Free The Starkest Truth (A Breaking Insanity Novel Book 2) by Courtney Lane

the bed. I could hear the Natalie laugh, feel her hands around my wrists as she helped him hold me down. My boxers were shoved down.  
    Through my tears and muffled shouts, the bright red light of my clock was the only thing I could see. It read: 4:17 A.M.

    “ETHAN?” LUPITA, THE HOUSEKEEPER, shook my bed while she stood over me, her eyes wide. In one hand she had a basket of laundry, in the other hand a pair of my boxer shorts from last night.
    I carefully sat up in bed and rubbed my face. “What the fuck do you want, Lupita? I was sleeping.”
    “What is this?” She waved my boxers around like a flag. “Almost every day. Almost every day the same thing.”
    I forgot to burn them. I forgot to do a lot of shit last night because of Thaddeus.
    “No más ,” she declared as she clutched the cross around her neck. “I’ll tell your parents.”
    I jumped up and winced, holding my hands out to stop her. She gave me the once over and shook her head.  
    I told her everything she needed to know without saying a word. She shook her head again, this time in pity, and disappeared down the hall.
    Wincing as I walked, I followed her down the west wing toward my father’s office.  
    Frowning, like he always did, he was in the middle of a phone call, speaking in rapid fire Spanish.
    “Mr. Me—Brae,” Lupita called him. She was so pissed, she almost called him by the name he was born with, even though she was told if she ever did, she’d lose her job.  
    I should’ve been worried; she was going to tell Eamon something I didn’t want him to know. I was too numb to feel anything. I’d been here before. I’d told Eamon. I’d told his wife once, too. Tamala tried to drag me to the police station once to report Thaddeus. None of it made a difference. No one did anything to stop it.  
    After the trip to the police station with Tamala, Eamon hit the ceiling when he found out. He beat me so bad, I woke up two days later in my bed—my face didn’t look like me anymore. I learned pretty fast that my family didn’t give a shit about me because almost every night, I’m screaming into my pillow.  
    I don’t feel anything anymore.
    “This better be fucking important,” my father barked at Lupita.  
    “I’ve worked for this family for a while now,” Lupita said to him. “I’ve been silent about the goings on, but I won’t be silent anymore. Thaddeus needs help…or prison. He needs something to make him leave this poor child alone.”
    My father’s frown deepened when he glanced at me. “He’s hardly a child. He’s capable of making his own decisions. If there is anyone at fault, it’s him—my cousin’s son—for not being fucking man enough. For being a sugar pants fairy who likes to suck cock.” He looked me dead in the eye. “I’m just glad he isn’t my son.”
    “Cousin’s son,” she muttered, not buying the lie that everyone else did.
    “What was that?” my father asked, turning red with anger.
    “Nothing, sir.” She kept staring at me, wanting something from me.
    She wouldn’t get it—whatever she wanted. Today would be Lupita’s last day, and I knew what would happen when she left. I wished I had stopped her from doing what she thought of as helping me. Asking for help meant a broken nose, a knocked out tooth—anything that meant I was bleeding and apologizing. Eamon didn’t give a shit about me. As long as I kept my head down and was quiet, that’s all he cared about.  
    “Fuck it.” I shrugged. “I’m going out.”
    “Ethan, wait,” Lupita dropped her laundry basket and grabbed my arm. “We’ll report it together, if he’ll do nothing about it, then you can come live with me. You don’t have to be here.”
    “Lupita,” my father shouted loud enough to make me jump, “I don’t have to tell you that your need to stick your nose in business that doesn’t concern you has garnered a termination of your employment.”
    “Ethan, come with me,” she pleaded. “Come with me.