Daddy's Adorable Assassin (Daddy's Little Deviants)

The door opened, and Ellis walked in, carrying a tray with a plate of food and a bottle of water. My stomach growled, but the stench of meat made me nauseous again. I’d never eaten meat before. My parents hadn’t allowed it. But Daddy wasn’t around anymore. Did that mean I could do whatever I wanted now?

I pressed my hands against my eyes. Daddy had never prepared me to live without him. What should I do?

“You should eat something,” Ellis said. “You’re already all skin and bones. If you don’t eat, you might not have to worry about going to prison because you’d be gone long before then.”

He walked out of the room, and I was alone again. My stomach was in a confused state of needing food and revolting against what they provided. Hunger won out, and I crawled over to where he’d put the food. I scrunched up my nose. No matter how hungry I was, I couldn’t eat a morsel of that food. I crept over to the bed and climbed on, threw the blanket over myself and curled up in a ball, knees up to my chest and my back to the door.

Tears flowed from under my closed eyelids as a deep-seated overwhelming feeling settled over me. I’d lost everything in a matter of weeks. Nothing made sense anymore, and this little room they had boxed me in was the only thing keeping me alive, but it was also the thing that would eventually kill me.

The door opened, but I didn’t even care who it was. Daddy had betrayed me, but I would give anything to have him back. He would know what to do. He would know what to say and how to organize my life to make sense again.

Hollow footsteps echoed on the floor, but I curled myself up tighter. Maybe they would leave me alone. I was so tired of holding everything in but unable to let it out either. I’d been a naughty boy. Daddy had made me that way, and he’d accepted me. No one else would accept that.

“Hey there,” a familiar voice said. My eyes flew open. It was him. Detective Neely. The man who blamed me for his wife’s death. I only knew who he was because Daddy always brought newspapers home, and sometimes his picture would be in them.

“I have something for you.”

The bed dipped as he sat on the edge.

“Don’t you want to see what I have for you? I know you’re scared, but we all just want the truth.”

A hand placed an object on the bed by my head. Princess Poppycakes! The one thing I’d taken from the farmhouse when I’d fled. I grabbed the doll and kissed it, then clutched it to my chest. Calmness settled over me now that I had an old friend in a world that was so different.