Chapter 83

“Shit!” he cried, hands covering his nose as he whined about the pain.

“Still think I’m a fucking coward?” I stalked out of the house, barely holding the tears inside, my hand throbbing.

Marlene came around the corner as I made it to the bottom of the steps, concern and sympathy written all over her face.

I raised a hand and said, “Thanks for dinner. It was good to see you, but I can’t stay.”

I practically ran down the lane to my house and holed up in my bedroom, window closed and locked, curtains pulled tight.

If that was what Beebub thought of me after all these years, if that was what he had become, he could go to hell. I was done. He could rot for all I cared.

* * * *

Age 32

“You need anything else done?” I asked Marlene as I put the last of the wood I’d chopped on top of thepile. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and a storm had already dumped snow on the ground.