Chapter 2

2 It was Jake Miller, my brother, the one who'd loved me for twenty years.

When bullies made me cry as a kid, he'd always hold me and say, "Nobody messes with Daisy when I'm around."

But after Summer gained a pound from my diet plan, costing her the lead dancer role, he started spiking my milk with hormones every day.

Watching me swell up, he didn't even blink.

"If it wasn't for you, Summer wouldn't have been kidnapped for over a decade. Now you're trying to wreck her dreams? I'll make you pay, a hundred times over."

I stared at my brother, my mouth going dry.

School princess? Self-respect?

From the second they dropped me off at that camp, there was no school princess, no self-respect.

Those instructors knew all the tricks to break a spoiled brat like me.

The more I fought, the worse it got.

To survive, I had to learn to grovel.

For the first month, I still had hope. I escaped, half-dead, and begged him for help.

But he just shoved me away, like he was doing now, and sent me back to that hellhole.

"Daisy, I thought you'd finally learned, but you're still the same."

"You knew I was coming to get you, so you dressed like this for sympathy. Now acting like you're crazy?! You only went here to lose weight and learn some manners. You lost weight but you did not learn any manners, still acting like you're crazy?!"

"You like kneeling? You like begging? Then kneel right here. Otherwise, forget about leaving this place!"

He grabbed a box of beer bottles from the trunk and smashed them all over the ground.

He must have thought I'd do the old Daisy thing, get righteously angry, and give him a piece of my mind.

But I didn't. I just dropped to my knees on all that broken glass.

The stench of blood mixed with beer, a sharp, stinging pain shooting through me, but I bit down so hard my lip bled, without making a sound.

I wasn't going back to that nightmare. They'd beat me, burn me with cigarettes, starve me, and even make me strip naked and confess in front of everyone.

My desperate screams only made them laugh harder, searching for new ways to break me, so they could play new mind games next time.

I was doing exactly what he wanted, but Jake still looked furious.

"Daisy, are you insane? You do everything you're told? This dieting messed with your brain!

"I don't care if you're faking or not. This isn't the time. When we see Summer, you better get down on your knees and beg for her forgiveness."

He shoved me into the car.

Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of her.

A cartoon sticker of Summer and Jake making silly faces was plastered on the dashboard, with "Summer's Seat" written on it.

I thought I was past caring, but seeing all that still stung.

Jake kept lecturing me.

"Mom and Dad have missed you this year. They had to send you away. Just don't do anything to cause problems. Don't make things difficult for Mom and Dad."

"Mom and Dad have missed you this year. They sent you away because they don't want to see your bad habits. The family can't stand you."

Missed me? Why didn't they ever visit?

A few times, after I was beaten so badly they had to rush me to the ER, I begged the nurses to call them.

But as soon as they heard my name, they hung up.

"I only have one daughter, Summer. I don't care about anyone else. Don't call this number again."

"You haven't learned in all this time, then just stay there for another year. Get that in your head."

Seeing me staring, Jake glared at me in the rearview mirror.

"Are you deaf?"

His tone sent a jolt of fear through me.

I couldn't argue.

Arguing meant being stubborn, and being stubborn meant being held underwater for hours, just my nostrils above the surface, until I learned to be soft.

I swallowed my fear and whispered, "Okay."

This pathetic act only made Jake frown harder, but he didn't say anything else.