They Let Me Bleed Out for My Sister's Show novel · Chapter 21 of 32

Chapter 21: The Burn

My father was in the kitchen of the house on Pine Road, alone, filling a cardboard box with the contents of his desk.

I stood in the doorway with the notebook in my hand.

Rafe waited on the porch.

I had asked him to.

"Ivy," my father said, and he put down a stapler.

He looked older.

The silver at his temples had spread, and he had not shaved in two days.

"Your mother is at the clinic with the lawyers," he said. "If you've come to scream at me, I'll stand here for it."

"I didn't come to scream."

I crossed the kitchen and set the notebook on the table in front of him.

"Read the first page," I said. "Then the one marked with the blue tab."

He did not touch it.

"What is it?"

"Mom's."

That made him look at me.

He took out his reading glasses and opened the cover.

I watched him read.

I had spent my whole life reading his face for what he would let me have, and I knew every tell: the tightening at the eyes, the small pause before the word Received.

None of it came.

His lips moved on the first line.

Buckle. Silver trim. Cora's rack. Tuesday.

He turned the page.

He read about the tonic, and the vial, and the test.

He read: Don't tell R. the source. He signs what I put in front of him.

His hand, holding the edge of the page, began to tremble.

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend