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“So this is it, huh, Sophie? You’re going to stay in Jackson, move back home, keep your head down and your real self secret?”
“Yes.”
“Is that what you dream about? Living at home, taking care of your dad, working at the library? Over and over, every day, every year, broken up by the occasional roll in the hay with a man who won’t ask questions? Is that all you’re ever going to be?”
“Shut up. I’m not going to be a person who walks away. I won’t ever do that.”
“Like me?” he asked.
“Like her,” she growled. “I can’t leave, Alex. I won’t do that. I may look like her and sound like her and fuck around like her, but I won’t walk out on the people who depend on me. My dad needs me and if he doesn’t...” The raw, hoarse words stopped and her ragged breathing filled the room.
“If he doesn’t need you, then what?” Alex pressed.
She shook her head.
“He’s your dad, Sophie. He’ll always be your dad.”
“No.” She blinked and two fat tears trailed down her pale cheeks. “He’s not my dad. And when my mom left...” She swallowed hard and drew in a breath that was so broken Alex had to fight not to wrap his arms around her and force her closer. “I knew he wouldn’t want me anymore. Why would he?”
“Oh, Sophie.” He did reach out then. He couldn’t stop himself. She didn’t pull away. She let him slowly put his arms around her and draw her to his chest. She was stiff, but her head bent and rested against his heart.
“I was so scared,” she whispered. “For years. But that first year or two, I was just waiting for the day when some nice woman would show up at the door and tell me I was going with her. That’s how I thought it would happen. That I’d be taken to an orphanage and never see my family again. Because I was just like her, Alex, and why would a man who wasn’t even my real dad want to keep me after that?”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and held her tighter. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. Sorry for her, and sorry he’d never thought that deeply about how it must have been for her.
“I made myself essential. I took care of all the things she should’ve been there to do, so even if he didn’t want me anymore, he’d let me s-s-stay.”
She broke down then, finally. Her body gave up its stiffness and she wilted into him, shaking and crying quietly. Quietly, as if she’d learned that when she was little. Not to be a bother. Not to cause trouble.
Alex didn’t say anything. His throat was too tight. He swallowed several times, but that didn’t help, so he just pressed his cheek to her head and breathed her in. It was so clear now why she kept everything hidden, why she couldn’t make herself leave.
After a few minutes, she relaxed. Her back softened under his hands.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
She nodded.
“You know he loves you, Sophie. You know he’s your dad.”
Another nod.
“So don’t tie yourself down. You can walk away from this place.”
She lifted her head and looked at him, her eyes soft and vulnerable.
Alex leaned in, slowly lowering his mouth toward hers. He wanted to comfort her. Wanted to make her forget.
He was abruptly shoved away.
“I tell you how much it means to me to belong to my family and you tell me to just walk away?”
He backed up. “You need to get out of here. You want to get out.”
“How am I supposed to trust you telling me to leave when you won’t even stay and take care of a woman who needs you? Your mother is sick.”
“She’s always been sick.”
“That’s your excuse? Tha
