Chapter 13
Lily’s eyes flew open, wide with shock and absolute terror. She stared at me as if I were an illusion, her breath hitching painfully in her chest. Her skin was freezing to the touch, and her lips were tinged with a faint, horrifying blue.
"Dad?" she whispered, her voice completely broken. "You're supposed to be in Chicago."
"I came back, baby. I came back for you," I choked out, tears of profound guilt and rage streaming down my face. I pulled my heavy wool coat off and wrapped it securely around her small, trembling frame. As I lifted her into my arms, I realized exactly how dangerously light she had become over the past few months. Victoria had been restricting her meals, masking the starvation behind complaints about Lily being a picky eater.
"She locked me down here," Lily cried into my shoulder, her fingers gripping my shirt like a lifeline. "She said I ruined the living room carpet and I wasn't allowed upstairs until you came home on Friday. I was so cold, Dad. I was so incredibly cold."
The sheer, calculated cruelty of it threatened to blind me with rage. Victoria had intentionally locked my fifteen-year-old daughter in a freezing basement for the weekend, knowing I wouldn't be there to intervene.
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"You are never spending another second in this basement," I promised fiercely, carrying her up the wooden stairs. "You are safe now. I have you."
I bypassed the kitchen and walked directly to the front door, not even bothering to gather any of our belongings. I wasn't going to confront Victoria right now. If I looked at my wife in this exact moment, I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't commit a violent crime. My absolute first priority was getting my daughter to safety. I carried Lily out into the cold night air, promising myself that Victoria’s reign of terror had officially and permanently come to a devastating end.
