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Chapter 1

Quinn struggled to open her eyes, a thick, blurry haze ht crack in her crusty eyelids Once she did, it was too dark to see

When Quinn stirred, her head throbbed to a staccato beat, pulsing painfully with the rhyth down the nausea that played with the edges of her vision, she adjusted to the dilimpse of shadowy pale yelloalls, the outline of a ashed dresser opposite where she lay on a full-sized bed Her eyes shifted, taking in the small ith the faded lace curtains

My bedroom I’m in my bedroom

Quinn was so disoriented and confused she didn’t knohat to think Her frame of reference was skewed in a way that reality and drea on except for the tremendous pain she felt in every part of her body

The sound of footsteps downstairs let Quinn know that she wasn’t alone in the familiar house

How old am I?

“Daddy?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper

Oblivious to her presence, the heavy booted feet trudged through the tiny house, stopping in the kitchen below her bedroonize theh he left the Marines, he still wore cole day

Quinn cleared her raw throat and called out louder this time

“Daddy, are you home?”

This ti towards the staircase The wooden slats creaked under the boots as they ascended to the top of the landing

“Daddy, thank god you’re here My head hurts”

Quinn tried to sit up, shifting on top of the ruffled white and yellow comforter When she went to brace herself on one hand to push upright, so Woozy, Quinn fell back onto the pillows, the rooht

The door to her roohtly lit opening

“Daddy, ether I don’t understand My head, it hurts so badly What’s going on?”

The bedroohtness so intense Quinn had to squeeze her eyes shut and sn another wave of nausea Carefully, she opened her eyes and took in her childhood bedrooan to clear and the horrific realization of as happening ca

That cant be daddy, he died years ago