Thia swallowed hard. “It was so surreal to be thrown into this giant, unrelated family. And they’re not normal. My stepmother notwithstanding, they’re very scary people. And having been raised with very scary, highly volatile and violent people, I was terrified of them all. And my dad, while he tries, he’s so skittish around me. Like he’s afraid he’ll break me if he touches me, and he never knows what to say. Not that he speaks much to anyone. But still…”

She looked up at Sumi. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dump this on you. It’s just those bodies brought back memories I wish I could burn out of my mind.”

“Yeah. I noticed you didn’t flinch.”

Drawing a ragged breath, Thia stood. “As I said, Aksel was a psycho bastard. It seemed like every other day my mother was cleaning blood out of the carpets because he’d killed one of his men for something… like sneezing while he was talking.” She laughed bitterly. “I feel as if my entire life has been one poorly written melodrama.”

“Sweetie, we all feel that way at times. Trust me.”

“I guess so.” Thia pulled her sweater tighter around her as they walked. “My father tries so hard to protect me. It’s suffocating. And it wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if I didn’t see the differences between how he treats me and how he is with my siblings.”

“What do you mean? Does he love them more?”

“No!” Thia said quickly. “It’s not that. Because he’s wiped their butts and spoonfed them from birth, he’s… well, as relaxed as he can get. With me, I can tell he feels like he owes me something. I can see the guilt in his eyes every time he looks at me, because he wasn’t there when I was little to protect me and keep me safe. And all I really want is to crawl into his lap like my brothers do and have him hold me until it all stops hurting.”

Sumi pulled Thia into her arms and held her close. “I know, sweetie. I really do. When I was little, I had a brother-in-law who was my hero. He, alone, would do just what you said. He’d envelop me in those strong arms and tell me that he’d never let anyone hurt me. And I believed him.”

“What happened?”

“He divorced my sister and went away, never to return.”

“You hate him for it?”

“I call it hatred, but it’s not. It’s shattered trust. I never had anyone who protected me. Anyone who picked me up when I fell, except him. And I miss him so much that I can’t help but hate him. I will never understand why he left me, how he could do it, knowing I had no one else.”

Now they were both crying.