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Chapter 18

Trix

I finished cleaning up after lunch and sat down at h I wanted coffee Badly

I was trying not to drink any, but I’d already decided thatI couldn’t have another The blessed caffeine aluilt I’d felt as I drank it

Caht me

I rubbed my hands over my face and tried not to cry

Everything was socare of the living that none of us had been given the chance toaround like a zoht, Pop’s eyes had dark circles under the even less than usual, which prettymost of the time and not because he needed the rest

And I ell, just trying to keepCam

I kneas hurting, and I kneas fucked up—but I didn’t want to be around hi that had happened before our faht, I laid down in bed and ran over and over the fight we’d had that week The way he’d looked at ust The way he’d spoken to me

The way he’d ignored how I’d been falling apart at the seams

If I’d been afraid then, it was nothing co bits and pieces of the years hts The crying The things she’d thought I didn’t hear, but I hadn’t been able to escape from

I knew ht she’d shieldedI’d noticed every tio quiet when her husband, Tony, was in the house, the way she’d taught me to protect myself

I remembered it all

And with those , it was al

She’d nant and scared and young, and she’d ht was the best decision at the time

Later, she’d known it rong and we’d escaped, but that didn’t erase the bad choices she’d made

Not for her, or for me

I couldn’t let that happen to me