Fifteen
Lily
"Lily?"
I looked up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes to the voice calling my name. My lips parted in slight shock when I saw my mother standing at the door leading into the cellar. The corners of her lips were upturned in a grotesque smile and her distaste for this room was obvious.
For a moment, I was sure I was dreaming.
"Lily, come here," my mother called out again.
"Mom?" I picked myself up from the mattress and ran a hand through my ratty hair. "What are you doing here?"
She gave me a tight-lipped smile and motioned for me to come toward her. Countless occasions of feeling like I was being dissected by her judgmental gaze ran through my head, but I pushed them aside.
My heart beat with newfound hope and I rushed into her arms, forgetting about the fact that I was stark naked, something I'd usually try to cover up. Law had undone the chain the night before and I was now free to roam the room as I saw fit.
Before I reached and embraced her, mom made me stop with a single motion of her outstretched hand.
"No, darling, please," she said stiffly. "You look dirty."
I stood there like a lost puppy, self-consciously covering my dirty body from her critical gaze. Finally, she turned around and started walking out of the room.
"Come with me, Lily."
I almost couldn't believe her words. She wanted me to follow her outside, just like that? I was sure this was some kind of test Law had made her do.
I stood in the cellar, unmoving, and staring at her retreating back. When she finally noticed I wasn't coming, she turned around and gave me a stern look.
"Lily, don't make me drag you out of there," she told me roughly.
"I... I don't want to break any rules," I stumbled over the words. "Daddy-… I mean Law said I'm not supposed to run."
"You're not running, stupid girl," my mom sneered at me. "You're leaving with me because I told you to do so, and my word is the law down here, not his."
She chuckled at her own pun, but motioned for me to follow her again in the next second. My heart was pounding as I took a step closer to the door, but when the time came for me to step out of the cellar, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just stood there, completely frozen and unable to take another step that could lead me to my freedom.
"Lily," mom called out. "Are you coming?"
"Please," I said softly. "I don't want to upset him. He told me not to try and leave."
"Upset him?" Mom stormed back down the stairs and grabbed ahold of my hair, pulling on my mane so hard she made me cry out in pain. "You're going to do as I say, girl. I'm the one you should be listening to here, not your stepdaddy."
"Oh, Lily," my mom smiled like I was some pathetic, helpless little creature. Like she felt really fucking sorry for me. "You still don't know shit, do you?"
She dragged me up the stairs by my hair, and when we reached the kitchen, I stopped fighting. It hurt too much, the pull on my hair so hard it was tearing my hair out in chunks.
"We're getting you washed up," mom told me roughly. "I wish you'd been a good girl, Lily, and we didn't have to do this the hard way."
She pushed me into the downstairs bathroom, one I'd used so many times before. I looked at it with different eyes today, big and wide as I took in the luxuries I didn't even bother to think about earlier.
Towels, soft and fluffy. Soap, flower scented and creamy in color.
The room was cleaner than I had been in weeks.
Mom forced me into the bathtub and I hugged my knees to my chest, sitting down. Everything that Law had told me was making me see my mother in a different light now.
She turned on the shower and I screeched when the freezing water hit my dirty skin.
"That's what you get for being a damn brat," mom told me sternly, and pointed the showerhead in my face.
I started crying, the hot tears almost a relief compared to the ice-cold water that she was spraying me with. My skin erupted in goosebumps as she washed me like it was a chore, her hands rough when she tugged and pulled on my hair.
"Maniac," she muttered to herself. "Couldn't even bring you a damn brush to get these knots out."
Despite everything that had happened, I found myself leaning against her, looking for comfort my mother had never been able to give me. I let her tear through my hair while the icy water pounded my skin, until she moved back and sighed dramatically.
"I can't get through that damn mess," she complained. "We're going to have to cut it."
"W-what?" I stuttered, giving her a look through eyelashes wet with tears. "Don't mom, please."
Somehow, the idea of having my hair cut was more terrifying than anything else that had happened to me in the past few weeks. It was an emotional thing for me, and I'd been clinging to it since my father passed away when I was a child. He'd always liked me with long hair, braiding it in the mornings. Something that most little girls had their mother do.
"Shut up," mom told me roughly, digging in the cabinet until she came back with a pair of scissors. "Don't fight this, Lily. I don't want your blood all over my tiles."
She started cutting the knots from my hair and I sobbed into my hands, feeling the weight of my hair falling down at my feet. The water was somehow even colder now, biting me in a way that it felt like needles were being pushed deep into my skin.
"There we go," she finally announced a while later.
By that time, my body was completely numb from the cold water and she still wasn't done. She scrubbed me clean with a rough loofah, and I found myself staring at her.
"You never cared about me," I said, and she merely rolled her eyes.
"Be quiet," she told me.
"You didn't," I said, louder this time. "All you care about is yourself and making sure your reputation is fucking flawless."
