We sneak out of the warehouse while most everyone else is passed out, my stepfather driving carefully so as not to draw attention. When we arrive at a seedy motel about twenty minutes away, he hands me a key and smiles. "You take the room next door. We don't want anyone knowing any more than they have to."

I nod, unlocking the door with trembling fingers. Once inside, I strip quickly, eager to be skin to skin with him again.

My phone rang loudly in the middle of the night, shrill and insistent. I groggily reached over to silence it, disoriented from the interruption to my sleep. But when I looked down at the screen, my blood ran cold.

"Dad?" I mumbled, wiping at my eyes. It was 3am. Where was he? I tried calling back, but his number went straight to voicemail. A shiver ran down my spine as I realized what this meant. He must have lied to me about being there for my party.