The River Way

Her mother had made a mistake. She got pregnant with one man's baby, while
married to another man. She carried the child, Melanie, to term, and presented it to her husband's family, insisting it was his. They didn't believe it. They might be dumb
backwoods white trash, but they could do the math. Her husband had traveled
extensively with his job and was many miles away when this child was conceived.

Her husband divorced her. She was left with a girl babe and no means of support.
She met Melanie's stepfather. Somehow, she soon realized that he was more
interested in the child, than in herself and they struck a deal. Melanie became his little sex dolly. Her mother helped to conceal his crime, ignored it when the molestation was done right in front of her, in exchange for not having to provide sex - which she hated - and for being supported in the style that she felt she deserved.
...

Her mother was the jailer. She made it clear she hated Melanie. Her stepfather, at least did not hate her. .... Without him, she was sure her mother would have actually at some point have killed her, or at the least, abandoned her.

When she was fourteen, her stepfather died. Her mother lost no time in getting
rid of her. She gave her $500, took her to the bus station and told her she was running away. Her mother believed a woman must have a man to survive, and she intended to find a new man. A man with even more money. A terrible, emotionally unstable, ungrateful teen daughter who had run away and disappeared made her a tragic heroine. A teen daughter who was sullen and touchy and weird made her undesirable ...

Melanie didn't really mind. She was, in fact, afraid to remain with her mother,
now that her protector was gone.