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She nods and we both face her father now I’nize , he never spoke to nize her, but I knoill A parent would recognize his own child, nohis way toward us, and the closer he gets, the nition in his eyes He knows her
Shit
He pauses when he’s several feet from us and tries to look her in the eyes, but she presses herself against round
"Princess?" he says
She begins to slide out of my arms and I look down at her Her eyes have rolled back into her head and she’s falling I keep a tight grip on her and ease her to the ground coet her out of here right now
I slide my hands under her arrabs her hands to helptouch her!" I screa at rab her head, trying to bring her back to consciousness
"Baby, open your eyes Please"
Her eyelids flutter open and she looks up at me "It’s okay," I reassure her "You just passed out I need you to stand up We need to leave" I pull her to her feet and steady her against th Her father is right in front of her now
"It is you," he says staring at her He looks at me, then back to Sky "Hope? Do you reo," I say to her, atte to pull her withto refrain froht now We Need To Leave
She resists my pull as her father takes another step toward her, so I pull her a step away froain "Hope, do you rerows tense "How could I forget you?" she spits
He sucks in a breath "It’s you," he says, fidgeting his hand down at his side "You’re alive You’re okay" He pulls out his radio, but I take a step forward and knock it out of his hand before he can report it
"I wouldn’t let anyone know she’s here if I were you," I say "I doubt you would want the fact that you’re a fucking pervert to be front-page news"
The blood drains from his face "What?" He looks back at Sky and shakes his head "Hope, whoever took youthey lied to you They told you things about me that weren’t true" He takes another step forward and I have to pull her back again "Who took you, Hope? Who was it?"
She begins to shake her head back and forth "I re a confident step toward hiive me what I’m here for, I swear I’ll walk away and you’ll never hear fro to believe that she reht off guard as we are
"What is it you want?" he asks her
"Answers," Sky says "And I want anything you have that belonged to my mother"
Sky reaches down to my hand, which is wrapped around her waist, and she squeezes it She’s scared
Her father glances at me, then back to Sky "We can talk inside," he says quietly He looks around the neighborhood nervously,sure there aren’t any witnesses The fact that he’s even looking for witnesses lights up a huge caution sign There’s no telling what this un," I deun from his holster He lays it on the porch
"Both of theun froht before he walks into his house I spin Sky around to faceright here with the door open I don’t trust hi rooive her a quick kiss, then watch her turn and step into the living roouardedly the entire time
He raises his eyes to hers "Before you say anything," he says "You need to know that I loved you and I’ve regretted what I did every second of my life"
"I want to knohy you did it," she says
He leans back in his seat and rubs his hands over his eyes "I don’t know," he says "After your ain It wasn’t until a year later that I got so drunk one night that I woke up the nextit was just a horrible drea you weredifferent You weren’t the saht, you somehow became someone as terrified of me I hated myself I’m not even sure what I did to you because I was too drunk to re awful and I a I could to ave you whatever you wanted I didn’t want you to rerips her knees and I can tell by the way she’s struggling for breath that she’s doing everything she can to rehtafter night," she says I immediately rush to the couch and kneel next to her I wrap rip her aro to bed and scared to wake up and scared to take a bath and scared to speak to you I wasn’t a little girl afraid of monsters in her closet or under her bed I was terrified of the monster that was supposed to loveme from the people like you!"
The pain in her voice is heart-wrenching I want her out of here I don’t want her to have to hear him speak
"Do you have any other children?" she asks