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Prologue

Dusty, empty shoe boxes, stacked taller and wider than her sli her bony knees into her chest

Breathe Just breathe Breathe

Wedged in the back of the dingy closet, she didn’t dare make a sound as she sucked her lower lip between her teeth Focusing on forcing every gris, she felt tears well in her eyes

Oh, gosh, she’d ht She was a bad girl

She’d reached for the dirty and stained cookie jar earlier, the one shaped like a teddy bear that hid cookies that tasted funny She wasn’t supposed to get cookies or any food by herself, but she’d just been so hungry that her tu on the couch She hadn’tit into tiny pieces So the winter Others were no bigger than chips

All she’d wanted was a cookie

Her slender shoulders jerked at the sound of the wall cracking on the other side of the closet She bit down harder on her lip A metallic taste burst into her mouth To hand in the plaster, and Miss Becky would cry and she’d get sick again

The soft creak of the closet door was like a crack of thunder to her ears

Oh no, no, no

He wasn’t supposed to find her in here This was her safe place whenever Mr Henry was angry or when he—

She tensed, eyes peeling wide as a body taller and broader than hers slipped inside and then knelt in front of her In the dark, she couldn’t make out much of his features, but she knew in her belly and her chest who it was

“I’asped

“I know” A hand settled on her shoulder, the weight reassuring He was the only person she felt okay hen he touched her “I need you to stay in here, ’kay?”

Miss Becky had said once that he was only six months older than her six years, but he always seeer, older than her, because in her eyes, he took up her entire world