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My dad made an inarticulate sound and turned his back to us, breathing heavily

“Lily was across the yard,” et to her, either”

“I know”

We were quiet for a fewwith emotion

“Your grandparents took care of Lily,”the silence He turned to face us “I used to feel guilty about that, too Couldn’t get to theh for it to matter”

“Cody,” my mom breathed

“Then I realized souilt, like I shoulda been the one to protect them, was disrespectful to the sacrifice that Gram and Slider and Vera made ’Cause that’s exactly what it was A sacrifice”

I nodded,

“You saved your cousin,” he said, holding ht place and you saved exactly the right person Your uncle and aunt woulda lost two children that day if you hadn’t done what you did”

“I didn’t see it that way,” I said, blinking back tears and spreadingto ”

“That’s all , too,”up “I’m so sorry, baby”

“It’s okay,” I replied hoarsely It was odd, but that siy seemed to soothe the resentment that I’d carried around silently for years “None of us kne to handle it”

“We were the parents,” my dad said “We shoulda done better”

I shrugged “You did the best you could”

I’d begun to understand just how easy it would be to get the parenting thing wrong so Olive didn’t do anything but eat, sleep and poop, and I was still pretty sure that I was s up

“Is that why you left?”like an anvil in the center of the room “Did you hate us?”