears pool in my eyes as I remember what life was like when my mother was alive. My father was a trust fund baby, and now it all belongs to me on my eighteenth birthday. Our house, a large plot of land with a small hunting cabin in the Tennessee mountains a few hours’ drive from here, and enough money to pay for college and give myself a comfortable living after graduation. My mom also listed me as her prime beneficiary on her life insurance, leaving Hunter with nothing.
I was shocked when I heard the news. I always knew my mom never had to worry about money, but I always assumed we only had enough to live comfortably. Even when my mom got sick, she never once led on about there being a large amount of money just sitting off to the side and waiting for me.
When Hunter heard the news, he wasn’t amused. Apparently, he knew just how much money my parents had, and he expected to have access to all that money after she died.
I take a deep breath, reminding myself I only need to put up with his shit for a few more weeks and I’ll have enough money for school and a place far away from Hunter.
“Whatever, Hunter.” I roll my eyes for good measure before trying to step around him and head further into the house, but he steps in my way. “Move, please.”
“You’re such a little bitch, you know that? Not everyone has everything they ever wanted handed to them on a silver platter. I had plans for that fucking money.”
“Plans?” I question, anger filling every part of my body. “Who makes plans for money they’ll get after their wife dies?”
Hunter scoffs, gripping my chin tightly and forcing me to look at him. “Do you think I cleaned up your mom’s shit and vomit formonthsto be left with nothing but your worthless ass to take care of? I did it for the money and nothing more, but now I won’t even have that.”
“Did you ever love either of us?” I whimper as I try to pull my chin from his grip.
His eyes soften slightly as he opens his mouth to respond before snapping it shut. “I loved your mother. You were a means to an end, then and now.”
Hunter releases my chin and begins pacing back and forth in front of me, his arms flailing around him.
“Do you have any idea what they’ll do to me if I don’t pay them the money I owe?”
“Owe who?”
“The mob, you idiot! I ran into some trouble at work before your mom died and needed cash fast. I had every intention of paying them back after the insurance money came in, but your mother left all of it to you.”
