Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
SAVANNAH
SUMMER BEFORE FRESHMAN YEAR
I stare down at my phone, my lip pulled between my teeth as I try to understand the text I’m seeing.
He wants me to go to his house? To do what?
Is he expecting—no, these last few weeks I’ve spent with Harley have opened my eyes to who he really is, and I know he wouldn’t rush me to do anything I don’t want to do.
It’s not that I don’t want to get physical with him, I just…
ugh, I don’t even know how to explain my own goddamn feelings.
Harley is different to anyone I’ve ever met. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt.
I’m starting to really like him, and I feel like maybe once we’re together like that, then the illusion will shatter and everything good will drain away.
But that’s not why he wants me to go to his house; he just wants me to go to watch a movie and hang out. I’ve been getting good at sneaking out lately, so I doubt that will be an issue.
I sigh and text him back, agreeing to meet him at his place as anticipation fills me. I’ve loved hanging out with him lately, and I don’t want it to end when the summer does, but I don’t know what will happen when we get to college.
Will he go back to not even noticing I exist? Or will he acknowledge me now? Will we continue whatever it is we’ve been doing?
Questions for another time, I guess.
All I can do right now is live in the moment, enjoying each day as it comes before everything eventually falls apart.
And it will, because that’s just how my life is.
But this is the first time in a long time that I’ve had a little good in my life, and I’m going to enjoy it while I can.
A knock at my door has my heartbeat picking up and me throwing my phone to the side, like if he doesn’t see it near me, then he won’t suspect anything.
Ridiculous, I know.
The door opens, and my father fills my doorway with a sneer on his face. He looks perfectly put together, as always, with his pressed suit and his slicked-back hair. I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing nothing good can come from him being in my room.
Nothing good ever happens after he seeks me out like this, and though usually I’m innocent in whatever it is he’s accusing me of, I’ve been breaking a hell of a lot of rules lately, and it was only a matter of time before he found out.
I guess now is that time, and I’ll have to face the consequences of my actions.
“You’ve been doing well, Savannah,” he praises, and I frown, since I have no goddamn idea what he’s talking about. I’ve been doing well? If anything, I’ve rebelled more in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life.
An ominous feeling bubbles to the surface as I stare at the man who raised me, the man who’s currently gazing at me with a twinkle in his eyes and an evil smirk on his lips.
Oh god, I just know that whatever he’s about to say is going to be bad.
So, so bad.
“You’ve gotten him to trust you, and now he’s invited you into his home.” The smirk turns to a wicked grin in an instant, and my gut drops.
He knows? Has he known all this time?
I thought I was careful, I thought I was being safe.
Clearly, I was wrong.
All of the times I found it so easy to sneak out, the times he told me he was going to be out, and I’d be home alone, how he hasn’t punished me for something I haven’t done lately. Realization smacks me in the face—he was testing me.
He hasn’t hit me lately because he knows I’ve been going out, and the marks and bruises would be seen, leading to questions.
Bile crawls up my throat, and tears gather in my eyes. “How?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper as I force the question past my lips.
He laughs darkly, his eyes alight with humor, and it makes me hate him even more than I already did.
“Did you really think you could sneak out without me knowing exactly what you were doing and where you were going? Did you really think you could do a single thing on your phone without me seeing it?” He shakes his head and takes a menacing step toward the bed.
“It turns out my useless daughter is good for something, and that something is whoring herself out in order to get me what I need.”
My brain can barely keep up with what he’s telling me, but it snags on his final words. “Get you what you need?” I echo, and the look he gives me is so full of sick satisfaction that it makes me want to hurl.
“Yes. You’re going to go to your little boyfriend’s house tomorrow, and you’re going to take this”—he throws a small black box at me, it hits me square in the chest, then drops to the bed—“and you’re going to plug it into Corvin Thorn’s computer before downloading everything you can onto it.
It should only take a few minutes, but remember not to act suspiciously because if you give yourself away, you won’t like the consequences. ”
I’m already shaking my head before he finishes speaking. “I… I can’t do that. I won’t do that, it’s not right, and you can’t make me.”
“Right? I don’t give a fuck about what’s right, Savannah.
You’re going to do this because you won’t have a choice.
I need that information to get ahead of him in my career, and now you’ve given me the perfect opportunity to get my hands on it.
If you don’t, I’ll drop you off at my friend’s house, and I know you’ve heard the stories of what my friends are like. ”
He’s right, I have heard the stories. Stories he’s told me about buying and selling people, of making them do whatever they need them to, though I’m sure the stories are exactly that—nothing but fiction told to scare me into submission. I won’t do it, I can’t do that to Harley and his family.
And he wants to get further with his career?
I know he’s been running for mayor, but does it really matter that much?
My father has generational wealth and everything he could ever want, so why does he care so much about this?
And why not just try to win the election on his own merit rather than resorting to blackmail?
But then, he wouldn’t be my father if he didn’t have a trick or twenty up his sleeve.
“I can’t do it,” I whisper again, my tears finally beginning to fall as I think about what’s going to happen to me, because while I know my father is full of shit a lot of the time, something about this feels real.
“You can and you will, because you won’t be the only one to meet the acquaintance of my friends. How would your little boyfriend cope with that sort of life, huh? How would your little boyfriend fare if I got my hands on him?”
I can feel the bile crawling up my throat, but I swallow it down. I could refuse to do it when he was threatening me, but to use those threats against Harley?
A sob leaves my lips. No, I can’t let that happen.
I think about the years of abuse I’ve endured from the man in front of me. I think about all of the threats… all of the pain, the neglect, the fear. The never being able to leave, knowing he’d be hot on my heels and ready to hurt me even worse than he already does, just because he can.
My father is a man of his word, and if he says he’s going to hurt Harley, then that’s exactly what he’ll do.
Colin Marks is powerful. He has more money than sense and more connections than anyone I know.
If anyone could get to Harley, it would be him.
I’ve spent years in pain because of him, and I don’t want that for Harley.
Harley is like sunshine, and he doesn’t need to be tainted by the pain and suffering that my father can and will inflict on him.
No… not him. I’d rather take any and all punishments. I’d rather ruin this thing between us than let Harley get hurt by the man in front of me.
Fuck, I have to do this.
I have to betray the one person who really sees me if I’m going to keep him safe.
I guess I shouldn’t have worried about sex breaking the illusion, because it’s shattered now.
But I can do this. He’ll no doubt come to hate me for it, and that’s okay, so long as he’s safe.
Nothing else matters but his well-being, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him out of my father’s threats.
I just wish I would have seen this coming, because I could have saved us both the heartache and stayed far, far away from him.
But it’s too late to turn back now.
I once told Harley nothing could come from us spending time together, but I was wrong.
So fucking wrong, because something has come from this.
Day by day, little by little, I’ve been falling in love with him.
And now I’m going to destroy him and his family.