Cut Me Free Read Online Free

toward him.
    â€œYes, it’s, uh…” He flips past the first page and examines the second. “Thompson. And good news, Miss Charlotte. You’re now eighteen and have your GED.”
    â€œCharlotte Thompson.” My new name feels like the lie it is when I say it out loud, but I’ll get over it. After all, Piper isn’t an official name either. When they had put me up in the attic I didn’t mind at first. At least I got to eat there. The Mother never cared much whether I ate or not, she was always too focused on her next fix. But once we were with the Father, he wanted me to be stronger to withstand what he had in store for me. The Father insisted on calling me Girl. I was punished for saying my real name and eventually I forced myself to forget it, but I think it might have started with an A. When Sam was born, they just called him Boy. I’d picked the name Sam for my brother because it felt warm and we didn’t have enough warmth. We’d used our secret names at night and in whispers, only when no one else could hear.
    I’d started calling myself Piper after I read a page torn out of a fairy-tale book we had in the attic. We didn’t have the whole story, so I’d made up part of it on my own. The page said the Pied Piper got mad at some parents and played his music to lead their children away. I pretended the parents in the story were bad, too—that the Piper was saving the children. I wished I could do that for Sam. I wanted to take him away. But I hadn’t, and now it was too late.
    The bad parents won in my story, but that wasn’t the end. They aren’t winning anymore.
    One perk of them being paranoid hermits is that their house was in the middle of nowhere. No friends, no neighbors, no one to come looking for them for a very long time. No one else ever knew that Sam and I even existed except for Nana, and she’d only found out about us when her cancer set in and she came to live with the Parents before she died. I’ve wondered how life would have been if we’d lived with Nana before the attic. She never would have let the Mother take me away. She’d said so a hundred times and I choose to believe it was true.
    One day when both the Parents were outside, I’d made enough noise that Nana had discovered us. I still remember the fury in the Parents’ faces as she told them she’d called the police to report what the Parents had done. It was the first time I ever tasted hope. The first time anyone ever made me wonder if we could be worth fighting for. Before the officers showed up, Sam and I were gagged, bound, and secured to the attic floor. For added emphasis, the Father hit Sam hard enough to knock him out and made it clear that Nana and Sam would pay even more if I made a sound. I was too scared to do anything but cry in silence as I listened to the Father tell them Nana was dying of cancer. He produced a paper stating that her medication could bring on vivid hallucinations. The police chuckled with the Parents about how crazy the story sounded and told them to keep a better eye on Nana.
    They did.
    All the phones in the house were gone within an hour, outside locks were installed on every door and window within a day, and Sam and I didn’t see Nana again for two weeks. Each night I’d gone to sleep worrying about what the Parents had done to her, and the laughter of the officers wouldn’t stop echoing in my head.
    But now, the Parents are gone, Nana is gone, Sam is gone. And even I am being wiped away, replaced by someone named Charlotte.
    You will always be Piper.
    Stacking the papers on the countertop, Cam twists to face me and tosses me a phone. I only catch it out of instinct.
    â€œWhat’s this?”
    â€œIt’s a burner phone.” At my blank expression, he sticks his hands in his pockets and continues. “Prepaid disposable cell phone. So I can get in touch with you if I need to. You