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He shakes his head frantically, “Stop it! Just… just fucking stop! I don’t have anything You want to knohy, River? You’re not the only one as raped when they were young, okay?” My heart freezes My breath stills

“By who?” I choke out

His face is nearly purple, rage potent in his face and words In his very being Ryan is rage He’s made of it

“Daddy dearest”

I close my eyes as my heart splinters Despite howto my eyes anyway Tears of heartbreak for the little boy I know all too well how it feels to be betrayed by your own flesh and blood All too well

“Matt?” I ask, my voice hoarse I don’t knohy I asked He doesn’t have another father But Matt? Sweet, boisterous Matt? The sahing and so, so kind? It doesn’t compute in my brain

I had once said that Matt had so such a notorious lawyer

It see

“Yes, Matt,” he fu out his na ht years old And soht it was nor me then I wasn’t like Mako, so I was punished for it He was the golden child The one Dad refused to touch because he knew Mako would tell Mako didn’t take shit froot fucked every night”

Tears track down my cheeks

I get it I get Ryan’s hatred that has consuet his hatred for Mako Why he feels the need to assert power over woe was to make other people feel like he did He wants everyone else to suffer for the shitty hand he was dealt

It’s wrong Disgusting But I get it

“Are you sorry for how you treatedme feel like how your father made you feel?”

Right as I ask the question, I also ask o if he says yes Now that I understand Ryan for the first time, I’m scared of what I’ll do

He e still lit in his eyes After a le second of it, River I will never be sorry Wo those things, then so do all of you I refuse to be sorry for that”