Sunday is a lonely day. I've spent this entire summer with Casey and I hardly even know what to do with myself now that he's out of the apartment. When I wake up, I have to remember to only make breakfast for me and then I decide to head to the gym. I have a client tonight but not until ten o'clock so I'll go to the gym, stop by the foster house to get Casey's birth certificate, and then I can shower and get ready for tonight.

So after the gym, I use the train to head over to the other side of town where my foster parents live and I have to walk about twenty minutes through the neighborhood. The walk usually isn't so bad but since I've just gotten out of the gym, I'm a bit sore and sweaty.

I'm wearing a tank top and workout leggings with Nike running shoes and I feel like an absolute mess but going to my foster home isn't really something that calls for dressing up.

Once at the house, I knock on the door but nobody answers so I just turn the knob and it's unlocked so I go inside. I don't see anybody around so I decide that I'll just do it myself. I lived here for ten years, I know my way around. And since Casey is still technically in their custody, we have to stop by sometimes for the social worker.

I know where Cynthia, our foster mom, keeps important documents-- which is in the old desk in the living room-- so I head in there. The house is a mess with toys so they must have some younger children in their care right now. I step through all of the toys and get to the desk to start fishing through it in hopes of finding Casey's birth certificate.

As I'm looking through the mess of papers in the desk, I didn't hear somebody come into the room but I suddenly hear somebody behind me.

"Who the hell are you?" I jump up and turn around to see a teenage girl standing in the doorway from the kitchen and she looks a bit alarmed.

"Shit, sorry. You scared me," I say slowly. I find the birth certificate that I'd been looking for which is a relief so I stuff that into my purse. "I'm Eleanor, I used to live here. I'm just looking for something that I forgot here. Who are you?"

"I live here now," She explains without saying her name or anything. "What are you looking for?"

"You live here," I repeat without answering her question. "You're a foster kid here?"

The girl nods at me, twisting some of her red hair through her fingers.

"With Cynthia and Davis?" I ask her because that can't be true. I had an agreement with the foster parents, Cynthia and her husband Davis, that they wouldn't foster teen girls. They said that they wouldn't.

"Yes," She nods again. "You're asking very specific questions. If you lived here, wouldn't you already know their names?"

"How old are you?" I ask the girl, feeling a bit enraged now. I didn't expect this trip to take too long but I can't just let this happen. Not again, not to another girl.

"Fourteen," The redheaded girl answers me but she still looks really confused.

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I'd been here a few months ago with Casey and she wasn't here so she hasn't been here for too long. Maybe it's not too late for her. But fourteen is old enough... I was twelve when it started.

"What's your name?" I ask her, looking around the house again for any other people that might be home but I don't hear or see anybody else.

"Why?" She raises her eyebrows at me. "You're freaking me out."

"Because this isn't going to happen again. Where is Davis? Is he here?" I ask the girl since she apparently doesn't want to tell me her name.

I think that she realizes now why I'm so angry when she puts it together that I was also a foster kid here and that Davis has a sick thing for the girls in the house. I was hoping that she wouldn't understand, that maybe she hasn't been here for long enough for Davis to notice, but I can tell by the look in her eye that she knows.

"I'm Josie," She says quietly. "He's out back."

I start walking through the house, into the kitchen and then out the back door where I find Davis playing basketball with Steven, who is a 7-year-old that they've been caring for lately.

"Eleanor," Davis sees me coming into the back yard, followed by Josie coming out to see what's going to happen. "What a surprise."

"You promised that you wouldn't bring any more girls into the house," I seethe, glaring at this man who made my teen years absolutely hell. And now he's just smiling at me like nothing ever happened. "That was the agreement. So please explain to me why the fuck this girl is standing here in this house?"

"Stevie, why don't you go inside and clean up the toys from yesterday," Davis tells the little boy who then silently goes inside, passing Josie who is standing near the door of the house probably because she's too afraid to get any closer. I learned long ago that fearing this man only fuels him and so I've stopped letting him scare me. Once the boy is completely in the house, Davis looks back at me. "They didn't have a place for her, we didn't have a choice."

"Bullshit," I snap at him. "I'm taking her."

"You can't do that."

"Are you going to stop me?" I ask him, my voice getting louder and sharper. "I'm not going to go on this huge rant about why raping little girls is wrong. That should just be obvious to you. Apparently, it's not. I don't have time for that right now though so just Google it in your spare time. But I am taking this girl with me, you are not going to stop me, and my next stop is the social work office."

"You really want to do that?" He raises his eyebrows at me.

