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Bear shook his head "After all the fucking shit that went doith Preppy dying, then the club, then the shit with Eli, and then that crazy fucking kid…" He took another long drag on his cigarette "I just gotta get away, ure out what the fuck my nexton coed "Don’t know that answer just yet" He stubbed out his cigarette and straddled his bike He started up the engine and it roared to life

With a single sad salute, Bear took off down the driveway A cloud of loose sand billowed up behind his bike, following hi up and doaving frantically long after Bear had disappeared

"I hope he finds what he’s looking for," Pup said as she came to stand beside me

"Me too," I said Bear’s shit with his dad and the MC still hadn’t been resolved I hoped that wherever he was going, the tiht so he’d be ready to deal with the shit stor his hen he returned

Doe

"Look!" Sae Lexus with dark tinted as co asked

I picked up Saed "No clue" But then I remembered that it looked very ht I ran to the MC

The car pulled to a stop and King protectively stepped out in front of ht When the door opened and the driver stepped, out I let out a breath I didn’t knoas holding

It was ht you were still in the hospital," I said, taking a step forward My father didn’t come any closer He stayed by the car, with the door still open, the car still running, leaning against the frao Tired of nurses trying to wipeit on h and then wince in pain

It was the first ti other than a suit He looked older without having it to hide behind His plain white collared shirt and light denim jeans made him look like any other dad

"I wanted to come here and say I’m sorry," My dad said, his words directed abovefolded his arms over his chest Afterwasn’t gunning for hi to like him or trust hi hi in his eyes "I let a job I love co a father"

I reflected back on ra for theenvelopes on the weekends in our living room My mother had always been withdrawn, unhappy with the life she chose for herself

Most of the time it was just dad and me He folded the flyers and I licked the envelopes We were an a team

We were happy for a time

It was only when he started in politics when he started to withdraw fro hi a family of one with the help ofback on my childhood I still couldn’t pinpoint when the switch had been flipped, and the Tanner I knew turned into the h his poor parents, with the help of a counselor, seenosis It was common for patients who had come so close to death themselves to develop a sort of morbid curiosity about death It was also common to develop mood disorders, violent tendencies, and co To the extre it

The leuke point, the fork in the road to the land of no return for Tanner, but I knew he’d started abusing Nikki as early as age ten In hindsight there were signs Signs no kid would have ever picked up on

But that fact didn’t change that I did have guilt Soa ton of bricks onShe was bossy, confidant, and a bit of a tattle-tale It all changed very slowly Over the course of eight years the Nikki I knely slipped away and was replaced by the Nikki who needed drugs to cope with the abuse