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We lay there for a while as the stor occasionally illuminated the room, but the thunder had ently back and forth, proof that the winds had started to die down Jace didn’t rush rateful

Since I needed a few e, I took a risk and asked, “Why did you kill your uncle?”

Jace didn’t call me out on the fact that it was my turn to answer his question Instead, he said, “Remember how I told you my sister and I were sent to live with him and my aunt when our parents died?”

I nodded “Before you went to live with your grandmother”

“That’s right I’d just turned fifteen and Maggie was five My uncle and aunt moved into the house e was located I thought it was because they wanted to s easier on us, but I learned later they’d lost their own house to foreclosure a feeeks before my parents died My uncle had lost a lot of his money in risky investments in the stock market I don’t think my father ever realized ho my uncle had fallen The will had been written several years earlier when ood terht they’d actually need any of that stuff, you know?”

“Yeah,” I said in agreement

“My uncle was a ot custody of us But it got really bad when heie, probably because she was so little and just kept asking for her mom and dad”

“What about your aunt?” I asked

“She wasn’t any better She wasn’t gutsy enough to hitshe didn’t like I did er, but I couldn’t be with Maggie twenty-four seven She hadn’t started kindergarten, so she was stuck at ho the day when they first came to live with us It wasn’t unusual to co in her closet in tears”

My heart broke for Jace and his sister “Did your grandmother know?” I asked

“No, randrandhtearly signs of dementia It wasn’t bad, but there was no way to kno quickly she’d go downhill My uncle constantly threatened to have her put away in one of those places that just tied the patients to the bed and left them there all day in their own filth I knew he’d do it, so I never said anything When kids and teachers at school would ask about the bruises, I’d pass theh it off”