"Don't curse," she smacked me with the loofah. "It doesn't befit you."
"Law likes it," I snapped angrily, giving her a challenging look.
She stared at me, her eyes fiery with anger as she leaned down to me.
"Of course he does," she said viciously. "He always liked barely legal, dirty fucking sluts."
My eyes teared up again and I looked away so she wouldn't notice, but it was too late. She was already grinning like she'd won another fight. I despised this back and forth between us. It had always been the same. Whenever I thought I had the slight upper hand, she would pull the rug out from under me.
Despite the way she was doing it, this might have been the most attention my mother had shown me in at least a decade.
When she was done scrubbing me, she finally shut down the icy water, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Next came the towels, fluffy and soft and so pleasant against my skin I wanted to wrap myself up in one and retreat back into the cellar. It was the only place I felt safe in now.
Mom made me towel off and put lotion on me, reaching every spot of my skin, even the ones that made me flush with embarrassment when she touched them. She was cold about it, like she wasn't even with her own daughter.
Once that was done, she presented me with an outfit to wear, and I gave her a doubtful look.
"You can't be serious."
"Get it the fuck on, Lily," she snarled at me. She'd begun heating a curling iron for my hair and she pointed it at me. "We don't want to add any scars to you tonight, do we? Your Daddy wouldn’t like it."
The last part was said with a roll of her eyes.
I couldn't believe her words. This was my own mother. It felt like I would never stop crying, but I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from screaming out for Law as I put on the clothes she wanted me to wear.
She dried my hair and curled it, putting it into pigtails which I was sure made me look absolutely fucking ridiculous. My hair, which had been down to my butt only half an hour ago, was now shoulder-length in its curls. I bet it made me look younger, something I'd always hated.
When she was done, she took a step back and smiled
to herself.
"Perfect," she murmured.
I would've been happy about her compliment, but in truth, I felt like a lamb being taken to the slaughterhouse. I crossed my arms in front of my body as she grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me out of the bathroom toward the living room.
When we were going through the house, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror in our hall, and made mom stop to look at it. I didn't even recognize myself.
My face, which had been scrubbed clean, was like a child's. I'd always looked younger without makeup, but now my skin was glowing from the rough scrub, my cheeks blushing and bright and my eyes innocent without the mascara and eyeliner I usually used.
My hair was much shorter, in perfect little girl curls and pinned up into two pigtails with pink silk bows. I was wearing the ridiculous outfit she'd chosen for me - a bright pink pinafore dress over a white blouse, white stockings and a stupid pair of satin pink ballet flats.
"I look like a child," I told my mother disgustedly, and it made her smile as she dragged me through the house.
The fact that she was pleased about that made me really, really scared.
As soon as we came into the living room, I was aware of his presence. Law jumped up from the couch and came toward me. He stopped for a second when he saw what mom had put me in, and a displeased growl tore itself from his lips.
He forced my mother's arm off me and pulled me to stand beside him. I'd never been with him in a setting as normal as that room, and it made my body tingle with excitement. As soon as he joined us, I felt safer.
Safer, and so much fucking needier.
"What the hell have you done to her?" he snarled at my mom. "She looks like a damn doll."
"Perfect," mom chirped, and by the way Law's hand tightened around my arm, I knew he wanted to hurt her. "Just what they'll want."
"You cut her fucking hair?"
"Maybe I wouldn't have had to," mom sneered. "Had you brought her a damn brush."
I smoothed my curls self-consciously, stepping to the side and hoping I didn't look as awkward as I felt.
"Lily," Law said roughly, never taking his eyes off mine. "Wait in the hall."
"Yes, Lily," mom mocked him. "Wouldn't want you to see Daddy lose control."
Law shoved me out of the room and I stumbled into the hallway as the door to the living room banged shut.
I looked at the front door. One I'd unlocked so many times. I could leave right then and there, and neither of them could stop me.
But instead, I sat on a bench in the hall with my heart pounding.
Good girl, Law's words replayed in my mind.
And I realized I'd fallen for him completely.
Sixteen
Law
“That’s enough, Emily,” I said the moment the door closed behind Lily.
It was a struggle keeping my voice level when all I wanted to do was snap and roar at her before tearing her smugly simpering head right off her shoulders. I’d never hated someone as much as I did her, and it’s not like I’ve gone through life making close friendships.
“Enough of what, Lawson?” she asked, playing that innocent game she was so good at and that annoyed me so much.
I knew damn well that she was doing it just to piss me off. What she had to gain from it though, I couldn’t be sure yet.
“You know what I’m talking about. Stop fucking around with Lily.”
“I think it’s you that’s fucking around with my daughter,” she said shortly, snorting.
“Really? That’s the way you want to play it?” I asked. “I thought we had an understanding, Emily.”
