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We were silent as I burrowed into my dad’s side

“I overheard what you said to your friend, and I need to tell you so that I probably should have explained a while ago”

I stiffened against him “Okay?”

“You are not to blaht that Your sister and brothers have never thought that And Michael Sullivan has never thought that I don’t knohat happened between you and hiht and Dermot couldn’t tell me, but whatever it was, it wasn’t about Dillon As for your oes way back Way back before Dillon Way back even before any of you kids caood person, but she has her problems There is a reason we don’t talk to her parents or her sister”

I pulled back to stare at hiwith her sister The only reason I knew about them was because Davina had found a shoebox full of pictures and asked Mom about them She’d told Davina a little about it and then proceeded to pretend they didn’t exist again whenever Davi tried to mention them

“Your randmother was emotionally abusive”

I sucked inshe’d said and done to me, I hated that for my mom “What did they do?”

“Her dad had a temper, and he was quick with his hands As for her iven It had to be won She would play off your ainst her sister It was a competition to see who could do better that week and win their mom’s love Soly competitiveness in your mom and jealousy like I’ve never experienced That jealousy destroyed her relationship with her sister I knew all about it, and I loved her so much I tried to understand when she acted a little nutty She was always possessive and resentful whenever someone she cared about showed someone other than her more affection It wrecked a lot of her friendships, and I had to be very careful about how I acted around other women”

“But you stayed with her”

“I loved her When ere younger, your h” He shter and unconditional love h it The et Then we started to have kids, and our relationship got stronger Until you”

My breath caught inHad Mom lied? Was I not hers after all? “Dad?”

Seeingthat draot, I never cheated on your mother But when you were born, you and I formed this automatic bond that was a little different froet , I love all my kids, but from the moment you were born, you were definitely more ot older You were h”

He grinned down at me with so much love, it almost obliterated all the pain Then his smile fell “Your mom hated it When you were little, you would cohtmare When you were sick, you didn’t want anyone else Only ht about it all the ti you away froh you were still just a kid who didn’t knohat she was doing, the hurt festered in yourShe’d started to resent you because she thought she was losing out on the affection game”

Shocked, I stared at Dad with a feeling akin to horror “But I didn’t mean it”

“I know that” He tightened his hold on me “And your mom should have known that, but what her mother did to her and her sister screwed her up in ways I couldn’t fix It concerned o to therapy to talk to someone about it, see if it would help, but she refused I hated the way she treated you, and I should have done soo For that, I am to blame No one else”