“I want you to know something, sweet. I’m sorry for the way I treated you growing up. I think I was just scared, y’know, because I loved your mother so much and the thought of losing you, oh God, just thinking about it tears me up. You didn’t deserve what I did to you. But it was always to trying make you into the sort of woman who would be safe. I just wanted to keep you safe. I love you.” A pause. I fight the urge to cry. He’s lying, but family’s family, and no matter what the pull to believe him is strong. But then he says, “Where are you, sweet? Where have they got my precious daughter?”
Of course. This is what he wants.
“Did you attack me at the rec center?”
“Did. You. Attack. Me. At. The. Rec. Center?”
“I never should’ve tried to marry you to that awful cartel bastard,” he says,
