Page 162 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

Eight months since Sky gave her statement to the police in Boston, then repeated to the Stone Ridge detectives. The town is so small, it’s usually Rose Hill police that handle anything going on in Stone Ridge. However, apparently there’s been an uptick in crime in the area.

Dad was arrested less than a month later, held without bail, and found guilty by a jury only six months after that.

He’s been in prison for less than a month.

I take the seat opposite him, schooling my expression. I’m sick just looking at him. My stomach twists, and I swallow to suppress my sudden nausea.

Sitting at the trial, hearing Sky bravely get on the stand and tell the world what she remembered… I ached for her.

The evidence, though.

It seems all they needed was where Sky was kept, and the rest was easy.

Dad never suspected he’d get caught. He didn’t even destroy the fucking place he kept her. They didn’t find her DNA—or anyone else’s, for that matter—but the room was exactly as she described it.

“Hello, son,” my father says.

He appears tired and not altogether healthy. There’s tape over his purple nose, and he has two black eyes.

Even inmates have moral compasses, and it seems they draw the line at hurting innocent children.

“I’ll make this quick.” Loathing fills my voice.

He nods for me to proceed. He doesn’t have a long sentence, but judging from his face, he might not make it even that long.

“You took Sky.”

He nods slowly. “I did.”

“Why her?”

He sighs. “She was the easy target.”

My lip curls. “Easy.”

“What do you want me to say, Liam?”

I slam my hand on the table. “I want you to fucking tell me what was so damn important you had to keep a child behind the false wall of a storage unit for a month and a half? When you beat her bloody.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“I can’t,” Dad says. “I don’t have a good excuse for it. It’s made me sick to my stomach—”

“I hope they beat you up every day of your goddamn miserable life,” I say quietly. “I hope you try to fight back and get a knife in your stomach. And really, Dad? I pray that every day you’ll remember this: if you make it out of here, you’ll have me to contend with.”

He rocks backward, shock filling his face. “Now, Liam—”

I stand abruptly, needing to escape. I leave him there and am buzzed out, and moments later I burst out into the parking lot.

I inhale a deep breath of clean air.

And I smile, because… well, I’m free. I have Sky, and my mom, and our trauma can finally be put to rest.

* * *

SKY

Ten Months Later

He moves slowly, restraining first one of my wrists, then the other. There’s no malice in his expression. Nothing that would trigger my panic.