Terry (Secrets)

Terry is the main antagonist in the novel Secrets. He is a sadistic and abusive step-father of Treasure.

History
After Terry divorces with his wife addicted to medicine, he leaves her with their two children, Bethany and Kyle. He has several girlfriends, but they all soon leave him as he beats and scares her and her children. He then meets Tammy and her daughter Treasure and Tammy immediately falls in love with him. They later has another son, Gary.

Although he is often violent to them, especially when he is drunk, and even breaks her jawbone, knocks out two teeth of hers and hits her in the stomach while she is pregnant, she still loves him. That is probably due his ability to manipulate women - after he gets angry, he always regrets it, cries and promises to be good, only to behave badly again later.

Treasure, however, isn't as stupid as her mother. She hates Terry and attempts to avoid him all the time. At first, he tries to play with her just like his own children, but when she doesn't like his touches, he stops. Actually, he doesn't like her very much, too.

As a revenge, Treasure creates the Official Terry Torture Manual where she draws various torture methods for him every day. Unfortunately, Bethany shows the notebook to him and Terry gets really furious. He unbuckles the heavy leather belt and hits Treasure's forehead with it, cutting it all down.

Once Treasure's Nan discovers it, she takes her granddaughter away in no time. Treasure loves her new life with Rita, although she often has nightmares about Terry. However, Terry doesn't forget at her, too. He and Tammy who denies the fact that he whipped Treasure, attempt to get their daughter back. When Nan refuses, Terry blackmails her through the phone.

After a week, Tammy and Terry comes to Nan to take Treasure back. The scared girl hides somewhere in the city alongside with Nan's children. Terry then decides to trick them. He pretends to leave and when the children return, he attempts to catch Treasure with his car. However, he fails as she rides away the skateboard and then hides in the house of her friend India.

No one else knows where Treasure is and Tammy is really scared. Terry pretends to worry, too, and when they are interviewed by journalists, he even cries and begs Treasure to return, as they "all" miss her.

When Treasure finally shows up, she tells journalists how bad Terry is and that she wants to live with her Nan. She is lucky and eventually can stay with Nan. Since then, Terry doesn't want to meet his step-daughter any more.