Part 2I Gave Him to Her

“Clara, you…” Caleb stared at me, dumbfounded.

He knew how desperately I had wanted to be saved, to escape this nightmare.

But now…

I ignored the complex guilt in his eyes and put on a mask of cool rationality. “Sir, Ma’am, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be an only child. I’m not sure I’d want to share my new family. So, thank you, but no.”

The Graysons looked startled, then disappointed.

As they were leaving, Lila made a point to walk over to me.

She tilted her chin up, a smug, triumphant smile on her face. “I told you, Clara. You can’t compete with me. I’m going to be a rich man’s daughter now. And you? You can stay here and rot. If you have to blame someone, blame yourself for being too stupid to call out my bluff.”

Lila walked away, laughing.

After she was gone, a figure emerged from the shadows in the corner of the room. A pale, handsome boy looking completely lost.

Caleb looked like his entire reality had been shaken. He never imagined that his pure, innocent little victim could be so… shameless.

He looked at me, his expression a tangled mess of confusion and a silent plea for help.

I knew that look. He was relying on me, wanting me to come over and explain it all, to make it make sense.

I turned my back on him and walked away.

“Clara.”

I paused for a half-second.

“You’re back, too, aren’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

“Clara, I’m sorry. You know how it is. Lila’s just a kid. She’ll learn. She’ll change.”

“Oh. Okay.” I smiled. What did that have to do with me? I had no intention of ever being involved with them again.

“Clara!” A note of panic entered his voice. He grabbed my arm, frantically digging through his pockets and pulling out a handful of crumpled bills. “Here, take this. I’m sorry about this. I owe you. Within half a month… no, five days. Three days, I swear, I’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Clara, I will save you! Just wait for me!” Caleb rushed off, not to deny me the chance to refuse, but because Lila had tripped and cried out in pain a short distance away.

I smiled to myself. Of course.

Thank God I hadn’t placed a single shred of hope in Caleb Grayson.

After Lila left, I don’t know what she said to the director.

But his cruelty escalated. His methods grew viler, his threats more immediate, and I almost buckled under the pressure.

Three days passed.

Then five.

Half a month… then a whole month…

Caleb never came.

But I did it. At the cost of a broken arm, I managed to record a video of the director’s crimes and got it to the police and a local news reporter.

As the police led the director away in handcuffs, the boys who had always been his favorites surrounded me.

“It was you, wasn’t it, Clara? You little snitch.”

“I’m gonna kill you. The director’s gone. What are we supposed to do now? Starve?”

“Get her! Kill that loud-mouthed bitch!”

“Get her!”

I curled into a ball, trying to protect my injured arm and my head, the pain overwhelming.

I had expected this.

The five boys beating me were his sons. Of course, they would defend their father.

Suddenly, the lead boy picked up a rock, raising it to bring down on my head. In a flash, someone was standing over me.

The rock came down.

“Ah!” A cry of pain.

Caleb was hurt, shielding me.