Chapter 1

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

I breathed heavily, aware of the manic rising and falling of my chest as I waited for the door to open. 

My eyes shifted to look behind me from time to time to ensure that I wasn't being followed, but who cared about that when our lives were being ruined by a psychopathic man that I was, unfortunately, related to.

"Open up!" I yelled, the pounding of the door in sync with the anger in my heart.

I heard a click behind the door which made me pace myself for what was to come. As the door opened and a familiar pair of brown eyes stared at me with surprise. I attacked him straight away but he easily overpowered me and pinned me against the wall.

"Mason? What are you doing here?!"

I scoffed and forcefully pushed him off of me so I could fix the collars of my shirt.

"What am I doing here? Pa, you must be joking!"

He sighed in return and hurried to close the door before turning back to me. "You bastard, why the hell did you have to come here?" He grabbed the sleeves of my shirt and gritted his teeth. "Just stay with your mother on the weekends and go to school during the week you little piece of shit!" He slammed a fist into my chest causing me to stumble back while he cussed out loud about me being a pain.

I quickly regained myself and stepped forward, "If that's what you wanted then you shouldn't have killed two people for nothing! Now, mother is the laughing stock of others and I may not be able to graduate med school."

"What are you talking about? I didn't kill anyone!"

"Stop lying! A man that would use his wife as a guinea pig for his experiments, who wouldn't he kill for personal glory?"

His eyes darkened and he rushed to grab me by the collar of my shirt, that was when I knew I got him. It was also a confirmation that I was right.

"You little—"

My laugh erupted when I saw the horror on his face, accompanied by a flash of fear in his eyes. But this made me sad as well. My father was a jinx. He'd caused my mother and I pain and would for sure be the death of us.

"So you did it…" my voice was merely a whisper as I felt tears brimming at the corner of my eyes. But I looked away so my tears didn't fall.

"You—"

We were interrupted by the whirring sounds of several police vehicles.

My father immediately released his grip on me and went to the window to check out what was happening. Afterwards, he turned to me and started cursing.

"You bastard, did you bring the police with you?"

I shook my head and angrily wiped the tears brimming at the corner of my eyes.

"Look at me," He grabbed my arms and I struggled to look into his firm eyes. "Who did you meet when you took this trip?"

"The ceo of Standford," I murmured quietly and without thinking.

Father didn't say anything else, he just went to fill his box with some essentials.

"Father, what are you doing? Just turn yourself in to the police. For mom and I…"

"Come on!" Father dragged me with his free hand and the next thing I knew, we were in his Lexus vehicle, speeding across the road to a path I'd never seen before.

Behind us was a group of active police vehicles that were trying to overtake us, but my father just wouldn't give up so easily and it was beginning to piss me off.

We would be caught anyways, why was my father refusing to take the fall? Weren't my mother and I important enough for him to do what was right?

"Father just give in to the police and Mom and I will be okay."

"I'll never admit to what I didn't do."

I watched him desperately jerk the steering wheel in attempt to overtake the police vehicle that was gaining in on us. I saw one of them in uniform grab a speaker and say, "If you can hear us, Mr. Thomas Landon, please stop the car and cooperate with us."

I turned to look at my father and he stepped on the gas pedal which automatically sped us forward, increasing the gap between us and the police vehicles.

My heart ached as I watched him. His escape was that important to him, huh? So much that he wouldn't give in to the police, for me and Mom's sake. This fact made me vengeful.

"You're that selfish, aren't you father?" I said as the darkness clouded my sense of reasoning. If he wouldn't stop, I would just have to force him.

"I'm not selfish! I just have honor, and I'll never sacrifice that for anyone."

"Not even for our family?!" I found myself yelling. I looked at my father, my gaze fixated on nothing but him. His answer to this question was very important to me.

My father glanced at my face, but it lasted only a few seconds before he was staring into the road again.

"Especially for our family." He whispered.

That was it. 

I leaned over and put my hands on the steering wheel causing it to turn to the right side of the road. 

"What are you doing, you bastard?!"

I ignored my father's cussing and focused on parking the car at the side of the road, but it was difficult.

Father started to toss his fists at me. Some landed, some didn't. But I didn't flinch. I was focused on only one thing. Taking control.

"Mason, STOP!!"

I had originally thought my father's screech was due to him losing control to me but I soon found out that wasn't the case when the headlights of a trailer flashed in my face. My stomach sank and my heart froze in that few seconds where the impact hadn't hit.

Then I thought of my current situation with my father and what it would lead to.

Slam!

The impact of the trailer had the glass window of the car we were in shattering, into various pieces that pierced my skin and soaked my pale skin with blood.

The car tumbled about, bringing distress to the organs in my gut. My mouth foamed with spit and the back of my head ached as it hit multiple sides of the car.

When the car eventually stopped, most of its parts were crumbled and barely existent. The remains were dangerously sharp objects. I could tell because my father's arm had been sliced open by the perched window by his side. His face didn't look badly damaged but there was blood gushing out of his nose and mouth.

With barely a full breath left from me, I whispered, "Father?"