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“Those kinds of girls always put in the extra effort She’d probably have been a good lay”

“With the lights off” So little comment

Ducking back inside the bathrooainst the door, so it closed sloithout a sound That’s the last thing I needed—the I’d heard them It would only make it worse, and I didn’t need to hear the fake words of apology or how I’dso sensitive You’re overreacting Don’t make a scene

I stood in the bathroo surprise from hell and stared atto spill any tears in front of the water on my face, I stared at my reflection in the ood enough lay in the dark

I squeezed e of the sink Breathe through it Don’t let their words chip away at you Why was I even surprised? Why had I thought things would be different? And to have Berk have to witness it Kill me now

Checking outside to ht for the roo out of there and trying to hold h the next two days and everything would be okay

I nearly tackled one of the staff and asked about getting the key tooverinducted into the witness protection progray thatin s ‘lost’ fro to do withoptions for tonight I could screa

The garden and greenhouse here I usually hen I needed to think out here, but the hotI needed was a knockdown, drag out fight with the frizz if I wandered around outside, let alone in the greenhouse Plus, my room was safer

Creeping down the hall, I spotted my room nue and find Berk, apologize profusely, but at least I’don the bathroom door and flopped down on the bed Daotten to take over the place had nothing if not impeccable taste I tilted my head to the side

There was a bottle of cha in a bucket beside the e area by the door

I stared up at the ceiling “Dad, I don’t knohat to do They’re all I have left—but I don’t kno er I can take it” I talked to hi and praying it had all been ain some hospital somewhere, maybe with amnesia, and one day he’d come back and whisk me away from all this Somehow it hurt more that they were my own mom and sister, not some evil steps anted me out of the way

It made that pain even worse I was part of my mom and all she wanted to do was cut that part of herself out and throw the rest of me away Throw my dad away But I wanted the books first I wanted the Peter Rabbit books she’d promised me I needed them to remember those rainy days with my dad, curled up in his favoriteseat while he read theo buy other copies from a store for the stories themselves, but these books were the ones he’d touched and drawn in That mattered

Pushing lasses up, I wiped at my eyes with the back of s at me

I longed for those books Those were happy fao

The door opened and I sat up and stared out the