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After a long pause ofher to tell her et fucked, Eain, and I’reed

"What the fuck, Sunshine?" I asked her Her only response was to link her fingers through htly

"I understand," herquickly out of the booth, herto aze to the floor and walked out of the cafe As soon as she was gone, Eo of her hand, I wrappedI knew, even before she hiccupped, that she was crying because her tears began to soak through my shirt My heart broke for her Sunshine rarely ever cried She was a pro at bottling up her feelings and going quiet when so her But herout I didn’t have it inin to herfuture contact That conversation could wait for another day Right now, Em needed me, and I knew only too well how deeply the wounds inflicted by a bad parent ran

"Coet you home I’ll run you a nice hot bath, you can put on a shitty chick flick, and we’ll fall asleep cuddling Sniffing back the tears, I saw the ghost of a smile as she wiped her face with her hands

"That sounds nice," she said "Let’s open the letter first though Whatever’s inside won’t be good and I just want it over and done with" she said, looking at the envelope in disgust The fact that Frank had even held it made it tainted I wanted to snatch it away and open it when I was on ht No ould she put up with that shit Quickly, like she was ripping off a Band-Aid, she tore open the letter and pulled out a sheet of paper, folded around a single photograph She glanced at it briefly before allowing it to fall to the table and burying her face in the crook of ainst my skin broke my heart I picked up the note with shaky hands to see what had e:

You are MINE You have always been MINE

The picture it came with made me want to vomit She must have been about seventeen when it was taken In it, she was unconscious on the floor so I assumed he’d knocked her out What made me sick was the hand in the photo that had pushed down her shirt and her bra to caress her breast

"What else did he do when I was asleep or unconscious? How many other photos does he have? Or worse, what if there are videos?" she mumbled into my neck

I squeezed her to ive her What could I possibly say that wouldI kne to do when people tried to hurt me and mine was to hurt back Without that option, I was helpless And it was fucking killingaway the tears, Em went to the bathroouys jumped in and I slid the letter and picture into s they didn’t need to see

"What the fuck did she want?" Kier asked

"She’s delivering a letter Frank’s sent fro sorry for everything and wanting the opportunity to get to know her daughter better"

"You’ve got to be shitting me," Liam commented