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CHAPTER ONE

Becky

“Do you really have to go?” cried Mattie pitifully “Really?”

My heart broke Eight year-old Mattie is the cutest thing with his sandy hair and big glasses, but

“I do, Mattie, I’ so that I was face level with the little boy “But I’ll be back okay? It’s just a summer job”

Mattie threw his scrawny ar his face in my shoulder

“Do you promise to come back?” he whispered tearfully into my neck “Promise?”

I nodded

“Absolutely, I love you tooNow behave okay? Behave and help Nana with the chores, be a good boy, okay? I’ll call every week, and before you know it, I’ll be back”

The little boy just sniffled and nodded, face still buried in the crook of ainst my skin My heart broke, I love my little brother so much Mattie means the world to me and it physically hurt to leave him, this little boy I’d helped raise since he was a baby

But it was tio too For our fao

“Promise to come back soon,” he whispered once more “Promise Becky”

And giving rabbed my backpack

“I promise I’ll be back soon, it’ll just be a blink of the eye,” I said in a fake cheerful tone, blowing kisses “Bye Nana, bye Mattie, I love you guys,” I sang with a lulassy Shit, this was so hard, there were hot stinging pricks behindout and I audibly gulped, chest rising up and down Butmy hurt, stepped in then

“Thank you, dear heart,” she said, lifting a wrinkled, wizened hand to my head to tuck a piece of stray hair behind my ear “Thank you and take care of yourself Come back in once piece, hear?”