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Prologue

Samara

A promise is a lie

A vow is less

A haunting memory has more power than a happy recollection

I know this because I’ve lived with ht years As far as I bury it, as deep down as I shove it into the dark depths of h the es I hide

As if I’ on the table

As if I’m still in that cold room with its steel bars on the s

As if I’ for hi with someone, anyone ill listen, to break the chains and let o

Freedom is a fairytale, because even now, after all this time, I’m not free of them or what they did

And I’ave my heart to

For years, I trusted hi, I loved hie for our best friend

Our escape was planned We kne and e’d do it

Until we couldn’t

Until they found out

That wasn’t the first tiless, because my parents did it And then he did He left me, and he didn’t look back

It was the last tito ain

Trust nobody but yourself

When I finally escaped on my own, I was still haunted by what I’d seen What I’d experienced I couldn’t un-see the vile iht

The dreams still came to me