"That was the deal. I keep my mouth shut if you keep your pants on," I remind him angrily. I shouldn't have let this happen. I should have just told the social work office after I turned eighteen, after I got me and Casey out of that house, I should have confessed to what he did. I was afraid of them not letting me take Casey but I should have just said something. This is my fault. Josie is completely ruined because I didn't say anything sooner.

"And what would you do if we decided that Casey would be better off here at home?" He threatens me. "He is still under our care, after all."

I will deal with that later, there is no way that I can leave this girl here with this man. There's no way in hell.

"Do what you have to do," I say slowly before I turn around to look at Josie, who looks even more scared now, and I say, "Josie, go get your things."

"Don't move," Davis tells her before she can go inside.

"I'm getting you out of here, alright? Don't worry about him, he can't hurt you," I promise the girl. "Just go get your things."

Before Davis can threaten the girl, she's already running into the house and I hope that she's going to leave with me but I understand if she's too afraid of him. I don't think that I can force her to leave with me but I have to try.

"You're making a mistake here, Eleanor," Davis threatens me. "I hope that you're okay with the fact that you'll never see your brother again."

"You think that you're going to keep custody of Casey?" I ask him with raised eyebrows. I slowly slide my hand into my shoulder bag and find my pepper spray but I don't pull it out just yet. I know that I will definitely need it though. "After I'm done with you, you won't be able to get custody of a fucking hamster."

I take a step back and he reaches out to grab me, which is when I use the pepper spray and push the button as it's aimed at his face. The orange spray covers his face and he cries out as the burn sets in. I try to hide my face from it as I hurry back into the house where Josie is waiting for me by the front door. Her big green eyes are wide and afraid and the only thing that she has is a little book.

"That's all that you have?" I ask her. She nods.

"Alright, let's go," I say, leading her out of the house. I can hear Davis in the back-yard yelping and moaning from the pepper spray but I know that he'll overcome that soon. "Here, put your book in here, we're going to run."

"Okay," Her voice is shaking. When we're out of Davis's reach, I'll be sure to comfort her but right now, we just have to get out of this neighborhood. She puts the small book in my bag and then we both start sprinting. It's easier for me in my Nikes but she keeps a good pace. As we're turning down another road, I look back to see if I can see Davis but I don't. He has a car though, so once his eyes are working again, we won't have any time at all.

She keeps up with me really well and I keep looking over my shoulder to see if I can see his car but there's nothing. He's probably a major wimp when it comes to the pepper spray. I probably should have grabbed Steven too but he can't run with us and he's safe there with Davis. He only likes the girls and he likes them older than seven. Like I said, I was twelve when he started coming into my room at night.

Once we've made it to the metro station, I keep an eye out for the man because he might be able to put it together that this is where we would be headed.

"How do you know that he won't catch us?" Josie asks me. "Or that the social worker won't just send me back there? He will kill me, won't he? If I get sent back there?"

"I'm not going to let that happen," I promise her.

"School starts tomorrow," She adds. "I have to go to school. He'll find me. He knows where I'm going to school. I shouldn't have come with you. I have to go back. He's going to be so mad at me, I have to go back."

"Hey," I put my arm on her shoulder. "I've got this. I promise, alright? I know that you don't know me but I've been there. I swear that I'm not going to let him get to you again. Just take a deep breath."

"Okay," She sighs, trying to listen to me but I can still see that she's afraid. Once we're on the train though, I feel like she calms down a little bit.

The social worker that works with Cynthia and Davis is Bethany. I've known her since I moved in with my foster parents at eight years old with a newborn baby Casey in my arms. She does checks every month to make sure that everything is running smoothly. She cares a lot about the children and I know that she'll do something about this. But the thing about going to Bethany is that I know that she'll have to call the cops and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. I feel like I have to do what's best for Josie right now though but I want to talk to her about that before we go to Bethany.

I give Josie her book while we're on the train. "I won't be in foster care for long," She tells me. "My father got arrested for money laundering but he won't be in there for long. He was framed so he'll be found innocent, I know. I have more things but they're locked up in our house and I can't get to them until my dad comes back home."

"That's good," I tell her with a smile. "Not that he got arrested but that he's coming back."

"Why were you in foster care?" She asks me.

"My parents weren't too excited about being parents," I try to make it simple for her.

"They're still alive?"

"Yeah, as far as I know," I confirm. "I was eight when I went to live with Davis and Cynthia."

"I've been there for 3 weeks. Cynthia is really nice so I didn't think that it would be so bad but then..." She trails off and it looks like she's about to cry. "How long were you there?"

