Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas

She doesn’t want to belong to you.
Oh, I knew. And I was going to take great pleasure in
delivering lots of what she didn’t want.
But every muscle in my body tightened and knotted
anyway, unable to let go.
She doesn’t want to belong to you.
I closed my eyes, hearing the words echo in my ears.
“You belong to me,” my mother says. “You belong to me,
and I belong to you.
She lays beside me, slipping an arm underneath my head,
looking down at me as she holds me close. “We’ll always be
each other’s, Damon. Mommy will be yours no matter what.
For the rest of your life. I’m yours, baby.”
I nod, but absently, I close my fists, the sheets of her bed
bunching in my hands. I sleep with my mom a lot. She likes to
keep me close, but I don’t tell anyone. I’ve been to other
peoples’ houses—other kids my age—and I know this isn’t how
they do things in their homes.
My mother’s silk nightgown caresses my chest, and her
black hair tickles my arm. She gazes down at me with a small
smile.
“I don’t belong to your father,” she says. “Not the way I
belong to you. I was only thirteen when he first saw me. Did he
ever tell you that? I was only a couple of years older than you
are now.”
She dives in and tickles my neck, and I let out a little laugh
before turning my head and pushing her hand away.
“He came to see my ballet troupe perform,” she goes on.
“He came a lot, and I would see him watching me from the
audience. All the other girls were so jealous, because I got
flowers and presents, and I never did before. He called me his
little princess, and I would dream he was going to take me
home and make me his little girl and take care of me, so I