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Realizing he was still talking about the photos, I looked at the wall The fact thatroo I didn’t like to think about In fact, the deep-seated pain it caused was like a huge splinter underthe more I tried to work it out The days I didn’t think about it were the days it laid painlessly beneath layers of toughened skin

“I know” I stared unseeing at the photos “My mom kind of erased me”

“Do you blame her?” he bit out

Fuck

I was horrified that he’d think her erasing my existence was understandable

So flickered in Michael’s expression, and he wrenched his eyes from mine “Jesus fuck,” he muttered under his breath

“Everything okay?” Dad walked into the dining roo a plate and cutlery for Michael It certainly took hih

“I’, Cian,” Michael announced, the words heavy with his fury “If I stay, I’ to say shit I can’t take back”

Dad sighed heavily “Mike—”

“No” He cut him off “You cannot expect me to sit down and eat steak with the tw

o of you like nothing ever happened” He turned to aze “You didn’t just leave, Dahlia, you fuckin’ took off and wouldn’t let me knohere you went For nine years!”

I flinched as he raised his voice, incensed And rightly so However, I’d thought, or I’d hoped, that hi married someone else meant he’d moved on That he didn’t care anymore As much as that idea had rippedlividity beneath his words Michael had never been an angry person, even with all the issues between him and his dad

God, had I changed him?

I guessed it was another crime to lay at my feet, huh

“Where have you been and why are you back?” he spat