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It dawned on her Ephraieon He lived in one of the tiny cells she looked at now He survived years of torture and somehow came out whole She couldn’t believe it It broke her heart to think of the things he lived through

"Are you okay?" a voice whispered

She jureen eyes Chris was leaning over her desk watching her She cleared her throat "Yes, I’m fine, Chris Why?"

He picked up the box of tissues on the desk and handed the"

"Oh!" She wiped her face quickly "Just a sad story on the web"

Chris nodded slowly He didn’t believe her, but he wasn’t going to push "Stick with puppies and rainbows then, Miss Solo you unhappy" He walked back to his friends

A loud knock at the door sent the kids scra for their text books, except for Chris that is He leaned back in his chair with his hands folded behind his head

"Yes?"

Principal Mason stepped inside "I’m sorry to do this, but it seems that we have a bit of a problem"

She stood up cautiously "Problem?"

"Yes, seems Carol’s parents came home today from their vacation They saw her face and demanded to knohat happened So they called me and the police We need to settle this now" He addressed everyone in the room

Madison watched Chris’s jaw clench She knehat he was thinking He was about to get the finger pointed at him "It’s okay everyone," she spoke to the class, but looked at him He nodded firmly

"The six of you I want on this side of the room and behave yourself," Mason said

Carol walked in huddled by her parents They brought her to the other side of the classroom Mike, his parents, aby his expensive three piece suit, and several of the boys Chris liked to call "preppy" walked in

"Please have a seat," Mason said

The lawyer gestured for his clients to go to the end of the roolanced at Chris

This could not get any worse Correction, it could Ephrai very much like a man not to cross seconds later

Ephrai a deep breath as he passed her He missed her It surprised him, but he did He never missed anyone He’d outlived his faht of theone, except for Marc He missed his brother when he allowed his were supposed to be He understood it and accepted it Everyone’s time would come, except his Hers would come, too He would have to deal with that one day His chest tightened every ti hi relaxed His eyes slowly ran over everyone in the rooood kids, troubleuess were bookwor on

The football players in the back had his attention, but he wouldn’t show it With less than a half hour after his call they lawyered up He did a quick search before he left his office and found several domestic violence calls that went nowhere There was talk about the boy His eyes passed over the co lady who looked like she went nine rounds with Tyson

His jaw clenched as he looked back at Madison’s computer It seemed he wasn’t the only one that did his research today Without taking his eyes off the group he clicked the back button to see what else she’d discovered

What he found didn’t make him happy It only added to his temper She knew He knew it had been a ain and sat up straight

"Hey, can we get this over with I have practice," Mike, one of his suspects, said

"Shut it," Ephraiot up He strolled over to Madison, giving his back to the room

"You’ve been busy," he said softly