Page 64 (1/2)

"I’e in subject

"Good, I wanted to talk to you"

Suddenly wishing she’d said she was on a break, Rose thought fast to try and get out of it "I don’t have a lot of time I--"

"I don’t need a lot of ti to say to you for a long time"

Rose stared at him, almost afraid to hear what he had to say She couldn’t take any ize"

This was not what she was expecting to hear "Apologize?"

"Please let me finish," he said, the mysterious smirk now replaced with a so, and obviously it didn’t make a difference to you, but I need you to kno sorry I ao away"

"What?" Rose wasof dread slowly crept in

"I know you must think Vince chose me or Anita over you, but if you kne Vince thinks, you’d know for hiiven"

Rose stared at hi about?" The dread was an all-out panic now Had sheto sound like? "Your fault?"

"Yeah, I’, not him But he didn’t choose to take the blame and leave you He had to Obviously that makes no difference to you"

"Wait" She lifted her hand shaking her head "Back up," she brought her hand to her chest as she made sense of his words "I never read his letters"

"What? You didn’t?" The soain "None of them? He wrote you all the time"

"I read the first few, but he never toldJust said he was sorry but offered no explanation at all"

"That’s because he couldn’t tell you, but he did later You didn’t read those?"

She shook her head afrozen in place as Lorenzo explained to her about Anita and her father and how Vince didn’t want to ruin her chances of getting custody of her brothers, the air in her lungs began to drain He explained why it was so iot out of that hell, so he couldn’t say anything until she was all settled

"But he did write and explained it all about six o"