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“Here” Marabs my arm and leads me to the couch “Sit down”

She takes the cushion beside me

“Wyatt, I’m so sorry,” she says

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for”

Her lips press flat and she lays a hand on my forearm “No, actually …”

She gathers a hard breath and runs her palhs

“I’ve actually got a secret of my own,” she says

“What are you talking about?”

“A fewhis blood pressure ar pills”

I study Ma herself to look in my direction

“You ht have left him to die,” she says “But Wyatt … you didn’t kill him I did”

Just like that, le tear in front of ht years, bursts into tears I wrap my arms around her and let her sob into my shoulder

“We did e had to do,” I tell her

Deep down, on some unspoken level, I’m quite certain we both know he never would’ve let her leave this e alive And if he did, he’d have taken her children, her good nanity she had She stood up to him the only way she could

The day you fight back is the day you take back your power

I hold hts turn to Oliver Abbott

33

Blaire

I poke my head into my father’s study Sunday afternoon only to find it e of tea rests on a coaster next to a stack of paperwork His top left desk drawer is open, as if he was in the ot distracted