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She could never go back So she had to go on

"What happened next?" Suzanne asked, not wanting but needing to know "How did it end?"

"Father, of course Mother and Father were gone for a month in Europe on his business affairs I think he’d wanted to take me with them, but Mother…she must have started to catch on to his interest in o alone A second honeyed in acts so depraved that I can’t even re--" Elizabeth closed her eyes and raised her hand "--out there As if someone else did theuilty as he More so, really I started it He was the virgin until ination"

Suzanne sed the bile in the back of her throat as Elizabeth opened her eyes and lowered her hand

"We were together in father’s library One of our favorite spots Mother and Father came home from their trip a day earlier than we’d expected Mother went straight to bed in exhaustion Father went to his office to work He found us…together"

Elizabeth stopped talking for a reenhouse, she studied the sinking sun Suzanne couldn’t begin to guess at her thoughts, and prayed she’d never knohat Father Stearns’s sister saw in her memory

"I’ve never seen such fury," Elizabeth finally spoke "Such rage Father didn’t even look huhtly He beca that day He pulled my brother off of et the blood on the wallpaper--red on yellow And he pushed , but for the life of me I can’t relad you don’t," Suzanne whispered

"He started to rape ht he’d knocked my brother unconscious But then I heard a thud Most beautiful sound I’d ever heard inmy father with a fireplace poker Didn’t knock hih for e then went even beyond what I’d seen before He grabbed round With the poker he broke my brother’s forearm I heard it snap"