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Prologue

Stolen

The sweetness of the chocolate and vanilla swirl coated his tongue as soon as he took a lick

He loved ice cream

His ed hi with all the busy stores, and the even bigger parking lot, she bought him an ice cream cone

Because he’d been a good boy

He hated this place, but soet his special treat It had to be a swirl

He followed his ers leaving ht hi out into the street so he didn’t get smashed by a car

This wasn’t really a street, but cars still drove on it Sometimes really fast

Most of the time she made him hold her hand so he’d keep up She told hiot “distracted” He didn’t understand what she meant

Tonight her hands were so full with bags, she couldn’t hold his

One tirabbed his elbow, jerked hiht up and swatted his butt really hard

He didn’t like that

It made him cry

She cried, too, and tried to hide it But he saw it and it made him cry more

He didn’t like when his mommy was sad

When Daddy left, she cried all the time

He’d climb into her lap and put his hand on her wet cheeks and ask why she was crying Did she miss Daddy?

She’d hug hiood, because he missed his daddy, too

Julian didn’t knohat he did wrong to make his daddy never co, but Julian didn’t believe her

Maybe he’d been bad Maybe Daddy was mad at him

Now Daddy was gone, Moht him with her to this place

The place with all the people and cars

The place where he soot ice cream

His favorite kind

He looked both ways again because he couldn’t remember if he already did Maybe that hat Mo “distracted”

Sometimes he had to think really, really hard to follohat she said or re