Chapter 1

The splintered wood of the floorboards pressed into my cheek.

My head throbbed. Another one gone.

Chloe.

She'd been sweet, all smiles and bright eyes, until Dad took her into the Pioneer's Home.

Redwood Creek isn't big. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows about the Founder's Day tradition.

If you're a young man from one of the founding families, and you're serious about a girl, you take her to the Pioneer's Home. She goes in with the head of your family, gets the "blessing."

If she comes out smiling, you're set for life.

My two younger step-brothers, Tom and Billy, they both got married at twenty. Their wives came out of that damned building practically floating.

I'm almost thirty.

Chloe was the latest. She didn't believe me when I tried to warn her.

"It's just an old building, Ethan. Superstition."

Then Dad, Jedidiah "Jed" Thorne, town mayor and owner of the biggest damn sawmill in three counties, escorted her inside.

Ten minutes later, she stormed out.

Her eyes were different. Hard.

"You piece of filth," she hissed, lunging at me.

I stumbled back. She was a yoga instructor, flexible and surprisingly strong.

"They should have drowned you at birth!"

She clawed at my face, her nails sharp.

I just tried to cover up.

Then Dad was there, yanking her off me.

He didn't say a word to her. Just shoved her towards the door.

"Get out of my town."

She spat on the ground near my feet and left.

Then Dad turned to me.

His face, usually arranged in a look of civic pride for the town, was a mask of cold fury.

"You did this," he said, his voice low and dangerous.

He grabbed the front of my shirt, hauled me up, and slammed me against the wall.

Pain exploded in my shoulder.

"You bring this curse on us. On this family."

He hit me then. Open palm, across the face. My ears rang.

Then a fist to my gut. I doubled over, gasping.

He kicked me when I was down.

"Worthless. Just like your mother."

I lay there, tasting blood.

This was the routine.

Girlfriend goes in. Girlfriend comes out wanting to kill me. Dad beats me for it.

He always said I was unlucky, that I'd angered the town's founders, that the spirits in the Pioneer's Home rejected me.

To appease them, he had to punish me.

I didn't believe in spirits. Not really.

But a dozen girlfriends over ten years? All the same reaction?

It made a man wonder.

What the hell was in that building?

Why did Dad know they'd change, and why did he keep insisting they go in?

I'd asked my friends, guys I knew from college, if their hometowns had anything like this.

"Nah, man. Our historical society building is just for, like, old photos and stuff."

"We do tours. No one comes out wanting to commit murder."

One of them, Dave, had said, "Ethan, your dad's always had it out for you, right? Since you were a kid. You think he's doing something in there?"

It was the only thing that made sense.

But I couldn't get near the Pioneer's Home.

"It's for the blessing of new family members, Ethan. You're not bringing anyone new in, are you?" he'd sneer.

Asking too many questions just meant a worse beating.

He was different with Tom and Billy. Always doting. Proud.

I'd done a DNA test once, years ago, a kit I bought online. Mailed it in myself.

Jed Thorne was my father.

Maybe he hated me because he hated my mother.

She died when I was small. An accident, they said. Fell down the old quarry steps.

He never remarried until years later, to Tom and Billy's mom.

Everyone in Redwood Creek saw Jed Thorne as a pillar of the community. A devoted father, a grieving widower for so long.

They wouldn't believe me if I told them he was trying to kill me, slowly.

No one ever did.