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PROLOGUE

Hayley

Eighteen Years Ago

The pain rips through me so hard I bite down on the blanket to keep from screaming.

It doesn’t work.

A broken cry escapes me, filling the bedroom that stopped feeling like mine months ago. I grip the sheets beneath me and try to breathe, but the pain keeps building until it feels like my body is being torn apart.

“That’s it,” the woman beside the bed says. “Breathe through it, sweetheart.”

My mother’s head snaps toward her. “Don’t call her that.”

The woman doesn’t look away from me. Her hand remains wrapped around mine, warm and steady.

“Breathe, Hayley.”

The lady's name is Mae. That’s all I know about her. She seems nice.

My parents brought her into the house after dark. They made her park behind the barn so no one passing on the road would see her car. My mother pulled every curtain closed before allowing her inside.

Eight months of hiding me from the world, and they’re still afraid someone might discover their sixteen-year-old daughter is having a baby.

Another pain tears through me.

I curl forward, wrapping my arms around my stomach.

My father’s voice echoes in my head.

I’ll beat the devil out of you if it’s the last thing I do.

I protected my baby every time he came into this room. I took the blows on my back, my shoulders, and my arms. I curled myself around her and prayed he wouldn’t make me lose her.

He failed.

She survived.

My little girl is still here.

Mae presses a cool cloth against my forehead. Her gaze moves over the bruises on my arms before meeting mine.

She knows.

I can see it in her eyes.

My mother walks toward the door. “How much longer?”

“As long as it takes,” Mae answers.

“We need this finished before morning.”

Mae’s expression hardens. “Babies don’t care about your schedule.”

My mother’s lips thin. She looks at me as if I’ve done all of this to punish her.

“You brought this shame into our home,” she says. “You can endure the consequences quietly.”