I hugged him tighter. Hugged him with my legs, too. I wanted to have fourteen arms, so I could hug every part of him at once. I understood now. He’d loved, like any child loves their parents. And in return he’d been detested, told he was worthless. Of course he’d shut down that part of himself. Of course he’d never loved again. “No one did anything?” I asked.

“I forgot to mention,” said Danny bitterly. “My old man was the local police sergeant. Everyone loved him. And my mum…she’d started drinking, by this point. She’d just disappear into another room with a bottle.” He sighed. “Took me a while, but when I was ten, I worked it out. My dad yelled at my mum every day, but he never raised a hand to her. And this thing had all started with that big fight between them.” He took a deep breath. “My mum had blue eyes. My dad had brown eyes. But I had these very particular green eyes. And there was a bloke who hung around the neighborhood, a crook, a bit of a charmer, who had the exact same green eyes.” His voice went tight. “My dad still loved my mum. But me? I had no connection to him at all. I was just evidence of what she’d done, staring him in the face every day.”

I said nothing, just clung to him, silent tears trickling down my cheeks. He stroked my head in silence for a while and when he spoke again, his voice was calmer. “The older I got, the more I looked like my real dad. The beatings got worse. I had to get out of the house so I started hanging around with one of the local gangs.” I felt him shrug. “They didn’t want me at first ‘cos I was a cop’s kid. But I was a tough little fucker. Cocky. Wasn’t intimidated by anyone, ‘cos nothing they could do to me was as bad as what I’d get at home. That got me in. The girls liked it, too, even at fifteen. But it was always just quick flings, never anything real. I couldn’t feel anything deep, couldn’t fall for anyone.” I felt him look down at me. “Not until I met you.”

I lifted my head and met his eyes. Then I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my cheek to his, feeling the wetness of my tears. “You,” I told him, “are a good man. And you deserve to be loved, you deserve every bit of love I can give you and—” I couldn’t put any more of it into words so I just hugged him as tight as I could and he hugged me back just as tight.