They Let Me Bleed Out for My Sister's Show novel · Chapter 17 of 32
Chapter 17: The Price
We drove to the territory hospital at midnight, and Rafe did not say a word for the first twenty minutes.
The heater ticked.
The mountain road unrolled in the headlights, black and wet.
"You're angry," I said.
"Yes."
"At me?"
His hands moved on the wheel.
"I've been trying not to be," he said. "I'm losing."
"Say it."
He drove another mile.
"At the council hall, I asked you to file charges against your father," he said. "You said, He's my father."
"I know what I said."
"Ivy, I watched a six-year-old lose his foot because that man's desk put a call in a queue. I wrote three reports. I stood on Ash Street in the cold while his mother held what was left of his boot."
His voice was steady, and it cost him.
"And you stood in front of the whole council and chose him for one breath."
I looked out at the dark trees.
"It was one breath," I said.
"I know. That's why I haven't said it until now."
"I'm going to file."
"I'm not asking you to do it for me."
"I know that too." I turned in the seat. "I'm doing it because he downgraded my call. I'm doing it for the boy. I'm doing it because I will never again be the person who says, He's my father, with that voice."
He pulled into the hospital lot and shut the engine off.
He sat there a second with his eyes shut.
"I'm sorry," he said. "That was not fair, tonight of all nights."
"It was fair. It's been fair since the hall."
I put my hand on his jaw and turned his face toward me.
"Say it again, once, and then we go in," I said.
"I wanted you to be angry at him as much as I am."
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