My Life as Dad's Living Deterrent

From the back cover

Gabriel Wilson has spent his whole life as the example his father uses to control his sister, Isabelle. When she slips, Gabriel pays: forced to copy lines until his hands cramp, starved on stale bread, his allowance slashed, all so Isabelle will never step out of line. Their father's paranoia has only deepened since their mother died in the line of duty, and he will destroy his son to keep his daughter close.

Now Isabelle wants to join the police academy, and their father stages Gabriel's disappearance, wiping his records and abandoning him in a serial killer's hunting ground. Gabriel endures days of torture before the killer is caught, then is left at the bottom of a deep well, his tongue cut out, his blood pooling beneath him. Above, their father refuses to move the car covering the well until Isabelle tears up her admission letter.

Uncle Harrison begs him to relent. Gabriel can only pound weakly on the wood, unable to speak. Then Isabelle goes quiet, picks up a sickle, and makes her own demand: let Gabriel out, or she dies with him.