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Prologue

TESSA

As I stare into the faer, memories flood me

I used to sit there, brushing the hair on my blond Barbie doll Often, I’d wish that I was the doll: she had it roomed, always exactly who she was supposed to be Her parents must be proud, I used to think Her father, wherever he as probably a big CEO, traveling the world to make a life for his family while her mother stayed back and took care of the house

Barbie’s father would never co He wouldn’t screareenhouse to get away fro dishes And if, by chance, so had caused an argument between her parents, Barbie always had Ken, her perfect blond boyfriend, to keep her coreenhouse

Barbie was perfect, so she would have the perfect life, with perfect parents

My father, who left ard Nothing like he should be, nothing like I remember A smile covers his face as he stares at me, and another memory surfaces

My father, the night he leftmy mother’s face set in stone She didn’t cry She just stood there, waiting for hied; she wasn’t the sa unkind, and distant, and unhappy

But she was there after he decided not to be

Chapter one

TESSA

Dad?” This man in front of me couldn’t possibly beback at me

“Tessie?” His voice is thicker sounding than I recall from my distant memories

Hardin turns to , and then back to my father

My father Here, in this bad neighborhood, with filthy clothes on his back

“Tessie? Is that really you?” he asks

I’ my father’s face

Hardin puts a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to elicit a reaction from me “Tessa”

I take a step toward the strange ray; his smile isn’t white and clean like I rememberhow did he end up this way? All the hope I once held that ed his life around the way Ken did has vanished, and the realization that this man is actually my father hurts worse than it should

“It’s me,” someone says, and after a moment I realize the words came from me

He closes the space between us and wraps his arms aroundto—”

He’s cut short by Hardin pulling him away from me I step back, unsure how to behave