After my stepfather injured my twin sister and me, he brought us to the hospital. My mother calmly told the doctor, “They just fell down the stairs.” My stepfather smiled, thinking he had won. But as the nurse checked my vitals, I slipped a handwritten note into her pocket, and…

Chapter One: The Architecture of a Cage

Right before the crushing blackness claimed my consciousness, the frantic, tearing sound of my twin sister, Chloe, shrieking my name echoed against the plaster walls. The very last image burned into my retinas was our stepfather. He wasn’t enraged. He was smiling, a thin, satisfied curving of his lips, as if her continue reading …