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"Oh, God, no I’’ I was subjected to byto terone, I really don’t need to know that ot older

"We still think it’s on there, Sash"

Hearing James call me Sash makes me let out a sob "Only Nick called me Sash So don’t"

James takes a deep breath and lets it out "OK But that brainwashing stuff ht be true, so you need to be aware of it"

"Consider me aware"

"We’re ready to hit the road now, so where should we go? You get to choose"

"I’et it You’re broken right now But you’re not gonna stay broken forever You gotta let that shit heal And today is the day you start, Sht you here so you’d see for yourself Nick is not co back He h And you are thirteen years old You can’t just wish yourself grown up and start a life with ayou into that life, Sasha He’s not gonna take a child bride Everything he stands for is against what you want hio Let hio so you can ive up if you were the one who sacrificed yourself to give hiet that information off that disc Information your father put on there Information you need"

"I know all this"

"Then snap the fuck out of it, Sasha He’s not dead, OK?" I don’t respond, so James lifts my chin and forces me to look at him "He’s not dead"

I shake off his hand and continue looking down at the carpet "I know he’s not dead And--" I let out another sob "And that’s even worse, James" I look up at hiue at h "It’s worse because that means he chose to leave me" And then I can’t hold it in anymore I just cover my face withI wrap my arms around his waist and press my tears into his soft t-shirt

"I’m sorry, Sasha I really aht you’d have that happily ever after with him But it was never meant to be, kid It wasn’t"

"It’s not fair," I whine "It’s not fair that you get Harper and I get no one"

"You got both of us, Sobby Set Harper right away I had to wait twelve years She was too young when I fell in love with her So that’s one reason why Nick had to leave, Sash He fell in love with you and you’re too young He’d be a very bad guy if he didn’t walk away, you have to understand that"

I have nothing to say to that I know it’s true, but I don’t want to admit it I don’t want this to beWe’d sorta like to go see all that dinosaur stuff you talked about back in the desert We’re close to Thermopolis We looked that dinosaur place up online Did you know they were voted number one dinosaur museum in the whole country?"

"Duh," I say "I’ve been to Thermopolis dozens of times"

"Well, we haven’t It’s only like three hours away, kid What better way to spend a su up to see so so hard to be here for ain