"I got there when I was eight and I stayed until I got out of the system."

"At eighteen?" She looks at me like I've just grown two heads.

"Yeah," I confirm with a nod. "So ten years. Four of them were okay but it started when I was twelve."

She doesn't say anything after that so we just ride for a while in silence. Maybe I freaked her out or maybe she just realized how terrible Davis really is. I don't know but I also don't know what else to say.

"We're going to go to my house. Davis doesn't know where I live so you'll be safe there until we figure out our next step," I tell her as I try to figure out what the best thing to do is. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing, I just know that I have to do this, keep Josie away from that house. I know how it felt to be hurt by that terrible man and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do everything in my power to stop it from happening to another girl.

Bethany isn't in her office on weekends so I'll have to call her tomorrow which gives me about 24 hours to figure out how I'm going to approach this situation. I also have to work tonight so that's something else that I have to worry about.

Once we get to the apartment, I turn the TV on for Josie to sit on the couch and watch.

"Why is your bed in the living room?" She asks me as I start to clean up just a little bit in an attempt to make her more comfortable.

"This is a one bedroom apartment and I gave my brother the bedroom. You can sleep in there. Tomorrow, we'll go shopping and get you some clothes," I decide. "I have to work tonight so I'm going to hop into the shower. If you're hungry, feel free to grab something from the fridge."

"You're leaving?" She wonders.

"Yeah but you'll be asleep. Think you'll be okay? I shouldn't be gone too long," I assure her. I would cancel but that'd piss off Jill and make us look bad. I also need the money, especially if I'm taking care of Josie for a little while and if I get arrested for kidnapping, I'll have to figure that out too.

"Okay. I guess that's fine," She decides. "What should I do if Davis comes?"

"He won't," I promise her but I can tell that she doesn't like that answer. "Okay, I have an extra pepper spray over here, I'll get that for you. I also have a baseball bat that you can keep by the bed if that'll make you feel safer."

She seems to feel better with that answer so I go into the back to get into the shower before I have to meet my client tonight at the Hay-Adams Hotel. It's a really fancy hotel which isn't surprising but it's nice. It's one of my favorites.

I get dressed in a tight sequin mini dress with a plunging neckline that shows off my cleavage and strappy black sandals with tall heels and intimidating platforms. With my makeup tastefully done, I make sure that I have everything that I need in my purse before returning to the living room.

"You're going to work in that?" Josie wonders when she sees my outfit.

"Yeah," I confirm with a sigh. "It's a night out for my company but it's required. Do you have a cell phone?"

She nods and pulls a flip phone out of her jeans pocket. I put my number in her phone and text myself so that I have her number too.

"Call me if you need anything, alright?" I say to her. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Okay," Josie says.

"Feel free to go through my clothes to find some pajamas and I'm sorry if the bedroom is a bit messy, my brother's a bit of a slob."

"Okay," She says again.

I say goodbye to her and then I leave the apartment. I'm confident that Davis won't be able to find her but I'm more worried about him going after Casey. Davis also doesn't know where Casey is going to school and that school is also very secure so I'm trusting that until I can get legal custody of my brother, he'll be safe there.

Once at the hotel, I meet the client at the bar as planned by Jill. She had sent me a picture of him earlier so I know that it's the right man sitting there drinking a mixed drink.

I approach him and sit down on the stool beside him. "You look lonely," I say in a quiet voice so that nobody around can hear me. His name is Rodney but that's about all that I know about him. He's a regular with Gina though so I know that he's trustworthy.

"You're Gina's replacement?" He asks me. "And here I was, worried that I'd be disappointed."

"I won't disappoint," I promise him.

"Well, let's get going. I already got the room," Rodney tells me before he swallows the last of his drink and then he stands up from his stool. We start walking together toward the elevator. He isn't too old, maybe thirties or forties, which is appreciated. I start up some small talk on the elevator ride and then up to the hotel room. Once inside, Rodney pulls something out of his pocket and says, "I don't know if you're into this but Gina always gives me a little discount for another sort of payment."

To show me what the 'other sort of payment' is, he holds out his hand and shows me a little baggy of white powder, obviously cocaine. At first, I'm about to immediately reject his offer but then I decide that maybe I shouldn't.

"Okay, I'm interested," I say to him.

He smiles at me. "I've got an eight ball or two, which one will it be?"

I step closer to him so that my face is about an inch away from his. He puts his hand on my butt now that he can reach it and he squeezes. "What do I have to do for all three?

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