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I actually reht to school before wehappening to the heroine Aileen and I had grabbed the book off Callie and laughed as we did our dra, then we’d traded shifty looks as we tried to work out which of us would actually go for that sort of thing Aileen said right away she was co a joke the rest of us weren’t sure out Callie refused to say

I said never, no way The whole thing sounded degrading to ed

I didn’t realise I was grinning until I followed Ryan into the house taking very s

That wouldn’t have been enough to scarearound in the background shifting on his feet as if he expected to have to ju up… and the piece of paper in Mum’s hands, now evento tell me she’d just ‘accidentally’ found that I wasn’t—

But of course she didn’t think she even needed an excuse “Ta?”

I looked around for Ryan, not that he was the hero I needed right now… and he’d already slunk off to his bedroom

Mu at me I was afraid she’d smell him on me—I didn’t even knohich him I was more worried about

Thinking about what had happened that day with Steven gave h “I just wanted to have a copy,” I said “I…” I shouldn’t say the rest “I wanted to know his name”

The way her face twisted actually scared me I was far more afraid in that lanced to Mike, needing to knoas still there… even if I didn’t really believe he could do anything He would have done it before noouldn’t he?

“I have a copy of your birth certificate, Tamara I could tell you that name You could have asked”

My head felt heavy, unwilling to move, but I shook it “You know I couldn’t ask you You won’t even acknowledge he was someone who existed and had a part in our creation—and no, I don’t consider all this indirecting you do about ‘terrible men’ to count”

“Acknowledge him? You knohat he did to you—”

“I know because you’ve talked about it once One time, and it’s always been obvious we’re not supposed to revisit it” There was sowrong withto Doesn’t itthat big that happened, before they could re over what you re to otten yourself into that situation? Can’t you understand how it is for ?”

There was a softening I hadn’t seen in her before “You never say anything”

Mike was edging towards the nearest door Maybe, for a wonder, I didn’t need him “You’ve never made me feel like I could”