“So if I can’t get rid of you,” he continues, “then I’m going to make your life miserable. We both are, Colt and me. Just because he isn’t here to agree doesn’t mean he feels any differently about you than I do. You need to go. And if we need to make it so you have no choice but to leave, that’s what we’ll do.”

“And if I say anything to your father?”

His eyes narrow into slits. “Go ahead. Give it a try. See what happens. Because if you think last night was rough, you’re in for a big surprise.” He runs a hand down my side, and I squirm away, making him laugh. “Oh, Leni, it will get so much worse.”

The sickest part of all is the way he whistles lightheartedly as he leaves the room and closes the door. At least he’s smart enough not to lock it this time, but then I’m smart enough not to test him. No way am I going downstairs now, not when I can’t stop shaking and feel like I might burst into tears at any moment.

I’ve never felt anything like that before. That cold, blatant hatred. I didn’t know there were people in the world who didn’t bother hiding feelings like that—who comes out and calls somebody a cancer they can’t get rid of? It’s sick, disgusting. What happened to him to make him this way?

No. I have to shut that line of questioning down immediately. I’m not about to humanize him or bother myself with figuring out how his brain works. I think I’d rather not know.

I go to the bathroom and splash my face, hoping to calm myself down. I’m so alone here. No allies—James might be if I wasn’t afraid of the repercussions of confessing everything to him. I don’t even know whether he would believe me. All this friendly, fatherly stuff might only be an act intended to placate my mother. If that’s true, the joke’s on him. I doubt she would care much if he treated me like I was garbage. It could be one more thing for them to have in common.

It’s safer to keep this to myself. It would be childish of me to imagine swearing James to secrecy. No doubt he would go straight to his sons, and where would that leave me? In much worse shape than I’m in right now, that much is for sure.