Chapter 16: The Other Gift“Lacey…”
It was all he could say. My name.
But I stood there. And only wanted to yell and cry out until my screams died against the walls and my throat bled so thickly he could see the stain against my skin—and tell me WHY—why he could ever allow me to accept such an encompassing guilt—because I believed it was me and my gift that drove him away! How could he let me live in an agonizing, lonely rejection as the one I had to endure my whole reality, acknowledging that my father had abandoned me, despite my disposed determination to forgive him—to exist within the desolate dilemma of denial…All I could think about—demand of myself—was that one Fourth of July night, and how I ever permitted it to happen—how I witnessed the strongest surge of love for anyone under t
