oom of color against his pale, furious skin. Then, a harsh, disbelieving
nt clear my afternoon schedule. I'll stay with you." It was his usual move: a grand gesture of magnanimity that was, in r
le, as if he were a stranger who had wandered into her room by mistake. Her finger, trembling slig
a hoarse whisper, but imbued with a
ened. "Don't
ut
her expression professionally cheerful.
e discharged, please." She reached over with her good arm and, with a swift, deliberate motion,
e doctor wants you under observation for at le
is was not a game, moved toward th
ding a sharp protest through her ribs. She ignored it. She'd felt worse. So much worse. She pulled her phone from the purse that sat on the bedside t
ing her fami
or attention. This was an escape. He lunged forward and grabbed her arm, his fingers digging in
ious gaze with a look of pure, unadulterated loathing. "I'm going hom
chair, and walked out of the room. She left him standing there, amidst the
es, the towering buildings scraping the gray sky-felt both alien and achingly real. This was her city, a place she hadn't seen with her own eyes in a d
real. She
d her father's number. He a
she hadn't heard in so long, was her undoing. In her last life, he had withered after her death,
animalistic. "Dad," she managed to whisper, the si
Where are you?" Pani
t. She had to hold it together. "I... I was in a small acc
hat felt more like a fortress of memory than a house, she saw the lights blazing in the library. The butl
. She pushed open the heavy mahogany doors of the library and there they were. Her father, standing by the firep
live. They
and threw herself into her father's arms, burying her face in his chest. The sobs that wracked her body were violent, convulsive things, the outpouring of ten years of silent screamin
head. Her father's arms wrapped around her, holding her t
r murmured, his voice thick with worr
harder, mourning a past they would never know and
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