The Girl Who Refused to Be Broken

The Girl Who Refused to Be Broken

Landslide

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My whole life was about getting out of this blue-collar town. Ivy League scholarships were my ticket, and I lived and breathed SAT prep. My best friend, Bree Van Doren, struggled with her studies, her family's hardware store failing. She always said I made it look so easy. Then Bree suggested a "study retreat" at her remote family cabin in the Adirondacks. After she handed me a bottle of water, that's the last thing I remembered before darkness. I woke up on a dirt floor, head pounding, in a filthy shack. This was no cabin; this was a nightmare. The Petersons, a rough, menacing family, treated me like an animal. Then Bree appeared, her face shockingly cold, flatly admitting she sold me to them. For a few hundred bucks and a beat-up snowmobile, my "best friend" had erased her academic competition. I was to "keep Cletus company." Sold. Like an object. For a snowmobile. Every Ivy League dream I had, reduced to ash. Panic clawed at my throat. How? Why? Even my own cousin, Jake, seeing me bruised and desperate, didn't recognize me. But a silent scream of "NO" echoed in my mind. I would not break. I was Sarah Miller, and my formidable grandparents, Eli and Agnes Miller, would find me. And when they did, Bree Van Doren would pay.

Introduction

My whole life was about getting out of this blue-collar town.

Ivy League scholarships were my ticket, and I lived and breathed SAT prep.

My best friend, Bree Van Doren, struggled with her studies, her family's hardware store failing.

She always said I made it look so easy.

Then Bree suggested a "study retreat" at her remote family cabin in the Adirondacks.

After she handed me a bottle of water, that's the last thing I remembered before darkness.

I woke up on a dirt floor, head pounding, in a filthy shack.

This was no cabin; this was a nightmare.

The Petersons, a rough, menacing family, treated me like an animal.

Then Bree appeared, her face shockingly cold, flatly admitting she sold me to them.

For a few hundred bucks and a beat-up snowmobile, my "best friend" had erased her academic competition.

I was to "keep Cletus company."

Sold. Like an object. For a snowmobile.

Every Ivy League dream I had, reduced to ash.

Panic clawed at my throat. How? Why?

Even my own cousin, Jake, seeing me bruised and desperate, didn't recognize me.

But a silent scream of "NO" echoed in my mind.

I would not break.

I was Sarah Miller, and my formidable grandparents, Eli and Agnes Miller, would find me.

And when they did, Bree Van Doren would pay.

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