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‘I have to light a candle for Papa,’ I whisper into the solemn air

He looks at rand

He waits formy head in veneration, I say a prayer for Papa ‘Please make Papa repent Enter his heart’ Then I look deep into the icon’s eyes because Baba says that if you do this while , you will enter a lake where you will h for that to happen, and it does not happen now either

Pulling a tissue out of my purse, I wipe n of love and faith We never kiss the faces of icons as Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss on the cheek I light n of the cross overto join Noah

‘You love your father,’ he says, almost to himself, as we leave the cool exterior of the church and coain

I stop and look up at him He seems surprised that I would, and I can understand why he would be He needs to kno I feel

‘I know Papa has done sos to my mother When I was small I saw him push my mother to the front door and kick her so viciously she flew out the door and fell sprawled on the front steps In one instant all those years with her ca He treated her like she was nothing While she was still standing there bleeding, crying, and screa, she had not been unfaithful to hiain’

Noah stares at me, shocked

‘The thing is, my mother hadn’t been disloyal to him You have to be a very brave fool indeed to be unfaithful to my father’

Noah’s eyes widen ‘And that was the last you saw of your mother?’

I shook ularly when my father ay I still do Secretly’