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“It’s all right You only startledthe stretch of raised skin beneath her hair

“Sharon could be nice so and she was between boyfriends” Julia sed hard “She would take me to the zoo and we’d have picnics She let me play dress-up with her clothes and she’d dothoughtfully before speaking “I res about my mother, too I’m sorry Sharon hurt you I wish I could take it all away”

“I wonder why Sharon was nice toto turn around and be abusive again”

Gabriel continued toying with her hair “I understand The cycle of abuse interspersed with occasional bouts of kindness keeps you stuck, waiting and hoping for the kindness to return And it does, on occasion, only to be swept away I know all about that Regrettably”

Julia turned to face him “We’ve overcome a lot”

“That we have”

“What happened with Simon doesn’t haunt me anymore Not like it did I feel as if I’ve moved past that”

Gabriel cursed under his breath “That motherfucker is lucky he has a powerful fairlfriend a lesson Your uncle Jack didn’t want us to let them off the hook”

Julia placed a hand on his chest “It’s over now Si married, and Jack said that Natalie moved to California”

“The farther away the better”

“I don’t know if I’ll be a great mother, but I certainly have an idea of what I shouldn’t do”

Gabriel touched her abdoood parent is being a good person And Julianne, you are the best person I’ve everin this house, I can’t help but remember what life was like with my parents We can have a home like theirs A horace lavished on us” Gabriel’s voice trailed off

“I’m just relieved I don’t have to do this alone”

“Me, too”

Gabriel took her hand and led her to the bed

Chapter Seventy-six

Durham, North Carolina

April Hudson breezed into her apart to check her mailbox She’d just returned from a romantic weekend in the Hahed as she thought about hiood fas he could do with his body

The Haiven hiinity It here he’d asked her to marry him

(Not, of course, in the sah herplans and meer had to feel guilty about sleeping with hi to wake up with hiaged, she didn’t notice the ex-Marine fro in a dark car across the street, watching to see if she’d open his letter She certainly didn’t know that he was ensuring that no one would trouble his niece and her unborn child)

At the bottom of her mailbox, she found a manila envelope It had her naathered her mail and took the elevator to the third floor Once she’d entered her aparte and flopped onto the couch

She opened the manila envelope first and was stunned to find that it contained a stack of large black-and-white photographs They were all date-sta filled her ears As did the sound of her keys falling fro through the photos, she sao naked bodies entwined on a bed The identity of the man was unmistakable So was his body, his positions, his technique

But the wo, like a teenager