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Prologue

Emmy

There isn’t a single cell of my body that doesn’t ache

It’s the kind of hurt that pierces your skin and sinks into your veins, your bones, your fucking soul It’s the kind of pain that eats away at you like poison, consuood within you until all that’s left is a shell

I stu over my own feet as I crossat the bright light God, even my eyes hurt

I guess days upon days of crying will do that, huh?

My fingers tangle inon the ends,into a single htmare

“It’s okay, Em When you love someone, this is okay,” my stepbrother croons in h touch I wanted to tell him I didn’t love him I wanted to yell and shout and screahed my self-preservation The last time I called for help, he backhanded me; when my mother asked what happened, Rob said I tripped and hit the dresser

She believed him, too—didn’t even ask me

My heart beats raggedly, like soan from my chest, shredded as left of it, stomped on the pieces, and then hastily shoved the tattered remains back beneath my ribs

“You like that puppy ht you?” Rob asks, and I nod “Then you better do what I say or he ht just disappear”