Page 4 of Hidden Desire

Grace sat in the window seat in the family room, reading, when she heard her father’s footsteps coming toward her and stiffened. She hadn’t seen him that day, so she didn’t know if he was in a good or bad mood. He was okay when he was in a good mood, but otherwise, he was a violent monster.

“Ah, there’s my ugly daughter,” Emmet said when he found her.

Well, there was her answer.

“What did you need, Father?” she asked and braced herself for brutal denigrations and pain.

“I might finally be able to get rid of you.”

Grace didn’t show any emotion. She’d learned the hard way he would use it against her somehow. She waited silently.

“A business acquaintance I have needs a nanny.”

She dug her nails into her palms to prevent herself from showing excitement. He stood staring down at her, waiting for a crack in her demeanor. She would give him nothing, and she’d had years of practice. Even when he was hurting her, she tried her best to keep from crying out.

“I would have told him no, but he’s a bigwig in the community, and it would be great to have him as a friend. You’ll still be in town, so I can get to you whenever I want. If I get word that you are talking about me, I will bring you home and lock you in your room until you die. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Father.”

“Good. Get packed. It shouldn’t take too long since you don’t have a lot. Ugly little sluts like you don’t need nice clothes. Right?”

She nodded.

He yanked her off the window seat, squeezing her arm painfully. He shoved her violently toward the steps.

“Go.”

Grace ran up the stairs to her bedroom. She pulled a bag from the back of her closet and stuffed the few pairs of shoes, and the dozen dresses she had on hangers into it. She then emptied the drawers that held her undergarments before going into her bathroom.

She placed her bathroom items in another bag. She scrambled to find the food she’d hidden around her room and stuffed it in her shoes just in case he looked at her things.

If he knew she had food tucked away in her room for the times he locked her in for days, sometimes a week, she knew she would be beaten badly, and he wouldn’t let her leave.

The dress she had on hid the bruises he’d given her in the last few days. He was always careful to keep from hitting places on her body that people could see.

She dragged her things down the stairs, set them by the door, and then stood waiting.

It was at least thirty minutes before her father walked out of his office. She tightened her hands when he grabbed her face.

“Now, remember, if I hear anything, I will bring you back, and I guarantee I’ll hear. I already have a spy set up in his household, and no one can keep me from bringing you home.”

She nodded.

“Follow me,” he said and walked out the door.

She followed with her bags. The driver didn’t look at her. Her father’s staff knew better than to talk to her or be nice. The story of what happened to the last person who talked to her kept everyone quiet. Her father supposedly had him tortured and killed, and since she never saw him again, she believed it to be true.

The driver took her bags and put them in the trunk.

She scrambled into the car after her father and sat as far from him as she could. She stared out the window and watchedthe cars rush past them. She saw all the beautiful houses and the different people in other vehicles or on the sidewalks and was fascinated. She couldn’t remember if her father had ever let her leave the house. If he had, it was a long time ago. Since she was five, she’d been stuck in his house, which felt like a prison most of the time.

They pulled through tall metal gates and up a driveway to a huge door. The driver opened her door, and she scrambled out and stood off to the side. The driver took her bags out and set them by her.

When her father walked up the stairs toward the door, she struggled with her bags and followed quickly behind him.

Her father stopped her at the door. “I’ve been told he can be brutal, so you must be on your best behavior. If you think what I do to you is bad, piss this guy off, and you’ll see.”

She nodded her head as dread filled her. She’d been looking forward to living in a house that had laughter and was safe and where she didn’t wake up knowing her day would include pain and insults.