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Of course, he went straight to money That was typically all he ever talked about, andthat she use what he gave her “So like that”

“Well, that’s what it’s there for

” Another heavier pause

But in that pause, she heard the laughter and voices in her father’s family ho? Why don’t you want o there

“Now don’t spend it stupidly, Penelope,” her father added with his firs”

Come home Come here Be with us We want you here

All the things she hoped he’d say never caer man To prove his deadbeat dad couldn’t i The rejection stung, opening old wounds that could never heal “I—”

“You what?”

More laughter More celebrations, all of which didn’t include her And she didn’t knohy She never knehy “Nothing Just…Merry Christmas”

“To you as well”

She caught a voice in the background before her dad said, “Listen, gotta go, kid Talk soon”

The phone line went dead Yeah, she was an adult, not needing her parents asthey seeet She stared down at the blank screen, her eyes stinging Maybe she’d had blinders on lately Hell, ot in the way For four days, she had tasted what life would have been like had her parents never dragged her aent through a brutal divorce, and then got theot that emptiness that lived deep in her chest, the hole that never seemed healable For four days, she remembered who she’d once been when she was seventeen years old and kissed a cute boy

But that wasn’t real life

And there was a reason she didn’t go to these warm places in her heart Because those warm places lied and hurt

“Hey, it’s the girl from the fountain”