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"My mother was very wise After the divorce, she took me far away from him, all the way to Italy I wasn’t raised with his influence I remember how she’d cry every time she had to put me on an airplane to come to the United States, to him, for those summer months every year I don’t want Emma near him My mother kept me away from him and I intend to do the same for Emma"

"Sanction a kill That’s what you said"

"You’re right It caht out It’s insidious, that kind of influence Can you believe I ever want E up with a man like my father-I’d fear for that child and I’d be afraid of the adult that child would becoh No et some sleep You don’t know Eo at six o’clock in the ot shot in the leg I’d wake up with this soft little hand onup and down" He was silent a reat kid, Molly"

"I know," she said "I know"

"We’ll keep her safe"

"I knoill," she said

It was deep in the ht Molly straight up in bed

She grabbed her daughter and shook her "Em, wake up, honey Come on, wake up!"

She shook her again Ra, his Smith & Wesson in his hand He watched Molly sit up and pull Eht I’m here with you Ram-sey’s here too Wake up, E her ar Rahtly After a few moments, he eased his hold and leaned back He pushed back Eled hair from her ear "It’s okay, really, Euys, just us"

She slowly stopped sobbing She hiccuped He looked at Molly over Emma’s head Her eyes were shadowed, then he saw her ht, saw the pain deep within her, visible now to him, and he knehat that pain felt like because he felt it as well E voice, "I dreamed about him, Mama He tied my hands and feet to the bed He used twine He said he didn’t need rope because I was just a little girl He said I was perfect and that he needed me more than God needed hie" She fell silent Ratime Finally, Molly said quietly, "She’s asleep Thank you, Raht"

It was a very long tiain

When she awoke, she felt Emma’s wet kiss on her cheek Emma took her arm and pulled it and she naturally turned over to curl around her daughter’s back

When Raht about Ehtmare, her flat dead words Twine He’d tied her with twine, as he would a package He hadn’t needed rope She was just a little girl

Not that it et his hands on that h the system, confident that he’d be punished as he should be? He didn’t know He just didn’t know And he should know He walked to the other bedroo Emma and Molly sleep

"Ra, Eled in behind o to the bathroo Eo and then they’d get her a bowl of cereal, with bananas, none of those disgusting peaches

He went back to bed and pulled the covers to his chin Louey Santera had beaten her He didn’t bla the bastard down He’d have taken hio to the bathroom himself, if Molly had loved her husband before that

12

EMMA WAS JUMPING out of her skin she was so excited She started playing the two-octave piano as soon as she saw it, Ra just behind her, so surprised he couldn’t speak

She was playing a Mozart Sonata that had been the title song to an old filan

All the salespeople in the toy store were beginning to gather around along with children and their parents No one was saying anything, just watching E to the incredible