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Moo and she runs over to me She stands by my side but faces Jules, and I wrap an ars Her little chin wobbles as she looks over Jules’s face

“What happened to your face, Jules?”

Jules leans forward and srimace she tries to hide She cups the side of Aria’s face

“I just had an accident with the bathroom mirror, but I’m okay”

I can feel Aria’s body shaking beside htenthe comfort she so desperately needs

“It was my dad, wasn’t it?”

Her question hits every person in the rooe, and it pisses ing his child’s view of hile person has been impacted by his actions, and Jules and Aria have taken the brunt of it

I can tell that Jules is having a hard ti up with a response to Aria’s question She doesn’t want to flat-out lie, but what else can she say but the truth, and the truth would be too much for Aria to handle

I turn Aria toward rab ives o into Gamma and Pa’s rooht now and you’re worried, but I need to talk with the adults Only for a few minutes Can you do that for me?”

More tears leak down her cheeks, and I swipe theroay too fast, and she shows this when she wipes her nose with the back of her hand and straightens her spine “Okay”

I s her face toward irl”

I look at Mo her way toward us “Come on, munchkin We’ll put on The Goonies for you”

They walk away, and I get to ht back”

Walking to the kitchen, I grab a couple of glasses out of the cabinet then reach for the cheap whiskey Dad always keeps After pouring a couple inches in one of the glasses, I down it, hissing when it burns going down ain, then pour only an inch the third tilass ater I take both out to the living room

Mo beside Dad, who has his arm wrapped around her Ella is still on the couch with Jules and Vicki is in the chair Theo was in Everyone is silent as I go to Jules and hand her the glass hiskey She eyes the contents, sniffs it, then looks at me with a wrinkled nose If the situation wasn’t so dire, I’d laugh at her comical look