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His blue eyes turned to ice “I would never”

“It’s not that farfetched It seems you shut everyone else up It would’ve been easy” Abby shrugged “A s my brakes is all it would’ve taken”

“You can hate me You can say what you want Call me a monster, but you’re family I did it for all of you I couldn’t bear for you to find out For you to look atat me now Like you don’t knowall of you, to taking care of you—"

“But sos can’t be erased, Grandpa I shouldn’t have to explain that to you It’s like talking to a child”

“Maybe not But I just thought” His voice cracked “I thought, what’s two more deaths when tens of thousands already rest on my shoulders?”

Abby’s mind reeled She stared at hih, the person in front of her e because she couldn’t reconcile this reere one and the same

“Do you even hear yourself? What’s one hter She’s lonely She spends her days rescuing cats because it’s the only way she can cope McBride, I don’t know much about him, but he had a wife somewhere And, yeah, maybe he wasn’t the best husband, but he was still a person who deserved the chance to either fess up to his mistakes or reconcile They had lives, people who loved them”

No longer able to look at hiaze to a crack in the cement floor

“What do you want from me?” he asked

&

nbsp; “I don’t want anything,” she said “I needed to see you one last time ToI don’t knohy”

Closure was such a tricky concept Such a trivial word for such an insurmountable task, unable to adequately describe her situation She had exchanged the only words she needed to with his felt unfinished Like there was so left unsaid

“I don’t blame you,” he said

The words sunk to her stomach like a rock, and she knew This is why she ca, she soirl inside her still loved him No matter howthe heinous things he did in his lifetirandfather who had been there for her

Sorandfather’s words for what they were A peace offering Despite the monster inside, he was hu she hadn’t even known she needed