During a tense dinner, my stepfather—a swaggering local cop—slammed me into the counter, cuffed my
the kitchen was suffocating, each second stretching like an eternity. The rain outside grew heavier, pattering insistently against the window panes, a stark contrast to the silence that had enveloped the room after Silas’s last menacing words. My heart beat steadily, trained not to falter even in the most intense situations. Linda’s phone continued capturing…