“So did I. I told you she needs to be ready to be seen in public. We have a very important dinner tomorrow evening and I want her to look her best for it. Since you were doing nothing about it, I took it into my own hands. Never trust a man with a woman’s job.”
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and I had to take deep breaths to keep from going over to her and showing her exactly what I thought about what she was doing. Not only had she humiliated Lily and scarred her probably more than I had managed so far, she had done so without talking to me first. Lily was mine and Emily was going to lengths to disobey that simple truth.
“I’m not going to let you sell her to anyone,” I said, teeming.
I had to get out of this house and I had to get Lily out of this house before something I might regret happened.
“We’ll see about that,” she responded curtly, giving me a look that spoke volumes. She was expecting me to fall in line and I was expecting her to do the same.
Neither one of us would budge, that much was clear.
For the umpteenth time, the vision of just killing her and dumping her body somewhere where only wild dogs could find it came to my mind. Yet my hand wouldn’t rise to do it. As vile and evil as this woman was, she was my babygirl’s mother. Even though Emily certainly wasn’t worthy of that title.
I didn’t react to that, just shaking my head and walking past her. She stopped me at the door, speaking up.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m taking her out of the house,” I said, not sparing her a look.
“No, you’re not!” she practically screeched.
I had to admit, it gave me a sick sense of satisfaction to get a rise out of her.
“You were the one saying she needed to be ready to be seen in public. Do you want her shaking like a leaf when someone sees her, when your important friends see her? I don’t think so. The best way to make sure that it doesn’t happen is to get her used to being seen and talked to again.”
“But someone might recognize her,” Emily argued.
All I could do was scoff at that.
“You were the one adamant about her being seen. That comes with the inherent risk of being recognized, darling.”
I didn’t have to look at her to know she prickled at that. Regardless, she huffed and the clatter of her high heels led away as I slipped into the front hall, finding Lily sitting there like a good girl.
I glanced at the front door, realizing that she could have run if she’d wanted to and this time, she chose not to. It got a slight smile out of me, knowing that she’d trusted me so much even with what her mother had done to her behind my back.
“Babygirl, we’re going to go out now,” I told her, reaching out my hand to her while grabbing my car keys from the hook with the other.
“Go?” she asked, wide-eyed as she looked up from her ridiculous pink ballerinas.
While I hated that her mother had chosen the clothing for her, I liked the way she looked in them. A far cry from the provocative, dangerously misguided young woman I’d kept an eye on over social media. She looked pure, like I knew she was deep down inside.
“Yes, we’re going to go outside.”
Tentatively, she took my hand and I unlocked the front door, leading her out. Her steps were timid as she followed me and I took her through the yard to my large black Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck. I opened the passenger door for her and helped her inside, her expression slightly blank.
I chuckled, patting her knee as I pulled the seatbelt over her and snapped it shut. The desire to let my hand roll higher along her soft inner thigh was maddening, but I knew I had to get both of us away from here, even for a little while, to clear her head. Maybe then…
“It’s okay, Lily. You’re safe. Give Daddy a smile now.”
She nodded and gave me a little smile just like I’d asked. I closed the door and moved around the truck, hopping into the driver’s seat. I could have bet good money on the fact that Emily was staring out of a window right now, making sure I actually had the audacity to remove her daughter from her household.
I turned the key in the ignition and the powerful truck roared to life. As I pulled out of the driveway, Lily couldn’t stop looking at me in amazement.
“We’re… actually going to go away?”
“Yes, like I said. We’re going to go out. To
gether.”
She nodded flatly, and when we were a few blocks away from the house, I could almost feel the way her body relaxed in the seat. I knew she had to be on edge from everything that had happened over the last few weeks, from having her life turned upside down, but maybe I hadn’t realized just how much the place that it was happening at affected her.
Her hands twirled through her shorter hair as we rode through the streets, making our way downtown.
“I’m sorry she did that to your hair,” I said lightly, reaching my hand out to touch her hair.
The slightest quiver ran through her lower lip, but she shook her head then.
“It’s okay. It’ll grow back.”
My little fighter, I thought, smiling.
She was tougher than she looked, and that was a good thing. I got the feeling that she was going to need to be strong to get through what was still on the horizon.
I vowed to myself that this was the last time I would let Emily do anything to her. From now on, it was all on me. I couldn’t fail Lily again.
First order of business – giving her a happy day.
Seventeen
Lily
Being outside of the cellar was good for me. For us.
I could tell that Law was troubled, and I did my best to distract him. He seemed to get in a better mood every time I giggled or hugged him close as we waked through town. I knew something was brewing inside his mind, but for now, all that mattered was that we were together.
He led me into store after store and helped me pick out things I would like. When we passed a lingerie store, I didn't have to beg for too long for him to take me inside, even though I could tell how much he loved me whispering 'daddy, please' into his ear.
We dismissed the help of a sales assistant and instead, I asked Law to pick out things for me to wear.
Daddy's Girl Page 10