Too Late to Love Me Now

decided to leave my mother. During the div

se him, the man who had money an

t to be poor anymore," I told her, a lie that felt like swallowing gl

re cast out, she worked herself to the bone to support me, only to die tragically tryi

soul, but my love only led to her suffering and

me, my love would not be a burden. It would be a weapon. I would get close to my father

pte

Blake" Fa

ffair in a sterile hospital room, drowned out by

a home about to be shattered, when I chose the man who d

ourteen

my limbs strong, not the frail,

on Daniels, a newly made man in the Daniels crime fami

ords were simple, clean, like

ill bright with a life I'd seen extinguished, filled

as seeing the future. My pas

out with nothing but

ft, becoming raw and chapped fr

apartment we moved into, a place where the

of hunger in my stomac

is. A rare blood dise

shoes, begging. He was a Soldier then, already climbing the ladde

and her needs, her

bills into my mother's hand and thre

idney to a loan shark connected to a rival Family. They took her money,

o the darkness sev

I was bac

e. Her eyes were s

ne chance to

rough the memories. "You need to ch

l weight, begging me to say he

o it, to run into her

had been a burden that broke her bac

be on the inside. I had

r's crumbling face and met

," I said, my voi

just fade-it shattered, replaced b

ia...

r, forcing ice

ou don't. I don't wan

glass. I needed her to hate me. I neede

smug, satisfied smile. He saw a

ust invited his own exe