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"My past is e, I want to clear sos up Yes, my parents are in prison The crimes they committed are in no way a reflection on my brother and me You can’t choose the family you’re born into And my brother and I definitely didn’t choose our parents But having hi to come out of it" I take a breath

"When our parents were arrested, I was seventeen, hteenth birthday My brother elve He ithout a doubt, going to be taken away from me and placed with a fa what little ot us a place, and I landed a job But thethree jobs and still barely scraping by I was just paying the bills and feeding us both

"Then, the chance to get into escorting was presented to me It wasthe day and escort on nights Then, after a while, things changed I was offeredGetting paid to have sex with a hot older woman, more money than I would have made in a month, was a drea it The al, I don’t regret what I did because it ive s changed for ot better from that point on

"I won’t sit here and say I’m proud of what I did But, if I were put into that situation again, would I do things the sa a roof overable to feed his that we’re not proud of, but when you go to judge me for my decisions in life, think about yourself--what you would do for those you love And then think about ment would still be the sa to uys soon"

I look at Ava, and she ends the video, holding the phone in her lap

"How did I do?"

"A Gabe…that was…perfect If people don’t understand and love you even more after that, then they must be stupid The vieere into the hundreds of thousands, and the coh thick and fast I could barely keep up with them, but they all seemed to be com across the screen"

"Really?" That picks me up

"Really" She s me my phone "You should take a look, see for yourself"

"I will In a minute" I put the phone on the sofa beside irl"

I take her face inher tohere," Ime in the eyes "Where else would I be?"

"After the way I treated you, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had never coh "I know I’m difficult and an asshole ninety percent of the tienerous More like ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the tirins "You’re being too hard on yourself Let’s just forget everything that happened and focus on the future You’ve got a house to build me, remember?"

"Yeah, I do, don’t I?"

She nods

"I’ll still have to deal with Digby and Sandy though"

"I know But we’ll do it together, Gabe"

"Together sounds pretty fucking good toher closer

"Baaahhh! Baaahhh!"

"Sounds like Gucci’s finished her food"

I chuckle, and Ava laughs

"I’ll go let her out" She gets up fro I know, the bundle of fur called Gucci co room She jumps on the sofa and head-butts me in the arm

"Jesus, Gucci! Nice to see you, too"

"Babe, you want a coffee?" Ava calls fro one"

"Sure," I say

Gucci settles down on the sofa beside me

I pick my cell up and swipe the screen open

It’s still on the video The coh the room She hands ets up and climbs overacross us both