She considers me for a moment. “Yes, I believe I told you I knew men like your dad and to not let anyone take the power you have inside of you. Something along those lines, right?”

“Exactly. I wish I had listened to you back then but I didn’t. I let my dad take my power, and I’m just now taking, or trying to take, it back.”

Understanding lines her features and then gives way to anger. “Good for you for taking it back. Doesn’t matter when you do it as long as you do.”

“Thank you.”

“And now that you’re really a grown-ass woman, I can be frank. Your dad’s a prick.”

I snort with laughter. “Honestly, prick is too gentle a word for him.”

We spend some time catching up on our personal lives and professional lives before we make our way to the weight room to meet up with Kai, who I really hope has found a breath mint or something.

The letter in my pocket feels like hot lead against my skin. It’s been staring me in the face for weeks and still I’ve done nothing with it. It’s time.

Is it strange that I’m a little more on edge about confessing to Kylie than I was to confess to Kai? The look she gave me when she first saw me in Kai’s condo, full of disdain and hurt, was a kick in the chest, but I deserved it.

I called myself doing the right thing, the heroic thing even, by leaving and taking my father’s watchful eye with me all those years ago, but all I did was leave a trail of pain behind. I broke the heart of the boy I loved. I cut off contact with my friends. I abandoned my coach and my team. I cut off the two people that treated me more like a daughter than the two people who gave birth to me. I kept in contact with Patrice but I put her in a position where she couldn’t share a huge portion of her life with me, and I forced her to lie to them. I cut off the girl who looked up to me and who I loved like a sister. She was fifteen when I left. An age where having a big sister could be so meaningful, so crucial, and I let her down. I did to her what my mother did to me—I left her when she needed me most. I should’ve been there to give her advice about boys and interests, and help her shop for her homecoming dress, and soothe her first broken heart. Instead, I allowed fear to rule me and turn me into a version of myself I never wanted to know.

Take back your power.