Page 41 of Deserving Ryleigh
“No clue. Honestly, I’m jealous as hell that he got out…and a little pissed that he left me there…just like my mom did. I haven’t tried to find him and he hasn’t done anything to search me out either. He literally doesn’t exist in my world anymore.”
“Anyway, Dad was constantly bragging about the money he stole. Laughing at the despair of the people he took it from. He stole fromeveryone. Nonprofits, huge corporations, any company or organization that had a huge bank account was fair game. But his favorite thing to do was steal from individuals. He loved that they had fewer resources to try to get their money back. They never called the police or tried to get an attorney to fight the theft. Which might sound crazy, but in reality, if an account only had a few grand to begin with, those are exactly the kind of people who don’t have the income to fight anyone in court. Even if they did, they wouldn’t know who to go after, since Dad was so good at what he did. And, from the bank’s perspective, the withdrawals looked exactly like the client’s normal spending patterns.
“He was a ghost online. Could get into people’s bank accounts and steal their money without any alerts being triggered. Sometimes he’d empty their entire account, and other times he’d only take like ten or twenty bucks at a time. Small amounts no one missed, because hardly anyone checks their account every day. He also designed a program that skimmed money from random accounts literally every minute. He’d get thousands of dollars in a day. He thought it was hilarious.
“And he taught me everything he knew. By the time I was thirteen, I was as good as he was at navigating the dark web. At stealing money. But Ihatedit. I couldn’t help but think about what those people must’ve gone through when they realized their accounts had been hacked. Obviously the accounts that were skimmed probably didn’t make much of an impact, except for people feeling violated or inconvenienced. But the oneswho losteverything? Did they have to go without much-needed medicine? Did we take their rent money? Did their kids have to drop out of ballet or soccer because they didn’t have the money to pay for it? Then there were all the nonprofits…good organizations doing important research and aiding thousands, sometimes millions of people. And he was stealing from them. Makingmesteal from them.
“So one day, I told my dad I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
The awful memories of that day were so visceral, Ry suddenly couldn’t breathe. It was as if she was right back in that moment, when she’d told her dad she was done.
She felt herself being moved, but still she couldn’t breathe.
“I’ve got you, Ryleigh. You’re safe. Take a deep breath. That’s it, again. Concentrate on what you hear and feel. The birds, the wind. Feel my hand on your back, good. I’m sure you can still taste the watermelon on your tongue. You’re here at The Refuge. With me. You’re okay.”
Slowly, Tiny’s words registered. Her face was pressed against his neck and he’d moved her so she was straddling his lap. She huddled against him as close as she could get and did as he ordered, concentrating on her five senses. Before too long, she was breathing normally again.
“Good girl,” he praised, and those two words seemed to settle in Ry’s soul. His approval was a balm, washing away all the harsh words her father had spewed in her direction all her life.
“He didn’t take it well,” she said, continuing with her story. She needed to get it all out. To finish. Ry had a feeling after this, she’d never speak of the hell she’d livedthrough again, but as Tiny had said, she was safe. Here. With him.
“He laughed and told me I didn’t have a choice. That if I dared stop, he’d ruin my life. He knew people. Bad people. From the dark web. Told me he’d get one of them to kidnap me and sell me into the sex trade. Said no one would ever find me, and I’d spend the rest of my life with my legs spread for anyone who paid enough money to have me. And I believed him.”
“How old were you?” Tiny asked.
“Fourteen. And to prove his point, a man came to the house the very next day. He smelled horrible, had rotten teeth, and he scared the living hell out of me. He sat with me on the couch and…and touched me.”
“Motherfucker,” Tiny swore.
Somehow his anger gave Ry the strength to continue.
“He put his hand under my shirt, held me down and laughed as I screamed and struggled. He stopped, but I had to sit next to him at the table as we ate lunch, like he was some family friend. I thought I was going to throw up. My dad gave him some money, and I thought that was it. That I was going to have to go with him and everything my dad threatened would come true. But the guy left, and right after, Dad sat me down in front of the computer and said I’d better add ten thousand dollars to his bank account by the end of the day. If I didn’t, he’d call the man back and let him take me.
“So I did. I stole more money than ever before that day. And the next. And the next. But every single day that went by from that point on, I planned. I couldn’t fight my dad physically. And I knew if he thought for a second I was doing anything that might get in the way of hismoney-making, he’d bring one of those scary men back in a heartbeat.
“Every day was a nightmare. I’d have to sit in front of the computer for hours. The days and years passed so slowly. But…I learned more and more. I got better at staying under the radar. My dad was impressed. But what he didn’t realize was that I was getting better thanhewas. He’d taught me everything he knew about illegal hacking, and what hedidn’tknow, I taught myself.
“I stayed too long, I know that, but the thought of striking out on my own was terrifying. Because I knew the second I left, he’d do everything in his power to get me back under his thumb. So I pretended to be cowed. I did what he asked without question, and he reveled in his power over me. Over the people he stole from. It had long since gotten to a point where he was letting me do all the work. He just sat on his ass and digitally counted his money.
“For years, I planned. I padded his account. Made it seem as if there was more money in there than he actually had…because for a few years, I was actually stealing fromhim. Moving the money he’d taken from others and putting it into various accounts all over the US and the world. When I left at twenty-one, he was broke. I’d taken it all. I left him twenty bucks. That was it.”
“Good for you.”
Ry blinked in surprise and looked up at Tiny. “Didn’t you hear me? I stayed until I was twenty-one, way old enough to know better. And I stole money from peopleall that time. Millions of dollars.”
“I heard you. And you might have been ‘old enough to know better,’ but your father had isolated you. You knewnothing about the real world. He’d threatened you, made you dependent on him. And yeah, you stole money, but you didn’t enjoy it.”
Ry couldn’t stop the harsh snort that escaped. “I can see it now. I’m innocent, your honor, because I didn’t like taking money from people. Yes, I used it to pay for a roof over my head, to fill my belly and travel all around the country. But it’s okay because I didn’t enjoy it.”
“Listen to me,” Tiny said as he took her head in his hands. She had no choice but to meet his gaze.
Ry was stunned to see no judgement in his eyes. He wasn’t horrified that she was a thief. A damn good one. All she saw was compassion.
“I see you, Ryleigh. I know the kind of person you are.”
“A thief,” she mumbled dejectedly.
“The kind of woman who would single-handedly go after a serial killer to rescue a child. Who’s donated millions of dollars to organizations that help the less fortunate. The kind of person who immediately orders food for her friends who are in the hospital because she’s too far away to go to a restaurant for them herself. You cleaned Reese and Spike’s cabin without help so they could come home to a fresh, clean space. You finished painting Dylan’s bedroom without asking for help. You let three damn goats nibble on your clothes because you’re too kindhearted to push them away.
