Cox

ou lecture me about family, Eve! I' m trying to protect ours! This is a mess, and you' re making it worse with all t

ce. This was not the man I married. This was a

his heel and stalked away. "I' ll be back in an hour," he called o

es clicking an angry rhythm on the

n't lo

't love me. He probably never had. Our marriage, my devotion, our son-it was all a transaction to him. And my fat

ing house where I grew up, the house with the big oak tree in the backyard and the marks on the doorframe charting my height. They moved into a tiny two-bedroom condo

ll. To him, it was just seed money. An investment that had paid off handsomely for him,

till called me his little girl, would throw himself in front of a car for money. The cruelty o

standing by a sleek, black Mercedes I didn't recognize. He was talking to a young woman. Her blonde hair was a brig

as pr

by pulling her into a comforting embrace, stroking her hair. It wa

dn't glance back at me. The engine roared to life, and as he sped out of the parking lot, his tires hit

inal, fitt

night air bit at my skin, and I forced my legs to move. Th

my sweet five-year-old, came running, his fac

weight of his innocent love. I knelt down, hugging him tightly, breathing

the kitchen, wiping her hands on an apron. My father, F

cident," he said, his

yes. He and Gordon had become good friends, two gr

p?" my mother asked, her h

the lie came easily. It had to. "He' s..

he son-in-law who was, at that very moment, comfortin

pulling a bank card from his wallet and pressing it into my ha

sented their life savings, the remnants of the sale

d in my mind, dark and f

man they had sacrificed everything for, was a monster? That he had tried t

would de

a new kind of resolve harden within me. Jonathan thought

o find out how