The Principle: Legacy 2 - Legacy, #2

My name is Matthew Whitehouse, though everybody calls me Matt. This second story is mine, but like my cousin Mac, it's not mine alone. I come from a big family, bigger than most. I used to think that was great. I loved having over thirty brothers and sisters. There was always someone to play with, and I never got lonely as a kid. I loved having more than one mom because if one wouldn't sneak me a freshly baked sugar cookie, another one would.
I even loved my daddy, until I found out what kind of man he really was. My family isn't what most see as normal. See, my daddy and his before him, claimed to be prophets. They claimed to speak to Our Heavenly Father, and He told them to do things, things like marrying a lot of wives and having a lot of kids. That, well, I could have believed it once, maybe, but the other things God supposedly told them, I don't believe, and never will.
It took me getting out to see into what I'd been born into and lived with for the first big part of my life. Outside looking in, that is where you need to be to see the truth. Truth hurts, it's hard to take, but it's only when we face it that we can start to heal. I'm not saying to hate the family you were born into, but I am saying to keep one eye open while you enjoy them. Don't believe everything they say, no matter if God is telling them to say it or not.
I had to come to terms with the bad my family was doing, and I had to stop it. It almost got me killed. As Mac said, we in these books have a lot in common. We had to overcome what they did, try to fix it, or live with it the best we could. Read this story, and believe it or not, it's my life. I found the good on the other side of it, but it was one heck of a struggle to get there.****Matt Whitehouse needed help, but he had no idea whom he could ask.
Everyone on the polygamist compound where he was raised was under the control of the prophet, who happened to be Matt's own father. It was his father that saved him, though Matt was sure that wasn't his intention. A warning to a cousin who was far removed from his polygamist family sent people that would become the most important in Matt's life. Steve Ricci lived in a home in the middle of nowhere, still licking the wounds of a near-fatal gunshot in the line of duty when he was a US Marshal.
When Mac Blaylock got a call, warning him to ignore any plea for help from his distant cousin, Matt, the first thing Mac did was to send help. His partner, Leo, sent an old friend and former FBI agent, Stacy Woo, to find Matt, which she did, beaten nearly to death. A mutual friend sent Stacy and Matt to Steve to hide out in his home from those trying to kill Matt, including members of Matt's own family.
The only safe place for a thousand miles was Steve's home, and when he agreed to let the two stay with him, the hard-edged woman and beaten man, he knew his life would change forever. Matt's heartbreak was worse than his wounds. Unable to give in to his sorrow, his goal was to free those who had no way to free themselves. Not that he ever wanted to ask for help, he needed Stacy and Steve, and the two used every resource they had to jump into the fray with him.
In Steve, Matt found not only a savior but a man who needed him too. Trigger warning! Mentions of human trafficking and child abuse. Violence.