Danica POVDmitry and I lay comfortably across the couch with me nestled on top of him. We’d been laying here for nearly an hour without saying a word. Simply enjoying being in each other’s space. The kiss we shared was passionate and enticing, but nothing else was needed tonight.Another half hour passed before something started nagging at me.“What did you mean, you were here when Rick left? How did you know he wasn’t going to be here tonight?”He sighed. “There is something I need to tell you.”Dmitry shifted beneath me until we were both in a sitting position.“When you first came to work for me, I started looking into your family.”“You what?!” I jumped off the couch. “Did you run a background check on me?”He laughed. “No.” He leaned forward. “Well, not really.”I folded my arms across my chest. And sighed waiting for him to explain.“I didn’t have to wonder why you wanted to hurt yourself that day on the bike. I knew when the nurses were working on you that something wasn’t rig
EpilogueOne Year LaterDanica POV“I still cannot believe you’ve been living here in this house. With those two gorgeous men all year long. Every time I come to town, I’m still amazed.” Grace said while lounging on the float next to me.She was home for summer break, and we were enjoying a nice swim while Dmitry and Cory fixed a few poolside snacks.“First of all, I’m not living here with two guys. It’s just me and Dmitry here. Cory’s just visiting. Always visiting.” I laughed. "Just Like you are visiting me now."Grace flew in from Cali a few days ago. She was on summer break from UCLA. I was on summer break too from University of Pennsylvania. I started attending last semester since I didn’t apply on time last year. Now that I had money for college, the dream of getting a degree in English didn’t seem so far away. Thanks to my grandfather’s generous insurance money.I kept my grandfather’s house, though I didn’t live there. Instead, I visited a few times a week to study and write.
The sound of crushing beer cans hinted at the mood of my…. my house. I wanted to call it my home. But it wasn’t that. My dad’s house wasn’t a home at all. Just four walls with windows. Moss trailed the old rickety planks on the outside. Inside held old, hand me down furniture. It was a three-bedroom house on the outskirts of Riverwood, PA. Nestled on the far corner of our two-acre property.The property where my father’s house sat once belonged to my grandfather. The house too. And when he passed away, he left it to me. But that didn’t sit well with my father.He couldn’t understand why he’d been passed over. He thought that he should be the one to get the land and the house. But my grandfather had other plans.After he realized he’d been left nothing, it didn’t take long for my father to jump into a downward spiral, dragging me for the ride. In spite of my grandfather’s wishes, Rick, my father, stopped upkeeping the house and the land. He no longer mowed the once beautiful lawn or tr
He placed the tray to the side, as he stood from his chair. Rick wasn’t a tall man, nor was he a big man. But he was bigger and taller than me. He used his stature to back me into a corner.I knew this wasn’t about the chicken. I made him fried chicken plenty of times before and he only complained once.No. Tonight was about something different. I never knew what would set him off. But it seemed like more and more he would try and find something new to become angry about.“I’m not Darcy, Rick.” I pleaded in hopes to stop him from coming near me.His eyes grew a little as realization hit him. Rick wrapped his hand around my arm and shook me. “Yeah, you may not be her, but you look like her. And you still act like her. Always doing something stupid.”He shook me a little harder. Both his hands now digging into my arms.“Rick. You are hurting me!” I shouted trying to break through to him.Rick stepped back for a moment. “Get out of my face.” He said under his breath.I ran up the stairs
I awoke early the next day. I took a shower, got dressed, and headed out the door. The path to the edge of my property was a long dirt road. And at the end of that road was the garage my father held dearly. I passed by and noticed something different out front this morning.A shiny black motorcycle. It stuck out to me because it was probably the newest machine out there. All the other bikes brought to the garage were almost always older and dirtier. Though it was semi-normal to see a nice vehicle come through his garage, it still shocked me to know people trusted Rick with anything. Let alone something as beautiful as this bike.Seeing it brought back memories of a ride I took with a boy I was once good friends. His father brought him a bike at the tender age of fifteen. He rode it to school every day. One day he gave me a ride home. I remember feeling the wind curving around my body. I was free for all of ten minutes.A reminder of how chained I was to this house snatched me from my
My final classes of the day were the worst. Gym is at the top of the list. I wasn’t very athletic, and it showed in everything I did. Our class was broken into two. Girls. And guys.The guys ran track, while we played basketball today. Then tomorrow, we would run, while they played on the court.I guess this was the school’s way of keeping horny teens apart while performing touch sports. Their efforts went in vain. Ninety percent of the seniors lost their virginity years ago.“Dani. Team B.” I heard the coach shout from the center of the court. A few of the girls let out a few moans. Partly because they knew I would not help in their efforts to win. “Suit up ladies!” She shouted once more.The locker room was full of girls changing into our standard white shirts and red shorts. And as they hurriedly rushed to return to the court, I took my time changing, waiting until the locker room was nearly empty. I’d noticed bruises forming on my arms in the places Rick grabbed me yesterday.The
So much for having a good day. Between Angel and Lucas, I had no idea how I would survive the next few months of school. What started off as an amazing day of hopeful job opportunities and a full belly of delectable muffins, turned into a nightmare.Lucas didn’t like me because I was one of the only girls to deny him. I didn’t let him kiss me and turned down his offer of a date. Since then, I became enemy number one. He made the guys think I was a prune and refused to put out. Deemed unapproachable by the end of my sophomore year.Lucas was one of the only people still talking to me by the tenth grade. He was the guy with the cool dad who thought it was okay to buy him a motorcycle. He was the guy who gave me that ten-minute ride. But everything changed after that day between us and now he was the one constantly leading the attacks against me. Angel, on the other hand, hated me, and I could never understand that. She and Lucas dated on and off for the past year, so it’s not like I ke
Skipping my last class of the day was the worst thing I could have done. Making it home a few hours earlier than normal caught Rick’s attention almost immediately.I heard music blasting from the auto garage and decide to walk behind it. He wouldn’t see me and the music helped bury the sounds of my footsteps over the broken branches and loose rocks.When I opened the door to the house, it flung into Rick who was carrying a cold six-pack. He dropped the pack and at least two of the cans cracked open and began to spray across the already dingy walls.I should have checked the auto garage before walking to the house. I should have made sure he wasn’t in the house. But all the drama from school had me off my game and I was distracted.“What the hell are you doing home?” He yelled while yanking me into the house by my arm.“Rick!!!” I screamed. “You are hurting me.”“You think I’m going to raise a delinquent. Are you trying the cops to my steps?”With his free hand, he slapped my face befo