Free Betrayal: Brianna's Secret (The Betrayal Series) by Sofia Velardi

explained to them why they had locked me up, all of my relatives would have sided with my parents and given me up. So Billy called a cousin of his who lived in L.A. and asked her to take me in for a few days. Billy took whatever little savings he had, bought me a one-way ticket and put me in the first bus to L.A. By the time my parents learned I had broken out of the room, I was miles away from them.”
    “You must have been really scared,” Abby remarked, still running her fingers through Brianna’s untamable hair.
    “I was. I mean, one day I’m a high school student without a care in the world, the next I’m running for my life with no money and going to live in another state with someone I’d never met. But what else could I do? I had no other options.”
     “Who knows how much more of Miller’s special therapy I was going to have to endure. At some point, he probably would’ve gotten bored with me and gone away to find another easy target, but I couldn’t just wait him out. If I had stayed, one of us would’ve ended up dead.”
    “What happened when you got to L.A.?” Abby asked.
    “Billy’s cousin was really nice. She was appalled at what my father had done to me and assured me I’d be safe with her. She took really good care of me. I owe her and Billy a debt of gratitude.”
    “What’s her name?”
    “Andrea. She is an aspiring musician and a total hippie. I had so much fun hanging with her and her friends. She helped me get a job waiting tables, and I eventually moved out of her apartment, but we’re still great friends. She is one of the few genuine people I’ve met in L.A. since I moved there.”
    “What happened with your parents?” Abby asked. “Did they try to find you and bring you back?”
    “Yes. Even though I threatened to go to the police, my father still tried to coerce Billy into telling him where I was. Somehow my father figured out Billy was the one who had helped me escape. My bedroom door being riddled with bullets must have been his first clue, or maybe Kyle told them. I don’t know.”
     “Billy did not tell my father anything no matter how much my father threatened him. My father eventually gave up the search, and he and my mother started to pretend I didn’t exist.”
    “What about Kyle? Did you stay in touch with him?”
    “I tried. I sent him several emails over the course of the first five years I was in L.A., but he didn’t answer any of them. I even mailed him a really nice birthday present once, and he returned it unopened. I had a feeling my parents had turned him against me, and that’s why he ignored me and rejected the present.”
    “Then two years ago, out of nowhere, I received an email from him. It said our dad was really sick and didn’t have much time to live. The email also said our mom wanted me to come home and see Dad before it was too late.”
    “What about the pastor? What happened to him?”
    “I heard that a few months after I left Montana, he unexpectedly moved with his wife and kids to another state. No one knows why he left or where he went.”
    “That monster should be rotting in prison for what he did to you. Why didn’t you go to the police, Brianna?”
    Brianna shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I was afraid no one would believe me. Glen Falls is run by extreme religious fundamentalists. Miller was a highly respected member of our church and the community, and I was known as the perverter of innocent girls.”
     “It was going to be his word against mine, and I was going to lose. Besides, getting Miller thrown in jail would have meant getting my dad thrown in jail too. I didn’t want that. Not because I cared about him, but because I didn’t want Kyle to grow up without a father. That would have screwed me up pretty badly.”
    Abby was amazed at how much Brianna loved her brother even though he had been so vicious to her. “You have done so much to protect him. You don’t deserve to be treated the way he treats you. You