Prologue
Dove
The Past
I can’t stop crying.
I can never stop crying.
And I fucking hate it.
Stop fucking crying . . .I touch the tears falling down my swollen face. It all hurts. My eyes, my cheeks, my lips.
I curl tighter into a ball, trying to shield myself from the elements. From the rain soaking my clothes and the cold wind prickling my skin.
Stop fucking crying.
But I can’t.
I wish I was stronger.
I wish I was a fighter.
I wish I had courage.
I wish I was more.
More than the pathetic creature hidden behind a smelly dumpster down a deserted alleyway.
The tears come faster and harder, erupting like an emotionally unstable geyser from the depths of my soul.
I sob. Wishing. Wishing it would stop. Wishing I could change my life. Wishing I could escape.
But I have nothing.
Iamnothing.
I’m alone.
Lightning strikes, brightening the sky as thunderclaps scare the shit out of me. I jump, my heart fluttering and my pulse jabbing against my jugular vein.
Everything then goes quiet and dark, and I inhale a steadying breath.
You’re okay.I talk myself off the ledge for the thousandth time.He doesn’t know where you are. You ran. Keep running.
But where?
Where do I go?
Who do I turn to?
He’ll find you. He always does.
I shake from terror and not the cold.
Healwaysfinds me.
I sob, covering my cut, swollen lip.
