Chapter Fourteen

“They’re ugly to me. Ugly reminders of ‘the Before Time.’ I’m scared…” He admitted this last confession so softly that if she hadn’t been able to read lips she’d have not known he’d spoken at all.

“Of what, sweet boy?”

He took a hitching breath, wrapping his arms around hers which circled his torso. “I’m scared that I’ll never see anything else but the remains of what they did. I don’t want to remember them every time I see myself. Because I do. I remember every scar.” He traced a particularly large one just under his rib cage on his right side.

“Know what this one is from?” She shook her head. “Mr. Grady did it.” He said nothing more as if that explained everything.

“Who’s Mr. Grady, baby?”

“Mr. Cunningham’s brother-in-law. One night he and Mr. Cunningham got really drunk together. I was asleep and they woke me up and took me into the basement…”