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That ugly knot in Michael’s gut tightened because he didn’t want it to be real with Dahlia It hurt too much

“Maybe you shouldn’t be in tonight, Mike Your head is somewhere else”

“I’m fine,” he snapped

“You’re not If I were you, I’d sort your head out Say you’re sick and coht”

That was the probleht to sort his head out It had been eleven years since he’d met Dahlia McGuire, and his head, his heart, had never been the same since

So broke inside me after my confrontation with Michael With my mom, I’d always been able to convince myself that she was partly to blame for my behavior and that her vitriol was not my fault

However, Michael was a different story One of the reasons I’d fallen for hie—he understood that people ave Gary for a lot of stuff he’d pulled over the years because he knew that Gary hadn’t had it easy growing up with an abusive single father

He forgave his ainst his dad because he kneasn’t in her nature to be confrontational or … brave, really It hadn’t iven her

That he couldn’t forgive nitude of what I’d done How could everyone else forgive h and Davina? Even Dermot, who had been kind to me when he sa fucked up I was by the encounter with Michael? He’d taken me back to Dad’s where I’d promptly locked myself in his old room

Because I couldn’t face Dad

Out of everyone, ive me I’d made him promise he wouldn’t tell my family where I was, and I’d put hie between him and my mother

I’d … I was the catalyst in his youngest daughter’s death

Why didn’t he hate me?

Like Michael

“I do hate you”