ONE
LEVI
Freedom.
The dictionary defines the term as being able to act, think, or speak without hindrance.
Freedom is a construct people convince themselves they have, but no one ever truly does. The world is a depressing entrapment. Everyone is bound to their country’s laws, their individual morals, and society’s rules, which determine when we work, sleep, eat,fuck.
It’s messed up. None of us do what we want, when we want. It’s why the construct of ‘free time’ is deceitful. Holidays are complete bullshit; they’re essentially the world’s way of giving permission to forget our responsibilities for a short amount of time.
The worst holiday might not even be a holiday, but rather, a time of the year. Aseason.
Summertime.
Since I don’t plan on completing the summer semester away at school, Dad sees it as an opportunity for me to work. ‘Practice’, he’s calling it, sending me to the resort on the coasta couple hours away to check in on management and general company bullshit.
Sometimes, I despise being a Westwood. But then, there are those instances when I love being one.
Like now.
When Summer, my best friend and the object of both my obsession and affection, grips my hands hard enough, her nails practically imbed into my skin. Considering she owns all of me—blood, soul, and heart—a few more cuts make no difference. If she’s bleeding me out, she isn’t harming herself, so it’s a worthwhile sacrifice.
My girl having the name Summer is ironic; a nod to thebesttime of year. To freedom, yet she’s always fought her own.
She’ll be free soon. After years of fighting this battle, she finally came forward. Ever since our teenage rivalry shifted into something deeper, I’ve been trying to rescue her.
She believes we’re mere friends, but that was a bonus, not the endgame, more of a way to get close to her than what I truly want.
One of my ways, anyway.
“It’s okay,” I murmur beneath my breath as my hand massages her back. “It’s nearly over.”
A few months’ worth of investigation is concluding when, if not for my family’s influence, it should have taken years. Hell, it might never have even made it to trial, because it seems like courts prefer taking the man’s side, even when his victim is his own daughter.
Hecan’t be allowed to walk. I didn’t have him killed because a much worse punishment awaits where he’ll be going. Besides, his glare from across the room, aware I was who set this in motion, is rewarding. At first, Summer resisted my family’s team of lawyers, but once they started working and got her father arrested, hope began to bloom.
As the judge slams the gavel down and reads out the charges, my grin can’t be held back. Fuck whoever is watching. It’s probably the only time anything other than rage runs through me at the sound of what her father did.
“…multiple counts of child abuse…”
“…multiple counts of physical abuse…”
“…one count of sexual abuse…”
My lawyers worked hard on that lifetime prison sentence, and a bit of family influence made it so he won’t be in a regular prison for long. Within the month, he’ll be transferred to the harshest maximum-security prison in the country, half of it being underground. He’ll be locked inside a tiny, barless, windowless room, deprived of most of his senses until he dies of madness.
Summer whimpers and twists in my hold. She buries her face into my chest, breath warm against the heart that beats only for her. For her andtoher.
Growing up, no therapy or treatment could curb what professionals called ‘dangerous tendencies’—until Summer. She managed to control the monster within with just a bat of her eyes, because, suddenly, all the built-up anger had a place to go.
To protecting her.
Which she’s made fucking impossible until recently.
“Don’t. I’m fine,”still plays in my mind as her response for every physical or emotional bruise he beat into her.
After the judge calls things to a close, I rub the back of her hand and stare down the man—if he can be called as much—who’s pulled to his feet. Chains rattle his arms, and there’s never been a more satisfying sound. His scowl remains directed at me until the officer leads him away.