Found Her

Olivia Maria Riccóci had learned early that silence was safer than fighting back.

The apartment she shared with her stepfather smelled permanently of cigarette smoke and cheap whiskey. Every night, the television screamed through the thin walls while he barked insults from the couch, blaming her for things she had never done. Since her mother died when Olivia was eight, there had been nobody left to protect her.

Or so she thought.