Chapter 2My Janitor Mother Is Secretly Wealthy

I’d looked to Adam, who was standing right behind her, hovering like a loyal dog. "Dad! Do something! Please!"

Adam ignored my terror. He leaned over the edge, his eyes cold. "Matt, your mother is right. Listen to her. Do this for me. You have to survive."

"She’s not my mother!" I yelled.

May knelt down, gripping my chin with fingers that felt like steel talons. "Matt, if you want a mother’s love, you have to forget Claire ever existed. Pass this test, and you can take the Stanford name."

I didn't answer. I leaned forward and bit her wrist, hard enough to draw blood.

Adam panicked, trying to pry my jaws open. "Matt! You little animal! Let go!"

May didn't flinch. She looked at her bleeding wrist, then back at me. "Matt, even if you tear my hand off, the gators are still coming in one hundred and sixty minutes."

That was the moment I realized I was powerless.

I let go. I swam to the center, forced my heart to slow down, and began to watch the shadows in the water. I had to live.

I fought those beasts for three days. When May finally killed them, she didn't give me a bed; she put me in a kennel and fed me raw protein. The "domestication" never stopped.

I grew up "perfect." In public, she was the devoted, sophisticated mother, and I was the genius son she adored. But every time I fell short of her impossible standards, the punishments became more inventive, more psychological.

By the time I was twenty, I was a "prodigy" to the world, but inside, I was a hollowed-out shell. If Bennett hadn't killed me, I would have eventually killed May and then myself.

But now? Now I was going to let Bennett be her dog. I was going to stay with Mom and find a way to heal.