I lay awake that whole night trying to find a road that did not end with something happening to you, and God help me, the only one I could find was the one that broke both our hearts.”

Chapter 20 — I Made Myself the Villain

“So I panicked,” my father said, his voice breaking on the word.

“I want you to understand that I did not know what to do.

I was not a brave man.

I was a frightened one, and I had a frightened man’s idea of how to keep you safe.”

He looked up at me then, and his face was wet and ruined and pleading.

“I thought, if I push her away, if I throw her out, if I cut her off so completely that everyone can see there’s nothing between us anymore, then maybe Vale won’t look at her.