"And the fire?" Tears trickled down her cheeks and she looked straight at me. "You knew about how my mama tried to burn me alive?"

Her words were too much for me in that moment, too goddamn raw and real. "Fuck." I physically flinched. "Fuck."

"Fuck," she cried out hoarsely. "Yeah, Daryl, fuck!"

"Molly –"

"So, it's true?"

"Molls –"

"Answer me, Daryl! Did my mother kill herself? Did she kill my brother? Did she try to kill me?"

"I don’t think –"

"Tell me the fucking truth, dammit!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, hands pulling roughly on her hair. "Answer the goddamn question!"

"Yes, okay, fucking yes! It's true." I shuddered violently. "It's true."

"I don’t understand," she wailed, lowering herself onto the floor. Crying hard, she wrapped her small arms around her legs and rocked. "I don’t know why she would do that to us…"

"I'm sorry." Drowning in her pain, I closed the space between us and sank down beside her. "I'm so sorry, baby."

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"How could I do that to you?" I strangled out breathing coming hard and fast, pulling her into my arms. "You'd already lost so much. Your mother and brother were dead, Molly. Your whole life had fallen apart. I couldn't take your memories from you, too!"

"Tell me what happened that night," she demanded, delirious with grief, as she both pushed and pulled on my arm. "Please –" Sniffling, she gripped my forearm and held it to her chest. "Tell me everything you know."

51 Molly

Daryl's arms were wrapped tightly around my body, but unlike earlier, when all I needed was the feel of his skin on mine to steady me, I felt no comfort now. Not when he was dicing me apart with every hellish revelation that tore from his lips.

I wanted to run away with him. I needed him to put me in his truck and tell me everything was going to be okay. I wanted to be able to lean on him. And I couldn’t.

"It was the summer from hell. Rourke's dad had married wife number four, Wren and I were constantly fighting, and your mom, well, she had taken to bed shortly after your brother was born. She used to spend all of her time either crying or sleeping, and I used to spend all of my time trying to distract you from worrying. I had a feeling that her mood swings were related to what had gone down between her and Wren, but I was only ten. I didn’t really get it. Anyways, the night it all went down, I'd been brawling with Wren over something he said about you – shit, at the time, I couldn't even remember what it was he had said, but it was something bad enough to make me snap. I ended up with a busted lip and a ripped shirt for my troubles. I remember storming out of the house and you came running after me. We went to the beach – do you remember that?"