I don’t know what to say. He’s the only parent I’ve ever known. He also really screwed things up. And he’s going to pay for it.

But so am I. So have Paula and her family. Along with every person we know in Valley Falls.

“Ally?” he pleads with me.

I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know anything anymore.

It’s all too much.

I need time.

I need space.

“Ally?”

The walls are closing in on me. I try to call out for Officer Dash to get me out of here, but my voice fails. I try again, but nothing.

“Ally?” Dad pleads.

I can’t.

I just can’t.

It would be so easy to tell him that I forgive him, but it’s impossible. At this moment, I’m confused, I’m angry, and I’m hurt.

I love my dad, but he has deceived me. The person I thought he was, the person I thought I was, doesn’t exist.

I can’t.

“GET ME OUT!” I scream.

Officer Dash opens the door. “Is everything okay?”

I shake my head. “No, it isn’t. I need to get out of here.” I turn my back on Dad.

“Ally,” Dad says one last time. “I love you so much, honey. Please look at me.”

I lock eyes with him. The eyes I’ve been staring at my entire life. The ones that had greeted me every day when he came home from work. The ones that had comforted me when I was upset. The ones that had looked into mine while he lied to my face.

Every day.

For fifteen years.

I shake my head. “I don’t know who you are.”

I rush out of the room. I don’t even flinch when I hear the door buzz, locking him in.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter

SIXTEEN

Minutes later, I find myself alone in Sheriff Gleason’s office.

And I am completely broken inside.

There’s something I can do to begin to put the fragments together again. Something I have to do.

I pick up the phone in his office and stare at the receiver.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I start dialing. My hands shake, and I press a wrong number. I hang up and try again. Taking each digit one by one. I slow my breathing down in an attempt to calm my nerves.

She picks up before the first ring can finish.

“Hello? Hello?” The voice is unsteady, a desperate note to it.

I can’t seem to find my own voice.

“Hello?” she says again.

It’s her.

It’s … my mom. Although I can’t really wrap my head around that concept. No, it’s Paula, I tell myself. It’ll be easier on me if I think of her solely as a person from my past.

I try to reply, but only a croak comes out.