Author's Note: Thanks everyone for reading. I love to see your comments and votes, so keep them coming! Any predictions about what's going to happen? If you have any good ideas about what could happen please message me. I sometimes get writer's block and I don't want to take forever to update.

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I practically sprung out of my bed as soon as I woke up. My stomach was still sore, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I saw the wooden crib assembled in the corner of the room, so I ran over to it. Peering down inside, I saw that it was empty.

I ran down the stairs. Jimmy or Charles must be holding him downstairs. Now that I was awake I wanted to hold Hunter. He was inside me for nine months and the only time I got to hold him was right after the birth.

I walked into the kitchen to see that it was empty. I went to the living room to see that it was empty too. My heart started to pound in my chest. They mustn’t have brought him outside? The sun was sure to hurt him.

“Jimmy,” I called out.

There was no answer.

“Jimmy?” I tried again.

I scanned the entire bottom floor to see that it was empty. I ran back up the stairs. I ran my fingers through my heavy hair as I looked down the hallway. I checked the crib again before leaving the room again. I wanted to make sure that I hadn’t lost him amongst a blanket. He was so tiny.

My stomach twisted in a knot when I saw Tommy’s door. It was open just a crack, allowing enough sunlight to cut the shadow on the hallway floor. Tommy never left his door open. It was always closed. Tommy didn’t even like it when I came in to clean it. He warned me not to move any of his stuff.

The door creaked as I opened it slowly. Tommy was sitting on his bed with his legs sprawled out across the bed. Hunter was in his arms. I noticed he had little blue pajamas on, but Tommy’s arms were mostly blocking my view of him. Tommy looked up at me when he heard the door creaked. He had a smirk on his lips.

“Nice of you to join us, Jules,” Tommy said as he looked down at Hunter.

“Tommy,” my voice quivered.

“Sit down.” He lifted his chin to point at the end of the bed.

“Where’s Jimmy?”

“He’s outside with Dad. I told them I was taking care of the chickens today. They don’t know that I’m gone.”

“Why are you here?”

“Julie,” Tommy snapped. I could tell that he was careful enough to not wake Hunter up. “I can’t believe you’re still asking questions. Stop it and sit down.”

I dropped my head and walked over to the foot of the bed. I didn’t want to talk to Tommy, but I couldn’t risk not listening to him. My tiny, fragile baby is in his arms. He’s grown up in a family where killing newborns is common. I didn’t even want to think about it.

I sat down at the edge of the bed. My eyes were locked on Hunter and my fingers were curled into his quilt.

“Please, don’t hurt him, Tommy,” I begged.

“I hope you realized that you can’t keep him,” he told me.

“Why? He’s a boy. You don’t have to kill him.”

“I know.” Tommy stroked his fingers across Hunter’s few dark hairs. “But this is a lot more complicated, Jules.”

I wanted to ask why, but I couldn’t. I just stared at him and fought with my body to stop myself from shaking.

“You see,” he continued. “My girl is coming in a few months – Dad was actually talking about getting her in a few weeks – but I don’t want her. I want you.”

“I’m Jimmy’s.” I cursed myself out when I heard my voice crack.

“Not if I can help it.”

“Can I have Hunter?” I held my arms out for him.

Tommy took another look down at him. He chuckled and shook his head. The bile started to rise in the back of my throat. Visions of him snapping Hunter’s neck in one quick motion filled my mind. I was scared to blink because I may start crying.

“You’re so funny, Jules,” he told me. “Hunter…Pretty ironic name, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” I mumbled.

“I have it all planned out. I’ll keep my girl for a couple weeks so nobody gets suspicious.” He grinned at me. “I’m getting a girl so I can’t really complain. Just hate it when they’re always resisting and fighting. You’d never do that to me. Would you?”

I swallowed hard. “No.”

“Good. Because after that we are going to leave this house. We’ll probably never come back, but that doesn’t matter. Jimmy will be pissed and Dad always takes his side.”

“He doesn’t always.”

“He always does. But that won’t matter. It’ll just be the two of us. Maybe if I trust you enough we’ll move to a city. I could always get a job there. You like that?”

I felt Tommy’s eyes burning through my skin. I nodded my head up and down and thought back to that night on top of the stairs. Making him believe that I was in love with him saved Hunter’s life once, and it was going to have to again.

“Good girl,” he said. “I’ll need to train you a bit better before I can trust you. Jimmy has tweak all you bad habits yet, like your questions and denying me. Doesn’t shock me.”

My teeth started to dig into my bottom lip. I needed to tell Jimmy. He would tell Charles and then Charles would punish Tommy. I just had to be careful of Hunter. I didn’t want Tommy getting pissed and then killing him.

“What are you thinking about?” Tommy asked.

“The future,” I said.

“Why are you crying?”

I hadn’t realized that the tears were rolling down my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand.

“They’re tears of happiness,” I lied.

Tommy threw his legs off of the bed and then shuffled down so he was sitting next to me. I opened up my arms and he placed Hunter in them. My lips lifted into a smile when I felt his weight in my arms. His eyes were open and he was looking around the room.

Tommy leaned over and kissed my cheek. My stomach twisted into a knot when I felt him touching me. He slipped one arm around my waist and he grabbed the bottom of my chin with his other hand. He smashed his lips against mine. I stayed still, but his grip tightened on my chin. I let out a yelp and he pulled away from me.

“Kiss me back, Jules,” he barked.

Before I could say anything he started kissing me again. I forced myself to kiss him back. I put as little effort into the kiss as I could. I knew it satisfied him when he loosened up his grip on my chin. I was relieved when he pulled away.

“I better be going back outside,” he said softly. I saw the smile on his lips before I looked back down at Hunter. “We’ll leave this house forever in two months.”