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"Fuck you! You dirty little cunt! You’re still the saoing to break it Just like I worry that he h or drunk Sober he’s an assle Drunk he’s a violent assle that has no control over his teive a shit about the damn cops! Call them! I Don’t Give A Shit About ANYTHING!"

"Fine, I will call theet my phone from my bedroom

"I already did," Jax says from behindto the baseball bat in Jax’s hand "What are you doing with that?"

"What I have to do" He steps toward the door, gripping the bat "Leave assle," he says, speaking loudly and firlass ceases "Who the fk is that?" Conner growls furiously

When neither of us responds, he begins pounding his fist against the glass The entire house shakes The neighbor’s dog barks Thunder ru to wake up from all the noise

Jax takes another step toward the door, ready for a fight "I’ out there," I hiss, clutching onto his arm "Just wait until the police show up"

"And if he breaks the door down first, then what?" He wrenches his hand from my hold "You have to buy a new door Pay foret hurt"

"I’ care of myself," he says "Remember Lester?"

I tense at thein the house when my mother married him, but I heard a lot about him later when Jax came to live withlist of things

"He beat me with a belt every day for three months," Jax reminds h and hit hihts And I don’t want to bring a Lester into your life" I push hio check on Mason"

Jax dodges around me and pushes in the sao check on Mason, and I’ll wait here"

"Jax, I don’t--"

"Avery," he warns, "if he breaks that door down, the bat’s going to be the first thing that greets hi it"

I squeezemy eyelids open "Prorinds his teeth "Fine, I proh that I don’t believe he would lie to me, so I hurry down the hallway to the last door on the left A trail of light flows out of the crack from the lamp Mason always has to have on whenever he’s asleep As I peek inside, oes dead cold and I push the door open the rest of the way

"Mo onto his favorite teddy bear, his eyes huge and cra sounds just like at our old house"

Another clap of thunder roars through the house, and I findto curl up in bed and cry with the rain Just cry and cry and cry until it stops

"It’s just one of the neighbors" I cross Mason’s rooe of his bed "Sorry it woke you up"

"He’s being super noisy and sounds like a crazy man," Mason says drowsily with a yawn "Can’t you tell hiht now" I smoothe my hand over his head "Give hiet quiet"

Mason nods as he hugs his bear "He kind of sounds like Daddy"

My body goes rigid "That’s weird I don’t knohy" It’s probably one of the worst omissions of truth I’ve ever done, but there’s no way I can let him know that the crazy man outside is his father He’ll want to see hied forht I survived the fire that Mason would never, ever see that side of his father again Even if itConner out of his life forever

"Do you wantto help you fall asleep?" I ask

Mason nods excitedly, like he does whenever I offer to play Unlike Jax and me, Mason doesn’t associate histo it

"I’ll be right back" I kiss the top of his head then hurry to uitar from my closet, which is a relief because it at least otten inside nor has Jax opened the door Withup in his bed, waiting eagerly for me

"You have to lie down," I tell him "Otherwise you won’t be able to fall asleep silly and it’ll co at all"

"I can fall asleep sitting up" He smiles at "

I don’t really understand his five-year-old logic but what I do understand is that right now his father is outside trying to break the door down So I let hi up as I sink down onto the bed and position the guitar in razing ," he says happily, all sin to play, singing only when I spot the blue and red lights flashing outside theThen I singout the pain for him

Two years and nine iven up

Avery

Tears drench ainstto be holy I could tell by the anger in his tone I should leave the house, go so and I have no car, no friends, no nothing If Mason wasn’t sleeping in the next rooet up and just walk outside

I’d walk

And walk

Never stopping

Until I found an end