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…

will soon.”

I rolled my head toward Chloe. Her eyes were barely open, swollen and shadowed, but the fierce intelligence our father had given her burned brightly within them. My own eyes swam with sudden, hot tears. We had endured the unendurable. We had survived just long enough for the jaws of the trap to snap shut.

Within ten minutes, uniformed officers continue reading …