Page 40 of Backlash

Adair gasps and my hands clutch her hips, feeling the soft, warm skin. I want to bury myself between them and escape, but I can’t escape the past any more than I can change it.

“She was dead,” I say flatly. “Had been for days. Dad hit her with something. They never found out what.”

“And your sister?” Adair asks. “What happened?”

“I took her out for her snow day,” I say.

Her eyebrows knit together. “Did you call the police?”

“Not at first,” I admit. “I didn’t want Sutton to…to see that.”

I close the door behind me, my hands trembling. I feel as cold as she did. Sutton appears in her doorway, beaming like a ray of sunshine. Her jeans are an inch too short and her sneakers have a hole in the toe.

And she’s got no mother.

I push the thought aside and grab her hand. “Ready for our adventure?”

“Yes!” she squeals. She pauses and looks at Mom’s door. “Did you tell her where we were going?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “She knows. Where do you want to go first?”

“The library!”

“Big surprise.” I lead her down the hall, away from the nightmare she’s been living, away from her old life, away from everything she knows, and say a prayer that whatever comes next is better than the hell she’s leaving behind.

“You went to the library?” Adair trips over the words like she can’t fathom it.

“There were computers there, and it’s always warm,” I tell her. “I looked up some addresses. We spent the day together, and then I walked into the closest CPS office.”

“And told them what?” she asks.

“I pulled them aside and said my sister needed to go into custody, that she wasn’t safe at home. There was a really nice woman who got my sister hot chocolate and talked with her.”

“And you?”

“When no one was looking? I left.”

“You left?” Adair repeats like she misheard me. “Where did you go?”

“Where do you think I went? I went home to kill my dad.”

The arms around my neck loosen, and Adair draws back to study my face. “But your dad is alive.”

“What can I say? I’m a crappy murderer.” My attempt to lighten the mood falls flat. It’s not surprising, I guess. “He came home, and I confronted him. I stabbed him with a kitchen knife, but it wasn’t very sharp. He probably would have killed me if the cops hadn’t shown up. CPS alerted them, and they came to do a wellbeing check. I didn’t see my dad again until I testified in court a year later.”

“Is he in jail?”

“Yeah. He deserves to be in hell.”

Adair doesn’t argue against this. She just lowers her face against my hair and holds me close to her. “What about your sister?”

“She was young and adorable, and CPS found her a place to live right away. The family didn’t want an older kid.”

Adair gasps. “So they split you up?”

“It was better for her, anyway. I basically spent the next three years jumping around the system. Anytime things got too comfortable, I’d pick a fight and get sent somewhere new.”

“Until Francie?” Adair guesses.