Read Online Betrayal: Brianna's Secret (The Betrayal Series) by Sofia Velardi - Free Book Online Page B

to his house. Before I left, I wrote a note to my parents. I simply told them to stay away from me. I warned them not to come looking for me and try to bring me back because if they did, everyone was going to know what Dad and Pastor Miller had done to me.”
     “I was very explicit in the note about what Dad and Pastor Miller did to me. I was already eighteen so they had no legal power to track me down and bring me back against my will. But that hadn’t stopped my father from locking me up in the first place, so I needed to threaten them with a scandal to ensure they wouldn’t look for me, find me, and lock me up again.”
    “I told Kyle I needed to go away, but that I’d try to keep in touch. He began to cry and begged me to stay. He was so confused and scared, it broke my heart. He was only thirteen years old. I was sad to leave him. He was the only one in that house who cared about me. I was not worried about him getting in trouble with my parents. Kyle was my parent’s favorite. He was the apple of their eye. I knew they wouldn’t punish him for letting me out.”
    “Before I left the house for good, I gave Kyle the note I had written for my parents and told him to give it to them when they got home. I told Kyle not to read the note, but he probably read it anyway. My guess is he asked my parents to explain the note, and they denied everything I had written and trashed me to Kyle.”
     “That’s why he hates me, Abby. My father convinced him I made up what I wrote in the note. Kyle could not wrap his head around the fact that our father, who he considered his hero and the most honorable man he knew, could be capable of plotting with Miller and allowing the bastard to do the heinous things he did to me. So he chose to believe my parents and not me.”
    “It’s okay, though. I understand. He was just a kid. He did not know the side of my parents that I knew. My parents went out of their way to hide their heartless treatment of me from Kyle. They loved Kyle and hated me. Kyle was their pride and joy and wasn’t suffering from any ‘sickness’ like I was.”
     “He was the all-American boy: straight-A student, captain of the football team, God fearing boy. I was the C student, forever-in-detention, deviant freak who seduced and corrupted innocent high school girls.”
     “I used to resent Kyle for getting all the love and understanding my parents withheld from me, but I don’t anymore. It wasn’t his fault. I don’t resent him for believing my father and not me either. He was just a kid at the time, an innocent kid who had been brainwashed by his simple-minded, fanatical parents.”
     “I don’t hate him, Abby. Never have. It pisses me off that as an adult, he still chooses to cling to outdated beliefs. It frustrates me that a grown man who is as intelligent and rational as him can still be so closed minded, but I don’t hate him. I can’t hate him. I owe him my life. I probably wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for him. Who knows what I would’ve done if he hadn’t come home that day and helped me escape?”
    Abby unwrapped her arms from Brianna’s shoulders and reached for Brianna’s head. She cradled Brianna’s head with both hands and pulled it down towards her waist. With Brianna’s head gently resting on her lap, Abby untied the bun on top of Brianna’s head and began to massage her scalp.
    “What happened after you left the house? Where did you go?” Abby asked.
    Brianna let out a soft moan and closed her eyes, almost losing herself in the feel of Abby’s fingers stroking her scalp. After a brief break, she continued with her story.
    “After I wrote the note, I left Kyle at our house and drove with Billy to his with my suitcase. Billy and I both knew I couldn’t stay at his house. He was my best friend. His house would have been the first place my parents would have gone looking for me.”
     “I couldn’t go stay with any of my relatives either. After my parents