The bittersweet taste of the truth hung heavy on my tongue the next day. After Josie confessed to wanting to bring justice down on Derek, my head spun during all of my classes. I couldn’t let her risk her life for me.
I hadn’t seen Derek since that night. He disappeared from my mother’s life and my own. I’d spent most of the next two years looking
over my shoulder, scared that he’d try to come back and finish the job. It was the reason I decided to start football and begin working
out. To be able to defend my family and myself.
After a while, I stopped thinking about him coming back. Which meant I didn’t know what he was into, or what he would do now to
Josie or Frankie. If she started digging around in his life, he may hurt her—or kill her. Look what he did to a thirteen-year-old
