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"You can’t be with someone forever just because your father wants it"
"He’s all I have, Nate What else am I to do?"
"Live," he offers "Love"
"And leave hiure it out on his own"
I shakewhen I was just thirteen years old," I whisper
"Your momma?"
"Yeah She smiled at us as alked out the door for the bus and we never saw her again They searched; they investigated All they ever found was her car on an old abandoned road No clues No blood Nothing She just vanished That was ten years ago"
"I’m sorry, Avery," he says, softly "I don’t kno that would feel"
"People think it’s so that only happens in ? There are so many theories One is that she stopped to help so my mother would do--and she was taken The other is that she has taken her own life and they never found the body--maybe she jumped into a lake or the ocean It’s unlikely; she was happy The third is that she is alive so to be found That hurts more than all of the happened to her, I just don’t knohat She wouldn’t leave us She was one of those mothers--the ones who live for their children"
"Do they still look?"
I nod "The investigation will always be open, I suppose If they have leads, they investigate them We’re kept in the loop as much as possible The police have coine"
We sit in silence for a long while
"Liam is hurt," I say "So hurt He hates my father--he thinks Dad favors me It’s not like that I try to stand by h, not one bit He hardly speaks to me There is no emotion left in him I’m scared if I walk away and don’t do as he wants, that he’ll just break for a final time"
"Now it makes sense," he
"You think if you don’t do what your father wants, you’re letting him down You’re scared it’ll be the end of him, because he won’t be able to cope"
I turn back and stare at the ocean
"You can’t live like that, Avery It’s not fair to you"
"I’m fine with it, Nate I care about Jacob"
"Is that the truth?"
I turn to hihs and drops it "All this sadness calls for only one thing"
I look at him as he stands and stretches his hand out towardsfor sadnessis dancing"